An alternative history of the album, focussing on the format’s turbulent life through the digital music era since 1999 through to today, Body of Work explores why we should still bother to listen to music in 40 minute chunks.

The album is a perfect vessel for the art of song. It is the format all artists aspire to, even after nearly three decades of being hammered by the onslaught of digital music. As of 2025, the album is still strong and getting stronger. Jack Antonoff, one of the music world’s most successful producers, collaborators and a substantial music artist in his own right (under the artist name Bleachers) knows this. He recently expressed, in no uncertain terms, that “the album is God.”

In Body of Work, Jopling tells music industry insider stories, concisely sums up cultural and commercial trends, retells the album’s history in a fresh and personal way and looks to its future. The book takes on the absurdity of measuring album sales in the subscription market dominated by Spotify (which doesn’t report albums sales). It draws on dozens of in-depth interviews with established music artists about why the album is still, indeed, God, and why it probably always will be.