What makes an album good?

What makes an album good?

Considering that this is a music blog and as such I talk about what I consider to be good and bad, amongst other things, it's probably a good idea to actually explain what I think makes an album good or bad. I'm going to talk about what makes me believe that an album is actually fairly objectively good, as well as what makes me like an album, because it's important to acknowledge that there is a difference and finally what I don't really think matters about an album's rating. I'll try give some examples of albums that exhibit certain features throughout this article. 

What makes an album objectively good?

Its place in time

It would be unfair to judge The Beatles for not having interesting electronic hooks or having the most complex song structures by today's standards. When you look at an album, especially when you look at one from the 20th century you can't judge it fully by today's standards or compare it today's music of a similar genre. For example, Black Sabbath may not have the best riffs compared to some of the metal bands out there today or even the ones that came after them, but that's mainly because they were the ones inventing it. This goes the same for genre, a nu metal album may not be the best by today's standards simply because it has gone out of style so you have to look at it outside of that.

Originality...

However, how original an album is is also fairly important, an album that is simply rehashing the same old tropes and work that the genre has been churning out for ages, especially if it isn't of the very best caliber is really not that good. Countless albums are lauded for their forward-thinking ideas, Spiderland, Sigur Ros, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band simply because they pioneered a new sound and were unlike much else at the time. The best of the albums that are good for this reason are the ones that still sound fresh and original such as Unknown Pleasures.

... but if it's not good that doesn't matter

Just because an album is the first to do something or does something in a different way does not mean that it is good, the first Rap-metal album wasn't good just because it was the first Rap-metal album (very few in the genre are remotely good). This is where it becomes difficult, albums from the likes of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles are obviously important albums which heavily influenced and shaped music, but they are no longer neccessarily the best examples of their genre, not to say that they're not good albums but I find it unfair to say they're the best simply because they were first. I frequently see Black Sabbath's Paranoid top the list of metal albums simply because it pioneered the genre which to me is completely pointless, just because it's the first doesn't mean it's the best. 

Variet

Now looking more at the actual content of the album, an album needs variety and breadth, negative music reviews will often say that an album hasn't gone anywhere when the album feels like one song over and over again. Examples of albums like that for me are AM, James Blake, Trouble Will Find Me, this isn't always a bad thing, I didn't rate James Blake too badly simply because the concept was well thought out and it ended up creating quite a mesmerizing album. But if you have an album where track after track it's the same song structure, instrumentation and sound (like AC/DC) it's going to tire quickly.

Concept

To me this is what takes an album and makes it more than just a collection of songs to make it a more full piece. This doesn't need to be a concept album e.g. Dark Side Of The Moon or A Grand Don't Come For Free but just simply an idea or mood that the album wants to achieve or put across. Albums such as For Emma Forever Ago are more just about sadness and breakups than they are a specific event or story but still have a much better effect than an album such as Night Visions, lacking much of an overarching idea. This also applies to sound, I know I've said all the songs sounding the same (unless it's something like Nonagon Infinity) is a bad thing but there also needs to be some consensus on what the album is trying to be sound and genre-wise.

Artist Potential

This one may be a personal criteria of what is objectively a good album, I know a lot of people say that comparing one album to the artist's other work isn't a good way to asses the album and I don't entirely disagree. This is more about how well an album explores the artist's potential and progressing their individual sound or perfecting it instead of stagnating. For example, if you've read my review of Notes On A Conditional Form you'll know that my main gripe with it is that it doesn't fully reach the band's obvious potential, therefore really stopping it from making it a good album for me. This is one of the reason's I see Alligator to be one of, if not the, best albums by The National as it finally saw them reach their potential for a fantastic album.

Aging

Some albums really haven't aged well, whether that's due to poor production not standing up any more, genre tropes only fitting the time, musical trends having passed or references to the current times no longer making sense. Either that, or they just feel old, for example Chocolate Starfish And The Hotdog Flavoured Water isn't a truly awful album in that it was at the forefront of Nu Metal and really helped highlight the genre, but listening back on it now it just feels so cringey and just crap. A good album has the ability to not really feel like it's aged too much, or if it has it still manages to sound good such as The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

Tracklist

Quite a lot of albums end up just having a few too many slots on the tracklist to really make it outstanding... such as Notes On A Conditional Form, double (or even triple in the case of 69 Love Songs) albums really can work, like Opposites, but it has to have a good amount of decent songs. But then there are also a few albums that are actually short a couple of tracks, or a bit short in runtime such as anything by Joyce Manor. Another issue I see with a lot of albums is just a lot of filler, songs added to pad the runtime which just ruin the run of good songs on the record. Flow is harder to describe but if there are lots of jarring moments from song to song or there are too many downtempo tracks in succession before randomly going upbeat it can really ruin the album. Flow and tracklist placement is something I really think Enter Shikari excel at, especially on albums such as The Mindsweep. Finally, it's obviously important for the tracklist to be full of quality songs, but I'm going to write more about what makes a good song some other time.

