Travis Scott - Astroworld

Six Flags AstroWorld closed in 2005, and Travis Scott has never quite gotten over it. His third solo album, released in August 2018, is a sprawling tribute to the Houston amusement park of his childhood, and it is built like a ride: seventeen tracks lurching between psychedelic drift, trap menace, and stretches of pure sugar.

The guest list is enormous and mostly invisible, which is the point. Drake turns up for the beat switch on "Sicko Mode," still one of the strangest songs ever to become a genuine radio staple. Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, James Blake, Kid Cudi, Swae Lee, Gunna, 21 Savage, Quavo, and Tame Impala all pass through, but Scott keeps the album's voice his own. Production comes from Mike Dean, Hit-Boy, WondaGurl, Tay Keith, Frank Dukes, Sonny Digital, and Thundercat, layered thick enough that new details keep surfacing years later. "Stargazing" opens with a switch that doubles as a mission statement, while "Butterfly Effect," "Yosemite," and "Astrothunder" spread the record across moods rather than modes.

Astroworld debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album. It is the record that turned Scott from a well-connected craftsman into a headliner, and it still sounds like the most ambitious thing he has made.

Double vinyl pressing across four sides, on Cactus Jack, Epic, and Grand Hustle.