What Makes A Good Album?
What really makes a good album? Well, in my opinion there are several key things an album must do to qualify.
First it needs to grab you in some way, whether that be with a catchy beat, an interesting melody, meaningful lyrics or just some fresh instrumentation. The pace of the song doesn't matter, it could be burning with energy or mournfully slow or anywhere in between, it just needs to grab you.
It needs to hold you, keep you listening and wanting to hear more. This means you shouldn't hit a lull in the album at any point, it needs some consistency to remain interesting.
The album should have themes, either lyrical or instrumental, something to hold onto that ties an album together, that makes it a true album and not just a collection of songs.
It should do something new, even if the style of the music or theme of the lyrics aren't original, there should be aspects of freshness to it so the album isn't buried in itself. An example of an album not doing this would be Greta Van Fleet's "Anthem Of The Peaceful Album", something that just feels heavy, the 70s rock influences done to death in over-the-top vocals and dry instrumentals that show off just how talentless the band are, lacking the creative spirit to do anything new. An example of an album getting this right would be Royal Blood's self-titled debut, taking inspiration from 90s grunge and rock but spimning it into a fantastic and fresh sounding modern rock album, even though it didn't do anything groundbreaking or explicitly new.
My final point is personal enjoyment and this is really the most important because however it sounds, whatever it's saying really only adds up to your personal enjoyment of the album. For everyone, different elements of music mean different things as everyone has their own opinion. Serious albums can be great but there needs to be some element of fun or enjoyment that you get from listening to it, or what's the point in hearing it at all?
If all the songs on an album do all this in some way, or even if it's only the majority, then it's probably a good album. Great albums might have bad songs but it's the overall consistency of how good an album is that matters. The best albums for me personally are the ones that do these things. I'd love to hear other people's opinions on some great albums that they love, and a reason why they love it.
First it needs to grab you in some way, whether that be with a catchy beat, an interesting melody, meaningful lyrics or just some fresh instrumentation. The pace of the song doesn't matter, it could be burning with energy or mournfully slow or anywhere in between, it just needs to grab you.
It needs to hold you, keep you listening and wanting to hear more. This means you shouldn't hit a lull in the album at any point, it needs some consistency to remain interesting.
The album should have themes, either lyrical or instrumental, something to hold onto that ties an album together, that makes it a true album and not just a collection of songs.
It should do something new, even if the style of the music or theme of the lyrics aren't original, there should be aspects of freshness to it so the album isn't buried in itself. An example of an album not doing this would be Greta Van Fleet's "Anthem Of The Peaceful Album", something that just feels heavy, the 70s rock influences done to death in over-the-top vocals and dry instrumentals that show off just how talentless the band are, lacking the creative spirit to do anything new. An example of an album getting this right would be Royal Blood's self-titled debut, taking inspiration from 90s grunge and rock but spimning it into a fantastic and fresh sounding modern rock album, even though it didn't do anything groundbreaking or explicitly new.
My final point is personal enjoyment and this is really the most important because however it sounds, whatever it's saying really only adds up to your personal enjoyment of the album. For everyone, different elements of music mean different things as everyone has their own opinion. Serious albums can be great but there needs to be some element of fun or enjoyment that you get from listening to it, or what's the point in hearing it at all?
If all the songs on an album do all this in some way, or even if it's only the majority, then it's probably a good album. Great albums might have bad songs but it's the overall consistency of how good an album is that matters. The best albums for me personally are the ones that do these things. I'd love to hear other people's opinions on some great albums that they love, and a reason why they love it.
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