Significance to music

This is fairly similar to originality and to be honest not something that I personally care about too much, just because an album is important to music doesn't mean it's good as an actual entity. Having said that, albums that change music, essentially form a genre or progress it massively are worth recognising for this, such as Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols or Is This It.

What affects how much I like an album?

Versatility

An important thing for an album is how versatile it can be in terms of listening and mood, that's partly why there aren't many metal albums that I'd consider to be my favourites - they're not so good for the calmer moods. My favourite albums are ones that I can put on in pretty much whatever I'm in and are good for most situations like Panic Prevention.

Emotion

Another thing most of my favourite albums have in common are they're generally quite emotive, very few of mine are pure upbeat bangers or rage-filled punk tracks but instead include quite a lot of emotive songs, hence why a lot of people say I have a pretty depressing music taste. 

Influence on music taste

Through writing this list I've realised some of my favourite albums are those that most influenced or changed my music taste, for example Original Pirate Material and Panic Prevention introduced me to alternative Hip-hop, OK Computer made me explore more alternative rock and Holy Hell properly got me into metal. The albums that make me explore new genres or are something completely different for me end up having the biggest impact. 

Replayability

Some albums I listen to once, really admire and think are good albums (like To Pimp A Butterfly) but wouldn't listen to many times more simply because they're either a lot of work to listen to, don't quite strike the right chords with me or are just not incredibly enjoyable to listen to, even if they are objectively good albums. A record that I can put on and have it spin through without me noticing too much time has passed and then want to put on again and again without becoming annoying is the mark of a very good album.

Sentimentality

The ultimate personal preference comes down to sentimental factors in why people like albums, I've already talked about them influencing my taste in music and other albums are even more important because they remind me of specific times in my life. As such it's kind of unfair to judge an album based on whether it has sentimental or emotional value to me but hey, that's what makes me like some albums more than others.

Engaging

For me an album can't really be that boring or disengaged from the audience... it's the main reason why I find records like anything by Brian Eno just incredibly dull and not that good. That's not to say that instrumental or laid-back albums can't be good, Minecraft Volume Alpha is a fantastic album but that's because it has a variety of sounds, changing tempos and dynamics rather than just very slow and lazy atmospherics.

What doesn't matter (as much to me) when judging an album?

Name and album art

I've seen some people say that some albums are better than other simply because of the name of the songs or album itself, or even the album artwork, that Is This It is such a good album due to the (admittedly very good) album cover. I mean come on, an album is about the music inside of it, not the packaging it comes in, not to me at least. Yes maybe an album can be minorly improved or worsened by these, but it's hardly a major factor. 

The artist removed from the art

Nowadays it seems that every other artist or band is problematic in some way, from half the Emo and Pop-Punk frontmen being rapists to classic musicians being paedophiles. In no way am I saying that any of this okay, and I do sometimes struggle to listen to music when I know the artist is a shitty person but I don't think that the artist's actions impact how good an album is, unlike some arguments I've seen online.

Production

This may just be from an ignorance standpoint but I do not understand people who claim that albums are ruined or made amazing simply by their production, Anthony Fantano says ...And Justice To All is a crap album simply because of the production. I'm not saying that production doesn't matter, but I very rarely find it makes too much difference to how good an album is.

Technical aspects

This is similar to the production point, time signatures, microtuning and other musical elements mean very little to me both in terms of understanding them, how they sound or how good music is. Math Rock sounds pretty damn good a lot of the time, but claiming that the more complex an album's composition is just because of the intricate beats seems a bit pretentious to me and at the end of the day music sounds good for more reasons than the theory of it. 

Experamentalism for the sake of it

Later Radiohead albums have begun to feel like they are simply trying to think of the most out-of-the-box musical ideas and throwing them together without really worrying too much about how it actually sounds. I'm all for experimenting, that's how new genre's are born but when it's done for the sake of it and ends up sounding a bit crap it's totally pointless. Similarly, albums such as anything by Merzbow are so pointless because it's obvious they're just trying to be as weird and freaky as possible. 

So those are just some of the things that I believe make an album good or bad, as well as why I like particular albums over others in a subjective way. This is a slightly longer post than most of mine as well as being fairly different in this open discussion sort of way, I hope it was okay.

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