How to release an album, part 4: Four steps for cohesiveness

Continuing on the journey that is creating an album, part 4 of WordPlay T. Jay’s series looks at the journey of the album itself and how to make tracks cohesive from start to finish.
What exactly is cohesiveness? Cohesiveness is the feeling that every track in the album and lyrics in those tracks fit and belong in that specific project. You could have a concept album or not, but there should be some line of cohesiveness throughout the body of work because people want to feel like everything in an album is suppose to be packaged together.
A couple of good examples of this are the albums “808s & Heartbreak” by Kanye West, or “Hotter Than July” by Stevie Wonder. In both cases, the artists too a unique sound and perspective and packaged that within a time frame, mood and tone.
T. Jay went through an album review of his own recently while working on his current album.
“While on my journey to finish my album, I realized it lacked cohesiveness,” he said. “I had defined a mood, and a lot of tracks just didn’t fit. In the middle of my process, I had found my theme, and what I discovered is I was making an album for people who work overtime and sacrifice for themselves or their families.”
T. Jay said because of that realization, he had to alter some of his album’s tracks and order to make a better fit. This led him to define the four steps of cohesiveness.
1. Define the mood
You can write a sad album, a happy album, an album about breakups, an album for people working overtime, or any theme you wish to choose. Just make sure there is an overarching mood for the project.
2. Review tracks
If one doesn’t fit, take it off the album.
3. Add tracks
Sometimes through the review process, much of an album can get cut, so you’ll need to add new tracks in to complete the project.
4. Sequence the tracks
Tracks on an album should be in an order that’s right for the mood. You want to take the listener on a journey. With so few people listening to whole albums these days, you have to entice them to continue to listen and not become disconnected. Sequencing is important, especially for cohesiveness.
For more about cohesion in an album, check out the video below.