Music Overdose

From the sound of it, you have the skill and equipment to make an album, but I don't hear anything about what album you're actually eager to make. No musical vision bursting out of you, just the urge to make music?

I can relate. I'm a hobbyist who picked up music as a distinctive non-writing excercise I can do while standing and not facing a screen. So, no great ambition here. My favorite kind of practise is to focus on one improvised lick I like and play that until I get good at it. I never record them or anything, I just let them fly by and forget them, hoping I can tap into the experience and come up with something good if and when I need it. One reason I never recorded any is that none of those licks are unique or special, as evidenced by the flying-by. Just fun to play. None of that needed to be recorded. (I may have to soon, though. My Patreon video is outdated, and that's one thing I like to score myself.)

My advice for as long as nothing screams at you that needs to be a finished work: Don't sweat it. Just enjoy the practice.

Also, don't think 'album'. Think 'EP'. Think 'song' or 'jingle' or 'reel' and try different smaller things for size. It's the same advice I give to would-be writers who want to write a 1000 page fantasy epic and don't know where to start. Write short stories first to get a feel for the world and the characters. An album (or epic) is an intimidating thing if you want it all to fit. Start small, work up.

Inspiration! It is a tricky beast to pin down. Echo everything that Max said.

What I would say is not to sit down, crack your knuckles, and say, "NOW. I will write a masterpiece!"

Try just sitting down and having some fun messing about with music. Call it learning if you want. "I'm going to learn how to sweep pick. I'm going to learn how to make pads with this synth. I'm going to learn how to sing falsetto like the Bee Gees." This is explicitly about messing around. It is not focused, structured practice. You're just going to have a bit of fun. No pressure. What you may well find is that you begin writing anyway. That synth sound, wouldn't it sound great with a beat underneath it? Oh, oh, and it needs a bassline. Hang on, that's half a song, right there...

(For bonus points, do this when you are very, very tired: as in, barely keeping your eyes open tired. Many people find they are more creative when they are tired. Something to do with the subconscious coming more to the fore. I've written whole suites of songs about being tired while tired. It's not good for your day job, but if you get good songs, that's something, right? )

I can sit down and say, "I am going to write the chorus for this song". I've been writing songs for decades, so I know how to engage that part of my brain. But I still write a lot of my best stuff when I'm not trying - when I'm just noodling around. And more often than not, when I take the forced approach, it's because I need something to go with an idea that came from such noodling. Trying to go completely from scratch is hard.

Another approach is to try and copy a song you like. Now, you're not going to plagiarise here. Just take a song you really like, and say to yourself, "I'm going to write a song like that one". That means you need to understand why that song works. Pull the structure and the arrangement apart. There's a string section coming in on that bit - okay, give that a go. There's a little variation on the second chorus - okay, try that. Once you have the shell of a whole song just like the one you started with, take that shell into a different direction. Expand the middle 8 out and drop the third verse to make room. Replace the guitar solo with a synth break. Change all the major chords to minor and vice versa. Make it your song all the way.

I would also suggest you be both selfish and tunnelblind. Don't think about whether anyone else will like what you're writing, or what genre it is, or how it fits with other stuff you've done, or whether you could play it live (if you do this), or about anything other than making your ears happy. Does it sound good? Do you want to just stick it on loop and listen to it for hours? Great. Keep it! Think only about what you want to listen to.

Hope some of these ideas help.

Pick a title for your album. You need - at min 8 songs, esp if there are a couple of long songs. & start recording one of the songs. Maybe the drum track for the first four measures of a song. & then another track, those 4 measures, then after that you could do out the next four measure of drum track, etc etc. You can do it. You know you can. Start small.

Even with half an album's worth of lyrics in your pocket - though, wait, that's like 6 songs, isn't it? Could be an EP after all - I recommend starting small. Make a song or if you can't get those lyrics to work with anything, an intrumental. Finish it. That's the most important part. Repeat.

When you have enough of those pieces, try assembling them into something larger. Six tunes make a good EP. Maybe adjust the mixes so they fit better or see if the sequence still needs a certain kind of filler. If they're all instrumental, consider wriitng lyrics to some of them.

Finish that. Again, finishing is the most important bit.

Try a suite of songs for the next EP, maybe based on one of the tunes you already have. Finish that.

Before you know it, you'll have the skills to try something larger.
And the habit of finishing stuff.

Also, if you've been busy publishing your finished stuff on Bandcamp or Soundcloud or YouTube or Patreon, you're also several steps into finding an auidience for the album.

... says the guy who stopped making music altogether just before he was ready to record his EP, but never mind. That was long ago and I've learned it since, just not with music...