"The album is dying". 

I've been forced into having this argument at barbecues and christenings and footy training and music conferences for years. 

It's one of those lazy, sweeping statements that generally gets a reaction, because no one really wants the album, as an artform, to die. 

Most are quick to leap to the defence of the format – "I still listen to them!" – while harbingers of gloom will tell you the kids just don't care anymore.

It's a complex argument if you really get into it. Artists, especially in the mainstream, are using the album differently in the streaming era. 

But you can also draw a simple conclusion: while artists are releasing good albums, how can the artform be dead?

Today Sampa The Great releases an album that stands among the best of this year. I fell hard for the singles released in the lead up, but it's only in hearing all 80 minutes of The Return that I felt I really understood her as an artist, as a person, as a force for change. 

The album isn't dying. I feel that today more than ever.