Does album sequencing still matter?

[RajWatts]

Since the iTunes era started a lot of people just take the best tracks of an album and delete the filler

Most of these albums nowadays are poorly sequenced, besides Kendrick, Kanye & Nas, theres no flow to the albums.

So I'm wondering does sequencing still matter? Which potentially good albums were ruined by shytty sequencing, and are there any classic albums that would be average if they were sequenced differently?

example:

when Blueprint 2 came out, most people thought it was garbage, but he re-released it, changed the order, took out half the songs and it was a lot more listenable. still not classic by any means but the quality was improved greatly

 

[LilJuicyTaco]

Man albums don't even matter no more!

 

[MrHipHop]

YES!

 

[JustCKing]

I understand exactly what you are saying. The biggest reason for poorly sequenced albums, in my opinion, is the lack of a competent executive producer. Most of the classic albums, and a lot of great albums have executive producers who knew what they were doing. These days, a lot of artists executive produce their own albums. The downside of that is quality control (an album that's bloated with songs just thrown together with no real flow) and album worthy cuts being left off in favor of songs that please a specific audience or demographic. There are exceptions like Nas (Life Is Good, It Was Written, Stillmatic and God's Son are all great albums), who is capable of executive producing or co-executive producing his own work. His most acclaimed work though, was executive produced by others (Faith N. and MC Serch). Kanye West is another artist that has proven he can executive produce his own work and create classic material.

For all the heat that Diddy catches, dude was an excellent executive producer. Ready To Die, Life After Death, No Way Out, Harlem World, and American Gangster are all great albums executive produced by Diddy.

 

[DeuceZ]

judging from Kendrick's album yes...judging from French Montana's album no

 

[Fmju]

To some it does. The artists who are more into their work (for lack of a better phrase) seem to have better sequenced albums

For example, Wolf (Tyler) was very well sequenced. The fact it had a decent followable story to it helped keep it on track.

Kendrick's Debut (Dre) & Covert Coupe (Alc) are some of my other favs

 

[Obtain Knowledge]

In this era no because it's become a lost art. When most Hip Hop artists make albums now the sequencing is all off.

That's one of things that made Young Jeezy's The Recession album so great. The sequencing on that album was excellent.

 

[MartyMcFly]

I agree that in this era, it doesn't matter to the consumer because they can pick and choose what they want. There is a reason that albums from other eras were sequenced the way they were because the exec producers and the artists grew up listening to vinyl and cassettes, so they understood the importance of a listener not wanting to move the needle or hit the fast forward button.

Now you have artists who grew up on CDs or just digital music, so sequencing doesn't seem to matter as much. Sucks, but it is what it is

 

[JuvenileHell]

Yes, especially in a conceptual album, where one tells a story (GKMC)

 

[Long Live The Kane]

It doesn't matter as much as it once did just because of how a lot of people listen to music today, it's more of a la carte experience...the playlist has started to take precedent over the album...not that a well sequenced album is any less of a good idea conceptually, GKMC has been brought up as an example, but jut in general it's not always the way the audience will hear it...there's songs from like 15 years ago that will pop up while I have my playlist on shuffle and when it goes off, I'm saying the first lyrics or the first couple seconds of the beat of the next song on the album it was on in my head...just because I almost exclusively listened to entire albums back then.....that doesn't happen as much for new songs anymore

 

[The_King_of_Everything]

I understand exactly what you are saying. The biggest reason for poorly sequenced albums, in my opinion, is the lack of a competent executive producer. Most of the classic albums, and a lot of great albums have executive producers who knew what they were doing. These days, a lot of artists executive produce their own albums. The downside of that is quality control (an album that's bloated with songs just thrown together with no real flow) and album worthy cuts being left off in favor of songs that please a specific audience or demographic. There are exceptions like Nas (Life Is Good, It Was Written, Stillmatic and God's Son are all great albums), who is capable of executive producing or co-executive producing his own work. His most acclaimed work though, was executive produced by others (Faith N. and MC Serch). Kanye West is another artist that has proven he can executive produce his own work and create classic material.

For all the heat that Diddy catches, dude was an excellent executive producer. Ready To Die, Life After Death, No Way Out, Harlem World, and American Gangster are all great albums executive produced by Diddy.

Jermaine dupri too

 

[Danie84]

No to ringtone artist...do they still exist

 

[mortuus est]

 

[mortuus est]

it does still matter, to me it does anyway.

operation doomsday still sounds fresh today with the way it flows together

 

[OnlyInCalifornia]

it does still matter, to me it does anyway.

operation doomsday still sounds fresh today with the way it flows together

Same here.

And co sign on Operation Doomsday.