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JPEGMAFIA

SZA performs at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2024, teasing the insect imagery that would appear some months later on LANA, a supersized reissue of her landmark album SOS.

SZA performs at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2024, teasing the insect imagery that would appear some months later on LANA, a supersized reissue of her landmark album SOS. Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images hide caption

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Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images

Music Features

Can a deluxe album ever improve on the original?

Streaming has turned the once-rare deluxe edition into a given for pop albums. Many feel clunky or inessential — but a few artists have found ways to take the format high-concept.

Nala Sinephro's Endlessness — produced, arranged and engineered by the English harpist — arrived in 2024 without the usual narrative baggage of new releases, forcing listeners to uncover its secrets on their own.

Nala Sinephro's Endlessness — produced, arranged and engineered by the English harpist — arrived in 2024 lacking any narrative baggage, forcing listeners to uncover its secrets on their own. Tofjan/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Tofjan/Courtesy of the artist

Best Music of 2024

Sheldon Pearce's favorite albums of 2024

For NPR Music's hip-hop and R&B editor, no list could capture an accurate picture of the year, yet there's still value in calling out the albums that felt unignorable.

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown are here to blow up your function

Rappers Danny Brown (left) and JPEGMAFIA embrace their abrasive sides on Scaring the Hoes, a joyously chaotic collaboration glued together by JPEG's collage-like production. Carlo Cavaluzzi/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Carlo Cavaluzzi/Courtesy of the artist

Review

Music Reviews

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown are here to blow up your function

The joyously chaotic rap team-up Scaring the Hoes is less Watch the Throne and more Wedding Crashers: a pair of motormouthed eccentrics running wild trick plays and daring you to stick around.

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