Juice WRLD’s latest album, “Death Race for Love,” has been the No. 1 album in the country for two weeks in a row, according to the Billboard 200 chart. Compared to his debut, “Goodbye & Good Riddance,” which peaked at No. 4 on the chart, Juice WRLD’s second album is statistically doing better so far.

Despite its success, I would still argue Juice WRLD’s debut album is the better body of work than his latest. This illustrates the problem with musical statistics — they don’t run parallel with fans’ opinions of the best projects produced by their favorite artists.

Just because something is more popular doesn’t always mean it’s the best quality. In the case of Juice WRLD’s first two albums, the first is better because its theme of heartbreak contrasts with the songs’ sound, which is happy on the surface level until you actually listen to the lyrics. These similarities come together in ways that create a continuous story and bring the listener through the feelings of heartbreak.

But when it comes to his second album, there wasn’t a noticeable continuous theme. It felt more like a bunch of songs put together for the sole purpose of finishing a music project, versus the feeling that the songs fit together like puzzle pieces to an album.

Juice WRLD isn’t the only artist where statistics tell a misleading story about their best body of work. Looking at Kendrick Lamar’s statistics on the Recording Industry Association of America website, the one album of his that I keep going back to is the album that didn’t do the best statistically. “Section.80,” Lamar’s first album, is the only album of his that has not become a platinum-certified album or sold a million copies.

But I keep going back to “Section.80” for its continuous jazz feel, created by all the beats on the album and the chill flows. This compares to his three albums that came after “Section.80:” “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” (2012), “To Pimp A Butterfly” (2015) and “DAMN.” (2017). While the latter three are platinum-certified — statistically proving it to be more popular — they don’t have the same continuous vibe found in “Section.80.”

“good kid, m.A.A.d city,” a classic in its own right, had some of the calm elements found in “Section.80” mixed with more upbeat songs. “To Pimp A Butterfly” contained a mostly funky feel that was off-putting to me upon first listen. Finally, “DAMN.” had a lot of good songs, but they didn’t have a consistent vibe to them.

Alongside Juice WRLD and Kendrick Lamar, Meek Mill’s most statistically-successful album is his 2015 album, “Dreams Worth More Than Money,” as it’s Meek Mill’s only platinum-certified album.

But this album, which can be described as a bunch of maybe-hits thrown together, is his worst album. I liked his first album, 2012’s “Dreams and Nightmares,” along with 2017’s “Wins & Losses” and 2018’s “Championships” more than his most successful project because the content was more resonant.

And this concept isn’t new. These ideas exist for Travis Scott fans, who believe “Rodeo” is Scott’s best project despite “Astroworld” raking up the best statistics. Many Lil Uzi Vert fans also believe his best statistically-performing project, “LUV Is Rage 2,” is his worst project to date.

Fans will continue to fight over which of their favorite music artists’ projects are the best, but one thing is for sure: fans will keep making their own opinions about which albums are their favorite, regardless of the numbers behind them.

Published on April 4, 2019 at 2:07 pm