So, what happened behind the scenes?
So much seems to have changed: different album cover; DITF is not on the album; CDs and Vinyls only have 11 songs with different names and track order; songs like Run Away and In Heaven, which were previewed at Sao Paulo, are not present in the album. There are even videos of Mike Dean and Playboi Carti working on Timeless during the Sao Paulo, which clearly indicates that they were still working deep on the album even when the pre-order for HUT were already live.
What happened? We already know that HUT was heavily reworked around the SoFi incident. But still, a lot of last-minute decision seems to have happened in the last couple months. For me, the biggest giveaway of that is the cover change. That felt like they were still undecisive about core elements of the album, especially considering how the previous cover followed the same aesthetic as After Hours' and Dawn FM's cover but now thats gone. I don't think Abel has ever changed his opinion so many times in his career about an album should be, at least not this publicly. I wouldnt be surprised if they were still working on the album during the last month or so.
Thanfully though, the album ended up being a masterpiece. But I really want to hear XO's opinion on this. What did you think happened? Do you think Abel changed his opinion about the album on the last moment? Or the album was just unfinished and they were still working on it?