If you’re one of those people who feels the need to label things, it might be fair to call 2014 the Year of the Album in EDM. Deadmau5, Skrillex, Steve Aoki, Afrojack, Tiësto, Porter Robinson and Paul Oakenfold are just a few of the names that have either released or are releasing albums this year—a surprising shift given how only two years ago, EDM was becoming a completely singles-oriented genre.

It’s hard for me to do an album because it’s really difficult for me to write music when I’m on the road all the time.

“My favorite bodies of work are albums,” says Porter Robinson, who will release his debut album, Worlds, on August 12. “But it’s hard to resist the temptation once you’ve made something to want to share it with people. It’s also hard for me to do an album because it’s really difficult for me to write music when I’m on the road all the time. I can’t take off touring, and I can’t take off writing music. For me, touring is the new baseline, the default; that’s my default level of comfort and lifestyle. That’s normal.”

Tiësto echoes the same sentiment: “You can’t make music fast enough these days. People want new tracks every day. It’s different than the rock world, [where] bands take a year off, and they come back and everybody’s happy. If I take two years off everybody’s like, ‘Where’d Tiësto go—did he quit?’”

Great music from great artists needs to be more than one song at a time.

So, why the change? According to The Crystal Method’s Ken Jordan, the album is necessary to build the bond with the listener. “For a while there, a lot of big-name DJs did not even make music,” he says. “Now they all do. Fans want that relationship; they want to relate the DJ directly to the music he plays, and albums are the best way to enjoy an artist’s music. Great music from great artists needs to be more than one song at a time.”

Duos like The Crystal Method—who are celebrating their 20-year anniversary and have built up a large, loyal fan base—can afford to take time away. However, Gareth Emery says the pressure to release new music all the time is very real.

I’m going to lock myself away until I’ve written something I’m fucking proud of, and I’m going to have faith that my career isn’t going to disappear whilst I’m gone.

“It’s fucking tough,” he says. “EDM can be such a rat race at times, with thousands of artists jockeying for position, which creates this demand to be constantly releasing music. When I wrote Drive, I basically took 18 months off any sort of substantial releases, and I was constantly hearing from management: ‘You need new music out. This guy’s had a Beatport #1. That guy’s had a chart hit. Those dudes have got the hype on them.’ Just talking about it now makes me feel sick, to be honest. It’s like the opposite of what creativity should be, and I truly hate that side of the industry, but it’s not going to change, is it?

“‘Hype’ artists will always be around,” adds Emery, “and sometimes you just need to believe in yourself to say: You know what? I’m not going to play that game. I’m not going to try and compete with whoever is hot on Instagram right now. Instead, I’m going to lock myself away until I’ve written something I’m fucking proud of, and I’m going to have faith that my career isn’t going to disappear whilst I’m gone. So that was what I did, and it paid off. But it was extremely tough at times, and I was constantly questioning whether what I was doing was right.”

The only thing that matters is that the finished article is exactly right.

Despite those very real demands, iconic DJ Paul van Dyk isn’t sure the album ever went out of style. “That may just be circumstantial, with a temporary shortfall of albums arriving on the scene. Personally, I don’t ever think there’s a right or wrong time to go back to making albums,” he says. “I will always make and release them, but it has to be a natural process. You can’t force or rush them. Politics of Dancing 3 was some time coming for both those reasons. The only thing that matters is that the finished article is exactly right.”

It’s incredibly myopic to assume that EDM is the only genre struggling with finding the right role for a body of work that will take months or even years to make, will not be a profitable venture, and often feels outdated to the artists themselves once it has been released. The album has proven to be a confusing venture for all in 2014, regardless of genre.

Artists from Lindsay Buckingham to Tommy Lee have questioned the validity of ever making another album. Aerosmith’s Joe Perry just wondered aloud if it ever made sense for a band that can sell out arenas to ever spend another year making an album. And in a recent interview for Billboard, Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz admitted rock has no clue what to do with the album.

“But now, I think there’s room for different kinds of ideas to come around in every way, except for maybe like, ‘Let’s put out a really long album,’” he says. “The funniest thing to me about it is: I think that rock bands have the hardest time with it, ’cause rock bands like to take a bunch of time between albums, go somewhere really cool to think about recording an album, have a bunch of fights, and then record for three or four months. The new model is not that. The new model is, there are kids doing it on laptops in their house.”

Albums act as waypoints or anchors to what an artist is doing at that time and where they are, musically.

With the days of diamond albums (those records that sold 10 million plus) having gone the way of the 8-track, how do artists justify locking themselves away for extended periods of time, when they could be touring and raking in big bucks, or just dropping new singles online to make what is essentially a vanity project? The answer depends on whom you ask, but everyone agrees the album still has validity as a form of artistic expression.

“It’s a chance for a much bigger creative statement,” says Emery. “I also love the way an album can be reflective about where the artist is at that point in their life. For instance, my last album, Drive, was very inspired by Route 66 and the old American road trip. The inspiration came after taking a journey from New York to Los Angeles with my wife, so that theme ran through every single part of the release.”

“Albums act as waypoints or anchors to what an artist is doing at that time and where they are, musically,” says van Dyk. “That, I think, is very important for both the fans and the artists themselves.”

Both van Dyk and Jordan argue the album actually enhances the live experience. “As for touring, I think some of the big names should maybe take some breaks,” says Jordan. “It makes their return a much bigger deal.”

In 2014, when music at times feels as short-lived as a psychedelic trip—a blast for a few hours, then mostly forgotten the next day—it’s easy to ask, “Why bother?” But to the musicians who remember what it was like to lock themselves in a room for an hour and listen to Moby’s Everything is Wrong from start to finish, or hear Leftfield’s Leftism for the first time, or experience how Portishead’s Dummy shifted the cultural landscape, the album is about so much more than sales, or being cool for 10 minutes. As cheesy as it may sound, it’s about having the chance to impact someone’s life. Emery has had that experience, and he knows it means way more than writing a banging club hit that some people got drunk and danced their asses off to. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But that doesn’t change your life; an album can.

“Dance music singles are quite disposable [and] transitory,” says Emery. “You’ll hear a song in a club or festival for a few months; then it’s gone forever. And sometimes we have to strive for something bigger. People still talk to me about my first album, Northern Lights from 2010, and tell me it’s been with them throughout their lives—that it’s been the soundtrack to numerous life changes, good and bad, and that they’ve grown as people, married, had kids, and the album has always been there for them in the background. For me, that’s so damn humbling—knowing that you’ve played a part in someone’s life like that. It just means so much more than writing something that people ‘raged’ to for a couple of months whilst it was cool, then forgot it.”

Essential Listening: Your Favorite Artists Pick Their Favorite Electronic Albums

The Crystal Method’s Ken Jordan

Leftfield Leftism

Daft Punk Homework

Prodigy The Fat of the Land

Fatboy Slim Better Living Through Chemistry

The Chemical Brothers Exit Planet Dust

Skrillex Bangarang EP

Moby Play

The Crystal Method Vegas

Gareth Emery

Pendulum Hold Your Colour

Prodigy The Fat of the Land

Leftfield Leftism

Eric Prydz Pryda

Nero Welcome Reality

Paul van Dyk

Depeche Mode Violator

New Order Substance and Technique

Underworld Dubnobasswithmyheadman

Leftfield Leftism

The Chemical Brothers Exit Planet Dust

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