What Are Some Of The Characteristics Of A Great Album...?

M

MACKone

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What are some of the characteristics of a great album...? I know that only the test of time can determine classics...but what are some of the things that make a great album...?
 
ya that is a tough question. there is no detailed formula i don't think. It just takes a great artist to put his all into each track and have the same commitment from everyone else from the producers to mixing and mastering.
 
When you don't have to skip any tracks on it!

yeah, that's all I got. ahahaha
 
the same few producers throughout the whole cd

have an actual theme or atleast everything ties together without a bunch of random ass tracks

sampled beats (haha)

great rapper/rappers

and bein able to listen to the whole cd without skippin
 
Sampled beats....


Respected producers/guest artists on the album


Unknown guest artists who later become stars in their own right

Tracks that keep you guessing what the next single should be...

Album cuts that are more BANGER than FILLER

The sophomore album is such a letdown that the debut album seems even THAT MUCH BETTER

You've pressed rewind on a few of the tracks either to hear a hot line or a dope breakdown for the 5th time...

Somehow Jigga was within 2 degrees of separation of that album.
 
tight beats, tight rhymes, 1 instrumental track, 1 skits, no filler, less then 15 songs.
 
Album cuts that are more BANGER than FILLER


That is so true...when I think about an album like Illmatic or Be...they don't have many tracks on them...but they are ALL great solid tracks.

Keep 'em coming, these are all great points....

Another thing that hit me was how much heavier the production is compared to the lyrics, to me at least...a great example of that is The Documentary...Game wasn't horrible, but he wasn't anything spectacular either...mostly for me, it was the beats...I mean...I would have bought that CD even if there were no lyrics at all on it.
 
When the average listener can relate to it. I can't relate to $100,000 rings, 20 million dollar houses, or pouring alcohol on b*tches in the club. I don't know about yall, but I can't afford to waste alcohol like that...However,I can relate to someone talking about something that went on in their life that happens to me and my peers everyday. Artists weren't always rich so I expect them to have more to talk about than life after the deal.
 
hot beats (majority sampled), hot rhymes, variation of topics, similar feel/vibe to keep the album together, fun songs, intellectual songs, life songs, and atleast one thoro story song. its not that hard people, really.
 
Yall got some great responses... I say too when you can play the whole album straight through everytime you pop it in, When the production compliments the lyrics and vice versa, relating is important, and when everything makes sense like from the song topics/the way it was mixed down/reason why you chose certain instruments in a beat/and they way you market it/the album cover designs/ etc.. I like for everything to make sense/ most of all when you're on like 106 &park and they ask you "in 10 sec tell us why we should get the album" you say stuff besides "oh its hot,its crazy, i got blah blah on there,you got me." That shyt is played, give me a VALID reason why i should buy it..
 
The unexpected. This is what makes a great album. (At least a ground breaking one, which usually in turn become the greats over time.)
 
I think another thing too is the sequence of the songs...I mean...to me a great album should take you through different emotions...like a rollercoaster.
 
MACKone said:
I think another thing too is the sequence of the songs...I mean...to me a great album should take you through different emotions...like a rollercoaster.

Very True... people underestimate the importance of the song sequence
 
I don't know what makes one but that Makaveli CD minus Bomb First... was close

Outkasts' Aquemini

I think De La Souls first CD too, I can't remember.

I just remember that they had one skit on one of there CD's where the guy talking to a girl kept saying "Speak to Jimmy, Speak to Jimmy!" ... that made the whole CD classic.
 
For me, its all about storytelling. That's why I loved albums like Life After Death. I like being brought into the artist's world and being taken on a different adventure or experience with each track.
 
A classic album should do one of at 5 things....

1.) Play out like a movie. Or like the album could be made into a movie.

2.) Good production throughout the album to keep the quality consistent.

3.) Epidtomize the era/area that artist is in.

4.) Revolutionizes the way music is made after that album drops.

5.) Gets better with time. The artist is on some shyt thats relevant but everytime you listen to it you get something new out of it, which shows how far ahead of their time they were.

Examples...

Outkast(SouthernPlayaListicCadillacFunkyMusik)
That album basically let the world know southern rap existed, and in a sense was the epidtome of what ATL was about.

2pac(All Eyez On Me & Makaveli) Both albums showed tremendous consistency and told the story of Pac's life at the time. You could really make a great movie based off of those two albums. He bared his soul through his music, which is why so many people could relate to those albums.

Jay-Z(Reasonable Doubt & Blueprint)
Everytime I hear reasonable doubt it still blows my mind to think this was made 10 years ago. IMO it is more of a classic than Nas'"Illmatic".
The Blueprint album changed the way we look at hip hop. With the exception of the south mainly every album you've heard since he dropped the Blueprint sounds like it in one way or another. Although hip hop has always used samples that was really the beginning of the soul samples craze.
 
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