In the millisecond following the announcement of Sabrina Carpenter's deluxe album, pure excitement overcame any sort of logical thinking, with fans asking, "What exactly is a deluxe album, exactly, and why was I forced to wait two months for it?" With nearly every top album entailing a deluxe companion, reactions are well rehearsed.
To start, people would naturally expect the release of four scrapped bangers to complement the original’s Grammy–winning vibe. Perhaps a few features with other artists also, with the internet speculating on the identities of the lucky collaborators. Perhaps even club remixes, drowned in heavy bass and chaotic beats. Fans might then backtrack and scour the internet for new visuals, maybe a tour announcement if we're lucky. In reality, we'd all just be too lost in the excitement to ever consider why the artist choose to re–release.
The emergence of deluxe albums can be traced to the 1980s as CD remastering gained popularity as a way to help fans keep up with dramatic improvements in sound technology. In the 2000s, these re–releases turned into what’s now known as deluxe albums, released within months of standard counterparts with extra tracks that didn’t quite fit the tracklist but were too good to be tossed.
Now, the words “deluxe album” can mean anything. Sabrina Carpenter’s recent release Short n’ Sweet (Deluxe) exhibits a feature with country legend Dolly Parton, plus four new tracks that are so similar in production and songwriting to the standard tracklist that they’re practically indistinguishable. In the long–anticipated SOS Deluxe: LANA, SZA piled 15 songs (an album in its own right!) onto SOS, distinguishing the two by adopting green, forest–based visuals instead of the blue, ocean–based aesthetic of the original. In Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, Charli xcx didn’t even release new songs, instead launching 16 exciting features from pop icons like Ariana Grande to lesser–known indie bands like The Japanese House.
Regardless of intention, there’s a common trend for deluxe albums; artists want to build on hype trains generated from successful projects. The huge amount of attention Gracie Abrams, for example, received through The Secret of Us skyrocketed with the deluxe track “That’s So True,” earning her career peak at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. This raises the question: have deluxe albums turned from creative outlets into cash grabs?
To answer, it is imperative to take a step back and reconsider the importance of albums in the contemporary music industry. In recent history, the market has shifted to prioritize singles over meaningful albums in genres like pop and EDM, incentivizing mainstream artists to just mash potential smash hits together in an album without requiring any real cohesion. Though it can be argued that music has always centered around singles, emerging role that TikTok audios played in playlist construction for the average listener blew limited–exposure listening out of proportion. Today, mainstream music fans rarely listen to full albums.
This trend is apparent in the discourse about Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter winning the Grammy for Album of the Year over HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish. Many internet critics took to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, to viciously assert that Beyoncé did not deserve the award because of the album’s lack of streams and chart placement, implying that the success of an album depends more on virality than artistic creativity.
The commercialization of singles over albums oxymoronically places importance on deluxe releases. They’re the perfect way to package three or four singles guaranteed to receive attention (assuming the original project was successful) under the guise of an album. Besides the music itself, they're also an excuse for additional photoshoots, music videos, and performances—all elements of a release that have high virality potential on social media.
Even if deluxe albums exist in response to market forces, that's not to say there isn't the potential for genuine creativity. Consider the role of album titles, the more novel, the better. One example is Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition), a version of The Fame that included eight slightly unhinged tracks encapsulating a devilish theme. At the very least, it’s confirmation that there exists the potential for a creative relationship between the deluxe and standard.
Art is subjective, and there are few objective guidelines for rendering an album and its deluxe devoid of ingenuity, even if it may seem the lack of creativity is obvious. Ultimately, musicians can release whatever and whenever they want. There’s not much point in scrutinizing artists over their market–driven release schedules if quality music is continuously released, but it’s still disappointing to see overconsumption take its toll on album synthesis and production. What was once a way for artists to surprise fans and reinterpret their music is now another chance at producing the next TikTok–viral hit.
