There was a time when buying an album meant buying the album. One tracklist, one cover, one sequence. If you wanted more from the artist, you waited for the next release.
In 2026, that's not quite how it works anymore!
This month alone, Madison Beer released a deluxe edition of Locket, My Chemical Romance announced a deluxe reissue of Danger Days, fifteen years on, and metal pioneers Sodom announced a vast reissue of Get What You Deserve, complete with remasters, remixes, and live recordings.
Different genres, different eras, different reasons for being… but all sharing something in common: they invite us to reconsider what we already thought we knew about an album.
It begs the question: when an album exists in two versions, or three, or sometimes more… which one is the album? Is it the original release, the version the artist first chose to share with the world? Is it the deluxe edition, with everything included? Or is it whichever version you found first, the one that you sang and danced to during the months that mattered?
And what do you think about deluxe albums in general? Are you a fan because, ultimately, more content is good content? Or did you prefer when what you bought and heard was what you got?
That's where you come in! We want to hear what you think about it. Are there deluxe editions you've come to love more than the originals they grew from? Maybe there's a deluxe drop you're particularly looking forward to, or one you wish had stayed as it was. What do you think of the Deluxe Album Era in general?
Make your case via this form and we'll be back next month to share what you said. Watch this space!
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Last month, we asked where you stand on the Deluxe Album Era: whether bonus tracks expand an album or sit just outside it, which version really counts as the album, and which deluxe drops you're loving. You answered, and you gave us plenty to chew on. Here's a round-up of what you said.
First up, Amelia G, a self-described "Swedish pop girlie" who grew up on a much wider spread than that, rock very much included. Amelia is firmly in the pro-deluxe camp, and a CD buyer who's in it for the music: she still picks up her favourites on disc but "honestly, I don't care about the covers/artworks," as long as she can press play on the songs she loves. Her overall verdict? "I'm always down to discover new music and there are many songs off deluxe albums I've ended up liking."
She did share one very relatable bump in the road. Amelia bought the deluxe of Djo's The Crux on CD expecting two discs, since streaming stacks the original and the new material as a two-disc set, only to find a single disc of (then-unfamiliar) new songs that sent her back to buy the original separately. As it turns out, she's spot on about what's going on. The Crux Deluxe is a full twelve-track companion of brand-new material (Joe Keery has said he doesn't even think of it as a reissue), so the physical release keeps those new tracks on their own while streaming bundles both halves together. Two formats, two ideas of what "deluxe" even means!
Amelia's love of discovery runs deep. As a Green Day fan from way back, she checked out the deluxe of their latest album, ended up with the new tracks on repeat, and happily paid a fair bit to own it on CD: "well, I deserve to treat myself sometimes lol." We won't argue with that!
Marcus kept it short and sweet, making the case for deluxe editions as pure upside. "It's like an 'extra free' addition to albums you love," he told us, pointing to Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city and Tyler, the Creator's Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale as two he's played more than the originals, thanks to added tracks he now finds almost indispensable. That's the deluxe edition doing what it does best: not replacing the album you fell for, but quietly becoming the version you reach for.
Arnobio is a fan of the principle, "having more content from an artist you like is always great," with one practical caveat. For him, the snag is organisational: because deluxe versions usually fold in the whole original album rather than just the new songs, your library can end up with two near-identical records side by side. It's a fair observation, and one Amelia's two-disc tale echoes. Less a complaint about the music than about where it all ends up. (And, as Djo shows, some artists do send the new material out on its own.)
Put it all together and the mood is overwhelmingly warm: more music from the artists you love is, by and large, very welcome, with the only real friction being less about the songs and more about how they're packaged and found. With Danger Days on the way in July, there's plenty more to come. Thank you to everyone who had their say. Watch this space!
