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Originally Posted by noisereductions
I think that folks like Beyonce and Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar have shown us in recent years that people do still care about the album format.
And the whole "nobody cares about Illmatic" thing is maybe the dumbest thing ever said in this thread. And pepper posts here drunk. Sorry, Rob. Love you. But I think you're way off base on this one.
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Don't forget Adele! Blaahaha!
Seriously though, I feel you. But personally I'd point to a few less populace names when arguing about the enduring power of the album.
DJ Koze is such a master craftsman of albums that his DJ Kicks mixes and label samplers play with the studied, finely tuned pacing and sequencing of Sgt. Pepper. Nicolas Jaar too. Ben Frost? Forget about it. That guy makes fully listenable opuses out of noise and lightning and fire and ice.
Chance the Rapper doesn't even MAKE "albums" but you wouldn't know it from listening to Acid Rap or Coloring Book. Mixtape, whatever. Those are albums in everything but name and price.
Car Seat Headrest -- who I think you'd love, since you seem to have a soft spot for '90s indie pop like Weezer -- is making albums of Fleetwood Mac level scope, and half of his discography is just SoundCloud and bandcamp zip files.
But yeah, certainly Beyoncé, her little sis, and Kendrick (without question Kendrick... in fact he may be the king of the "album" in the 2010s) and others are still doing it old school. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Kanye (cause I haven't yet today)... but even when he deliberately tried to distance himself from the album format, he still ended up with the most memorable album of the year, hands down.
And Frank Ocean.
Even Gucci, who's determined to plow out as much material as possible, is closing out the year with THREE fully formed albums (plus a mixtape), with physical packages and everything. SO albums are still out there. They're still important.
Fuck, and David Bowie for shit's sake! Talk about an album with mass appeal and old school cultural reach and significance. I predict Blackstar will win Album of the year at the Grammys, btw.
I love albums. I'm never going to be a playlist guy.