Instead of penning a detailed account of the awaited “Paradise Again”, I would rather like focus on the overall state of EDM albums as of late. Usually, there aren’t as many worth mentioning as most producers have shifted towards singles or EPs, yet the combination of an extended pandemic, hiatuses and comebacks, and coincidences bring up some events to review.
From SHM to Garrix’s “Sentio”, including Hardwell’s upcoming album that premiered at Ultra alongside Tiesto and The Chainsmokers’ ones, there’s plenty of material to go with, and today I will lean towards the ones that are mostly released.
What is obvious is the strategy of constant, near-weekly releases in order to remain relevant in the streaming services’ algorithms, ultimately affecting albums as well. Luckily, this doesn’t get hindered by a lack of quality (at least from my personal point of view), but more conceptual news.
“Paradise Again” doesn’t extend the narrative that binds all its components together, resulting in this sort of an experimental assortment of ideas sounding as if it’s coming from different people. It reflects the current listening fashion, where people are saving songs in their library and savoring them in random order, mostly starting with the big features, skipping interludes. Or not dabbling in genres they don’t prefer. Why risk it, if you can smash ten distinct styles in an album and cater to everyone’s attention?
That’s more or less the same tale involving Garrix’s latest efforts, who has masterminded the “weekly release” methodology since he groups his releases on compilations such as “BYLAW” or “Seven”. My feeling towards “Sentio” remains favorable and I will probably talk about it further, yet it’s exhausting to check an unending flow of unconnected collaborations, which explore other styles mostly to amp up streams and are devoid of a new concept for the fans. All because sticking to a particular theme or idea would limit the algorithm’s choice. Albeit, Revealed Recording’s label-head seems to be ‘rebelling“ against this very convention and it has made me curious about the results.
Some concepts, that gave us 2021 hits from names like Illenium, KSHMR, and Porter Robinson are way more mature than what others are tending towards, as many of them are satisfied pushing out a bunch of releases as a collection minus the story or concept. The latest works have confirmed this thought.
Has the technology of instant streaming of music rendered EDM albums useless? Perhaps, although I know that sometimes we need a fuller product adequate for entertaining for say, an hour, and standing out with its thematic presentation, and not just optimized to gather saves in listeners’ libraries.
What do you think?
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