Do you feel an artist can be too varied?

[J-FUNKTION]

wasnt sure where to put this...so yeah...

do you feel an artist can be too varied? like with beat selection? or should he find his lane and stick with what he sounds best on..even though he loves spittin on all types of beats (g-funk, hip hop, south, new school, etc)?

example..i prefer albums with a certain theme, sound, whatever to them, that follow through yet slightly vary.....im kinda iffy about projects that come out with extreme differences from track to track..you dont wanna be limited to one or two things..but you dont wanna be the guy with no direction either..

do you feel artists should group up their same feel tracks? and release those as a whole on a mixtape/album..or does a mixture of everything get a pass with you?

[The Ultimate Pianist]

Reading this,  I can't help but think of the R.E.D album.

I Definitely think artists that usually stick to one theme or style tend to end up with an album that's easier to listen to from beginning to end without confusing the listener as to the direction the artists wants to take the listener.

Teflon Don, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Section 80 and Watch the Throne are, in my opinion, albums that you can just throw in your CD player and let it play from top to bottom. (Super high off Teflon Don was totally off though)

A mixture of everything can sometimes get a pass, like GRODT or The Documentary. It had various beats from different producers but it wasn't that bad, was it ?   

Sorry for discussing the R.E.D album in here, don't want to attract the wrong crowd here, but R.E.D is just confusing. The album has too many different styles of beats.  I find it represents your point quite well.

[SCREWFACE]

a timely example would be watch the throne

you try to do too many things at once and the individual songs suffer.... and when you look at it as a whole it doesnt work well either.

its good to experiment sometimes but something cohesive should come out of it at the end

[The Ultimate Pianist]

a timely example would be watch the throne

you try to do too many things at once and the individual songs suffer.... and when you look at it as a whole it doesnt work well either.

its good to experiment sometimes but something cohesive should come out of it at the end

I do agree that Lift off was a total wtf track off the album...

[GangstaBoogy]

Here's the thing, although most of us would prefer an old school format album (small production team, 13-15 songs) the problem is when artist try that shit nowadays, they end up with 15 songs that sound the same.
But on the other hand, artist who try to do it all on one album (haven't heard RED yet so ill use Fabolous for example) when end up getting too much and we the fans end up weeding out the bullshit ourselves. Which is why so many fans think their executive producers lol.

Basically, in either even its a flip-of-a-coin as to the turnout.