In the era of algorithmic playlists, two-minute TikTok song trends and AI-generated art, multi-platinum hit-maker and Grammy-winning producer Zedd is putting in the years and effort to craft an album-lover’s album, or as he puts it “music for the sake of art.”

After a nine-year album draught punctuated by career-defining, stand-alone singles, the prodigious multi-instrumentalist returns with his third studio album, Telos.

“Telos has multiple meetings, one of them being ‘accomplishment’ or ‘completion of human art,’” he says. “‘The end’ is another interpretation of it, and I relate to all of them. I grew up listening to these albums that shaped me as a musician, and I never thought I would be able to create anything as good as those, but as I was completing Telos, I really felt the same emotion I was given by those incredible albums when I grew up. I created something I didn’t think I was capable of—it just took a long time.”

Telos is a 10-track masterpiece that blends Zedd’s classically trained roots and love of orchestral compositions with his signature dance-pop sound. It is complex and innovative without sacrificing the bright melodies and glitchy hooks fans of “The Middle” and “Stay” have come to expect.

The album weaves features from cross-genre monoliths John Mayer and Muse with alt-pop voices Remi Wolf and Dora Jar, modern Irish folk instrumentalists the olllam and even late American songwriting icon Jeff Buckley. Add to it threads of world music, jazzy breakdowns, psychedelic soundscapes, booming bass, soaring orchestral strings and layers of textured sound, and you’ve got a compelling ode to all the marvels of Zedd’s musical mind.

“Who is in the position of taking risks, re-educating people and giving them something new, if not people in my position?” he says. “I have to do this, not just for me, but I owe it to everyone, to give them an alternative to something that currently doesn't exist.”

Over the course of his legendary career, Zedd ...