Supersize me: Top 10ish albums in the age of the deluxe album
This godawful year is finally coming to a close, yet we’ll never even have all the good memories we’ve made along the way because we couldn’t see one another. Thank you, COVID-19.
(The less we speak on the matter, the better we’ll be and feel.)
Find below our list of the top 10 (or 15) albums of this underrated year in music. We tried really hard but ultimately couldn’t quite put together a list of only deluxe albums; internet, we have failed you. To repent this sin of ours, we’ll give our tweet-length review in 280 characters or fewer for each album on the list.
We’re starting, first, with six honourable mentions.
J Hus — The Big Conspiracy. This is the album of summer 2020, it’s just too bad they released it in January.
Roc Marciano — MT. MARCI. The former Flipmode Squad member makes the cut here for spitting “I’m in her pussy doing the stanky leg” on a song.
Apashe — Renaissance. We’re biased, but this should have been nominated for a Grammy.
Taylor Swift — evermore. Congrats to Taylor Swift on winning this year’s Grammy Award for best album but also, with this second surprise album, next year’s award as well.
Drakeo The Ruler — We Know The Truth. Drakeo The Ruler is finally free and home. God bless him.
Pop Smoke — Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon (Deluxe). Listen to Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon and tell us it doesn’t showcase Pop Smoke’s undeniable charisma and versatility. He was set to have it all and should have had it all.
15. Sheff G — Proud Of Me Now
Sheff G has yet to miss in 2020 and Proud Of Me Now is undeniably his crown jewel: the Brooklyn drill rapper from Flatbush expands the sonic boundaries of the ruthless and unforgiving world he inhabits. Wherever Sheff G goes, we’ll follow him.
14. Ty Dolla $ign — Featuring Ty Dolla $ign
The singer with the honeyed and sugary voice drops a wonderful new album called Featuring Ty Dolla $ign but it’s featuring everyone else. Get it? The man who’s given everyone in the industry a feature now has an album full of features from everyone in the industry.
13. Lil Wayne — Funeral (Deluxe)
The case for Funeral as a top 15 album of 2020 is pretty simple: Lil Wayne looks and sounds like he’s having fun rapping again. Just don’t ask us about Donald Trump, we don’t talk about Donald Trump here.
12. The Koreatown Oddity — Little Dominique’s Nosebleed
Little Dominique’s Nosebleed is a human, intimate and arresting record and we’ll press play on whatever the rapper drops next. What a world we live in, where the best autobiographical rap album of the year can come from an indie LA rapper we had barely ever heard of.
11. Jay Electronica — Act II
The better of the Jay Electronica albums of 2020 was the one he never intended us to hear, the would-be magnum opus that was leaked to the general public after years in the wilderness of Jay Elec’s mind. It’s a dense and thrilling listen, you just gotta open up your third eye.
10. Jim Jones — El Capo (Deluxe)
Old, grizzled Jim Jones had no business making an album as good as El Capo a year ago — and damn sure has no business making a deluxe edition of this excellent album that somehow makes it all the more excellent.
9. Dua Lipa — The Future Nostalgia Experience
With her second studio album, Dua Lipa went ahead and did the damn thing, by which we mean creating a pop album that calls back to the glory days of funk, dance, electro and disco while keeping the sound modern and fresh.
8. Boldy James x The Alchemist — The Price of Tea in China (Deluxe)
Boldy James enjoyed as fine a rap year in 2020 as anyone probably ever has, dropping four projects that each range from good (i.e. The Versace Tape) to excellent (i.e. literally all three other projects). Staying on brand, we’re giving the edge to the only one that got a deluxe.
7. Stove God Cook$ — Reasonable Drought
Produced entirely by the god Roc Marciano himself, Reasonable Drought is one of the year’s best releases as it pairs the sheer charisma and verbose of Stove God Cook$ with gorgeous and luscious soul samples from Marci.
6. Mach-Hommy — Mach’s Hard Lemonade
Mach’s Hard Lemonade is an album full of precise, surgical and intricate rhymes from the man who’s become rap’s expert in the genre. The album is currently a Tidal exclusive but it’s worth a Google search to find your copy, if not quite the $444.44 price tag for the vinyl LP.
5. Lil Baby — My Turn (Deluxe)
My Turn is the best deluxe album of the year and we’re floored that the Grammys, despite all their myopia with rap and black culture, couldn’t acknowledge this. We Paid, The Bigger Picture and Emotionally Scarred are three of the year’s best songs — and they’re on the same LP.
4. Taylor Swift — folklore (Deluxe)
Taylor Swift took everyone by surprise when she departed from her typical pop sound destined to fill arenas and sell albums & pared down her music to a new minimalistic core that rewarded her great songwriting chops. She took risks and it paid off tenfold.
3. Lil Uzi Vert — Eternal Atake (Deluxe)
The stakes couldn’t have been higher but Lil Uzi Vert met, surpassed and exceeded every expectation. There’s not a flow that the Philly rapper doesn’t try out on Eternal Atake if only to show off that he can. It’s a thrilling listen that, at 104 minutes, somehow feels too short.
2. The Weeknd — After Hours (Deluxe)
Abel Tesfaye will not win a Grammy Award for his excellent After Hours nor the After Hours Deluxe. It’s a travesty.
1. 21 Savage x Metro Boomin — Savage Mode 2
Stop being so damn civilized and listen to the rap album of the year early and often. Savage Mode 2 is narrated by Morgan Freeman and brought the Pen & Pixel folks out of retirement but rapper 21 Savage and producer Metro Boomin are the two who shine the brightest.
