The Edit

Album reviews and features from our editorial team. Honest criticism, deep dives, and the records that matter.

All Ash Young Bishop Taylor Joe Morrison
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Come as You Are
8.3
Must Listen

Come as You Are

Kenyon Dixon & Terrace Martin
A warm, generational R&B-jazz statement from Crenshaw that envisions the future of soul music as a family affair.
Ash Young · Progressive R&B/Jazz · 2025
hooke's law
8.5
Must Listen

hooke's law

KeiyaA
A feverish, volatile sophomore album that folds club music into a story of grief — dense, devastating, and utterly singular.
Ash Young · Experimental R&B · 2025
Alligator Bites Never Heal
9.0
Must Listen

Alligator Bites Never Heal

Doechii
Nineteen tracks of fearless genre-hopping from Tampa's most exciting rapper — the Grammy for Best Rap Album was just the confirmation.
Ash Young · Hip-Hop · 2024
Baduizm
8.6
Must Listen

Baduizm

Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu announced herself as the high priestess of neo-soul with a debut that made consciousness sound effortlessly cool.
Ash Young · Neo-Soul · 1997
Cosmogramma
8.4
Must Listen

Cosmogramma

Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus smashed jazz, electronic music, and hip-hop into a particle accelerator and the resulting explosion changed beat music forever.
Ash Young · Electronic/Jazz · 2010
James Blake
7.7

James Blake

James Blake
James Blake built cathedrals of silence and proved that the space between sounds can be as powerful as the sounds themselves.
Ash Young · Post-Dubstep · 2011
Ctrl
7.9

Ctrl

SZA
SZA turned insecurity into an art form on a debut that is messy, honest, and completely irresistible.
Ash Young · R&B · 2017
The Low End Theory
9.2
Must Listen

The Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest
Q-Tip and Phife Dawg stripped hip-hop down to bass, drums, and jazz samples and accidentally created the genre's most influential production blueprint.
Ash Young · Jazz Rap · 1991
Mezzanine
8.9
Must Listen

Mezzanine

Massive Attack
Massive Attack turned paranoia and dread into the most cinematic electronic album of the nineties.
Ash Young · Trip-Hop · 1998
Untrue
9.0
Must Listen

Untrue

Burial
The most evocative electronic album of the century sounds like 3AM in a city that is beautiful and broken in equal measure.
Ash Young · Dubstep · 2007
Donuts
9.4
Must Listen

Donuts

J Dilla
Made on a hospital bed in the final days of his life, J Dilla's last album is a defiant, joyous masterwork that redefined what beats could be.
Ash Young · Instrumental Hip-Hop · 2006
Malibu
8.1
Must Listen

Malibu

Anderson .Paak
Anderson .Paak proved he could sing, rap, drum, and produce with equal facility on a sun-soaked debut that refuses to sit still.
Ash Young · Hip-Hop/Soul · 2016
A Seat at the Table
8.3
Must Listen

A Seat at the Table

Solange
Solange crafted a meditation on Black womanhood so precise and so warm it redefines what a protest album can sound like.
Ash Young · R&B · 2016
Voodoo
9.1
Must Listen

Voodoo

D'Angelo
D'Angelo, Questlove, and Pino Palladino created the most organic-sounding album of the digital age by playing so far behind the beat it redefined groove itself.
Ash Young · Neo-Soul · 2000
Music Has the Right to Children
8.7
Must Listen

Music Has the Right to Children

Boards of Canada
The most beautiful electronic album ever made sounds like childhood memories dissolving in warm static.
Ash Young · IDM · 1998
Mm..Food
8.5
Must Listen

Mm..Food

MF DOOM
The masked villain turned food into the most elaborate extended metaphor in hip-hop, served over beats chopped from the strangest corners of the crate.
Ash Young · Abstract Hip-Hop · 2004
Aquemini
9.0
Must Listen

Aquemini

OutKast
André 3000 and Big Boi fused Southern bounce, psychedelia, and live instrumentation into hip-hop's most adventurous double act.
Ash Young · Southern Hip-Hop · 1998
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
9.3
Must Listen

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin
Richard D. James built cathedrals out of synthesizers in his bedroom and accidentally invented the future of electronic music.
Ash Young · Ambient Techno · 1992
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
9.5
Must Listen

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West
Kanye retreated to Hawaii, gathered the best producers on earth, and built a monument to excess that doubles as a confession.
Ash Young · Hip-Hop · 2010
IGOR
8.8
Must Listen

IGOR

Tyler, the Creator
Tyler ditched the shock tactics and made a heartbreak album so bold it redefined what a rap record could be.
Ash Young · Neo-Soul/Synth Pop · 2019
Discovery
9.2
Must Listen

Discovery

Daft Punk
Two robots from Paris proved that dance music could be joyful, nostalgic, and emotionally devastating all at once.
Ash Young · French House · 2001
Blonde
9.6
Must Listen

Blonde

Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean dismantled every expectation and built something so intimate it feels like reading someone else's diary.
Ash Young · R&B/Art Pop · 2016
To Pimp a Butterfly
9.9
Must Listen

To Pimp a Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar
The most important hip-hop album of the century fuses jazz, funk, and spoken word into a searing state-of-the-nation address.
Ash Young · Hip-Hop/Jazz Rap · 2015