Node.js Express route naming and ordering: how is precedence determined?
No it isn't. :id will match anything. So /api/albums/artwork is totally valid for that match. Express does support RegExp match also. So you could make an explicit numeric matching route using RegExp.
Another option is using app.param as explained in the API documentation here: https://expressjs.com/en/api.html#app.param
This allows you to define matching params for the router so you could have a URL like /api/albums/:albumId where :albumId has to be numeric, you could also validate an albumId at this point if you wished too.
But in all, the second way you are doing it fairly normal, generally I put static routes at the top, then dynamic routes, catch all, then error handlers.