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***2025 ALBUM OF THE YEAR***
#1 | De La Soul | Cabin In The Sky
Mass Appeal
“Cabin In The Sky is a rather long album, clocking in at 71 minutes. But that runtime feels right for a De La Soul project. In this era when many releases are less than a half-hour long, I’m happy that De La released an album that would nearly fill up a CD. Besides, the group has a lot to say on their first album in almost a decade. It’s as imaginative and creative as the best albums in their discography.
Almost a decade ago, when reviewing De La’s …and the Anonymous Nobody (2016), I wrote that the album “doesn’t sound like any other De La album, but it is an unmistakably De La album in every way possible” and that it “embodies the depth and maturity in spirit that De La fans are accustomed to.” Cabin In The Sky very much fits this same description. It appears that Pos and Maseo aren’t planning for this to be the final De La album; they still hope to release the third installment of the AOI trilogy. But as they’re committed to building the legacy of Dave and the group, Cabin In The Sky suggests that the future will hold many more incredible things.” [Read Jesse Ducker’s full review here]
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