After what felt like a decade, but what was only a little more than two years, Playboy Carti has finally released an album. With his features alongside The Weeknd, Travis Scott, and Future, all of his supporters and those adjacent to them have been eager to hear music of his own creation. Unfortunately, out of thirty tracks, barely one has sufficed in being anything nearly as good as his music previously. This brought me to an epiphany: Why are artists releasing albums with so many tracks, and why are they so bad?
For one, Carti’s “MUSIC” is considered by a vast range of his fans to be the worst album he’s ever released. This is not entirely his fault, because a lot of where the problem lies is in production, but it makes me question why he would let this reach his listeners. The features are with wonderful, respected artists that, mentioned previously, have created extremely popular tracks with Carti before. What is being released right now is nothing near what he’s been able to do in the past. His music has been able to enhance people’s moods, make people feel better, and is featured in all sorts of energetic playlists. Listening to this, although it tries to have that same effect, makes me want to go to bed. I’m exhausted and overwhelmed at the sheer level of noise that is featured in his music recently. Magnolia Ahking, a student at Quartz Hill, has stated her own grievances with his new music. She called it “noise,” explaining how messy and unpolished the music is. This isn’t relating specifically to lyrics or voices, because the artist and his features are expected given that Playboy Carti is a notorious mumble rapper, but his samples and beats such as those in “Location,” a song on his debut album show some sort of regression in his abilities as a composer and an artist. However, this only stands as the most recent example. Taylor Swift’s release of The Tortured Poets Department showcases a similar focus on earnings over esteem.
Swift’s album, particularly within the deluxe, featured 31 tracks of what felt like nothing. Although there’s been a bit of a delay between her album and the present day, her fans have reached a similar consensus about the disappointing performance of her album and her weak lyrics. An anonymous student compared The Tortured Poets Department to her previous album, Lover, which showcased 18 songs that all became hits. He claimed that they felt as if he could memorize and remind himself of each song, whereas he could barely remember a handful of songs on her most recent album, and even was opposed to nearly every other option. His main criticisms were with the low-effort lyrics and the general instrumentals of each song, which were all nearly identical to each other. The title track, Lover, was popularized on all social media platforms, including TikTok and Instagram, for over a month and has been able to resurface consistently through the year. This is extremely disheartening to dedicated listeners and fans who want to be able to show her growth and enjoy her music going forward, but this becomes more difficult with her quality decreasing as she favors the money that can be earned from constant releases and repackages. Taylor Swift and Playboy Carti are massively different artists, but suffering from the biggest plague of the industry – greed. They’re not alone, either.
Even Beyonce’s release of Cowboy Carter, which did as much as earn two Grammy awards, was still wildly disappointing. Although there were truly amazing songs on the album, and I would not have wanted it any other way, the Grammy darling is being held back by her own desire for more wealth and virality past what she has already achieved. With 27 songs involving a variety of themes and styles, I cannot deny that there are not a few good songs, especially understanding her prestige in and out of the music industry. But overall, with these recent releases and the continued disappointments of other artists, the music industry seems to have a lot to work on.
