The problem I keep having is they stay unorganized b/c of Album Artist which is the space I use to create my playlists. Thank you to anyone who can help.
In the menu bar at the list of all songs you can select the categories in order.
Sort on the Album column. Click the heading of the Album column to switch between Album, Album by Artist (which is really Album by Album Artist), and Album by Artist/Year. Album by Artist is the one you want.
tt2
I'm not seeing this the same way you are. Can you post a screenshot of your iTunes? I don't have an Album by Artist selection.
I'm also in the album view, not song view.
The Artist and Album Artist tags are used by iTunes for grouping tracks into albums and (in conjunction with the corresponding Sort Artist and Sort Album Artist tags) for sorting. In particular, when using Albums view what you see is based on specific iTunes functionality associated with these tags. Therefore, if you use one or more of these tags for another purpose then iTunes will still handle them "as designed".
If you want to create metadata for some other purpose, including in selection criteria for smart playlists, it is much better to use a tag that does not have specific iTunes functionality associated with it (the Grouping tag is the most obvious one for this purpose, since its behavior is essentially "user defined").
In the Albums view use the dropdown near the top right to sort by Artist then (Album) Title.
tt2
How To Organize iTunes Albums By Artist And Then Album Title?
