It’s easy to say that the past year has introduced a plethora of knowledgeable and self-aware records – Kendrick’s hidden double album that’s meant to play in reverse, Father John Misty’s one hour and seventeen minute lecture of a record, and Sufjan’s exploration of cosmic poetry – we have more music than we need to digest for self-reflection, music that takes the term “concept album” another step forward. (But seriously, what album released nowadays doesn’t have some kind of concept behind it?) It’s something we shouldn’t take for granted, however. With today’s mainstream music overlooking this social commentary and self-reflection, concept albums and mixtapes have started to fill in that gap for self-evaluation and discovery. 2017 has come to show that records are more aware of themselves as tools for change, expressing thoughts and ideas that come across clearer than through any other medium nowadays.
