Replying to Are essays the answer?

My teacher recently strayed from the norm of writing an essay on a topic after reading a book in class. Instead we have to create a playlist by finding 5 songs that relate to things in the book and annotate the lyrics from one song. I think this leaves room for creativity and such rather than the classic essay. Why aren't more assignments like this?

Anyways, my question is do you think that essays are always the answer to evaluating your critical thinking and understanding of a book or such?