Why does cohesion matter?

[socotra 3,309]

one of the things i appreciate the most about 2 of my fave gagz albums, ARPOP and BTW, is that these two albums feature the most experimental and diverse range of tracks of Gaga's career – Aura, Americano, Government Hooker, Do What U Want, Judas, Jewels N Drugs, Bloody Mary, Swine – an eclectic array of tracks that still (in my mind) meshes together pretty well.

and yet a major critique of both albums is that they're "incoherent" "wildly uneven" and "an artist sprinting to please everyone all the time."

meanwhile, Chromatica has been praised as her most cohesive album to date. Future Nostalgia, After Hours, and folklore have all been acclaimed for their "cohesion."

aside from the ambiguity of the term (are we talking lyrical cohesion, conceptual cohesion, sonic cohesion, production cohesion, aesthetic cohesion, or all of the above?), i'm just genuinely confused as to where and why the critical obsession with cohesion came from. WHY does an album have to be considered cohesive in order to be considered good?

i understand that songs flowing one into the other feels nice; when different parts of a piece of work fit into each other like a puzzle it's particularly rewarding for a listener; sonic consistency on an album feels like it's all part of a greater tapestry of work; but why is this the only model for success?

I'm thinking mainly of ARTPOP – why is its inconsistency necessarily a bad thing? If an artist wants to make a mind**** collection of songs that doesn't dovetail, why is that viewed in negative light? Why is that seen as an "artist trying to please everybody" and not as an artist who is incredibly versatile and likes to experiment with her music? Why isn't variety ever exalted in the same way that cohesion is? Because for me, ARTPOP is a diverse collection of pop tracks where the different genres and styles Gaga tries on is its feature, not a bug. Personally, I prefer it to the much more disciplined approach to Chromatica, where, yes, everything fits together, but there's a wildness missing.

do you prefer cohesive albums? should cohesion really be a means by which we judge pop albums?

 

[Twitter 14]

Cohesive albums can be a good and bad.

[numb the flame 7,321]

I often find if an album is too cohesive in sound, all of the songs just start sounding the same as each other. 

[Bottom 1,842]

it is usually a commercial decision, the gp normally hears of the singles first then buys the album expecting it to be a similar sound. For example if someone likes a single that is pop but the album it is on has rap music they will not buy it

[brizoda 3,822]

cohesive can be very boring also

I prefer variety

[NFRatwell 23,290]

I think the lack of cohesion on ARTPOP makes sense given the meaning of the album “could mean anything”. But it’s one thing to be open about the lack of cohesion and another to try to hide it and force a narrative on a body of work that just makes no sense. I think albums without cohesion shouldn't be written out, but I’m more of a fan of cohesion since it allows the artist to truly develop a theme and relationship with a sound. Sort of like acting for example. Take Gaga in AHS Hotel, and compare her acting from the first episode to the last. There’s a huge improvement there, and we really see the countess develop. Now imagine if every episode she played a different character. Then the countess would’ve never really taken off, and we’d be left with only the first episode and no development there. 

[Born in Chromatica 7]

Well, I think many people enjoy the idea of an album having a collective sound as it adds to the background of the album and the story. Like with Chromatica, I feel Gaga really made an effort to create a story within the world from when she felt sad in Alice, to when she felt better in Babylon. I think having cohesive sound creates not just great songs, but an experience to the album, it creates a beautiful sstory which us why cohesiveness is very popular.

 

An album not cohesive us not bad but it can be confusing, like with Joanne talking about her family, then she has a song about Dancin in Circles , and with ARTPOP, while the tracks are great, some don't sound like they even belong on the album. So, I think variety can be a good, if it adds to the album.

[Jose P 23,341]

Because most of us like it when an album has a consistent sound and concept, when it feels like a whole and full-fledged body of work instead of just a collection of songs. Born This Way achieves a certain level of cohesion even with the blend of genres because they all still have a unifying theme and vibe. They all feel like they are from the same album. It’s not about the songs sounding similar to each other, but having the same feel to them and most of them falling on the same concept and themes of the album.

[FfFfFfFF 55,451]

A great album shows both variety but also overall common theme/ concept/ style. The songs need to feel like they are part of the same project, but no be the exact same copy-pasted into different forms. I don't think there is a strict definition, sometimes piano ballads can fit into more electronic or pop songs.. one could argue it's more about the flow the songs create while listening.

[Modern Ecstasy2 2,202]

My preference is conceptual cohesion, where all of the songs relate and connect back to one large overarching theme. I absolutely love Chromatica for this reason.

I really like a lot of the songs on Joanne, and as individual art pieces, they are incredible. But the issue I have with the album as a whole was how she pushed 'intergenerational family trauma' as the theme of the album, while only a few of the songs really actually touch on that. A song about her aunt, one about Trayvon Martin, one about masturbation etc etc - it was too all over the place, conceptually, for me.

 

[FentyGa 14,340]

cohesiveness in an album is important because the songs have to fit together for an album to be a full body of work. that doesn’t mean it can’t be eclectic like ARTPOP, but the songs have to make sense together, whether that’s in theme, genre, or production elements.

an album like Prism, for example, is very incohesive, which is a bad thing because the songs don’t create a narrative, they all sound different, it basically sounds like a greatest hits album. so, while the songs may be good individually, it’s not a good body of work overall. it’s disjointed.

Born This Way is very cohesive idk where you got that from actually

[brizoda 3,822]

I prefer songs/tracks than albums, you know that you like this song and you get it,

but in an álbum you like maybe only three songs

and a lot of times cohesive albums can be a little pretentious in concept

[River 115,226]

Dope is an example why cohesive albums are better

the song is just stuck there

serve it ancient city style yayay babylon

and I'm not a fan of how it's destroying the atmosphere of ARTPOP

[lifeasgeorge 9,427]

Because you can tell a lot of albums that lack cohesion are just chasing after a hit; hoping that something will stick with the GP.

I like albums that have a clear message, theme, or sound. I enjoy listening to albums from beginning to end so I like when artists show that in their work. 

[Taylucifer 5,122]

I think that cohesion shows an artists ability to create a body of work which flows nicely and sounds similar while still creating interesting and new music which don't all sound the same