Anyone else miss good solid albums?
 

You know the ones that contain 12 or so tracks, with a sprinkling of variety throughout. The albums that when it hits the end you immediately want to play them from the start right away second time through while reading the liner notes to investigate who played what on each track, who produced it, where was it recorded, did I definitely hear that lyric right, where the hell is that sample from, is that a Fender Rhodes in the background on track 6?

Or is it just me?

Some albums that immediately come to mind are:

John Legend "get lifted"
Guns n Roses "appetite for destruction"
Jay-Z "the blueprint"
Ryan Adams "heartbreaker"
Stevie Wonder "talking book"

Artists have stopped making albums? How long have I been asleep?

Yes I remember them, there were some good solid albums released last year, and the year before.

I think your not looking around enough, there are plenty of great albums out there that do just that... dig around some.

Any recommendations? Especially some more recent releases.

Fucked Up "The Chemistry Of Common Life"

I go through that process on pretty much every album I listen to. For me, understanding the album is part of what makes it so good. I'm certainly not saying that every album is deserving of this process, but I usually research albums before I invest my listening time. The only thing that's really changed is Wikipedia has replaced the liner notes for me in most cases because I download most of my music, but the internet has tremendously more information than an album sleeve could ever have... take this forum as a perfect example.

Albums that take a while to grow on you are the ones I end up liking the best, more often than not. "Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor is probably the most classic example of that for me.

12 song albums are for losers. 1 song or 5643.

Cows albums are always solid.

that's pretty much what I do - if it's something new, i go through the entire liner notes and read the artiste's bio on wiki

Cows are effing brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!1!!!

Just you I expect. Best thing to do is just listen to more music and find what you like than just asking what someone else likes imo.