THE 2021 EXPERIENCE
Long sigh … we made it. Sort of, kind of. The Covid era, which completely derailed live music and
other things for the better part of two years, isn’t over. In fact, as of the holiday season 2021, it seems
to be back, baby. The year started out with the death of one of my most beloved musical heroes, the
electronic artist SOPHIE meeting an untimely demise – a tragedy that never would have happened if the
pandemic had not utterly altered all of our futures.
But even in the depths of the pandemic, artists never stopped releasing new music. In the past year
especially, we’ve seen a tidal surge of new records, and many of those new records are truly great.
There’s no central theme to our list of the year’s best albums, but I hope you’ll find a few new things on
it that you might enjoy.
As always, our annual shout-out to the queer, trans and nonbinary folks who released music this year,
especially Arca, Ashnikko, Backxwash, Julian Baker, Courtney Barnett, Mykki Blanco, Brockhampton,
Cakes Da Killa, Claud, Eartheater, Jenny Hval, Jonsi, JPEGMAFIA, Kaytranada, Lil Nas X, Lotic, Octo Octa,
Arlo Parks, Perfume Genius, Kim Petras, Lyra Pramuk, Rina Sawayama, serpentwithfeet, Shygirl, Troye
Sivane, SOPHIE, Sufjan Stevens, Tyler, the Creator, Remi Wolf, Years and Years, Yves Tumor, and on and
on forever.
Namaste to all the queerness and gender-fluidity in music that’s often invisible as well, and here’s to
setting aside the fear, grief and despair of the last few years for something more hopeful in 2022
FAV LPs of 2021
30
James Blake : Friends Who Break Your Heart
Best songs : “Coming Back” (feat. SZA)” / “Say What You Will”
RIYL : Moses Sumney, Bon Iver, Bruce Hornsby, alt r&b, art pop, ambient pop, UK bass, trap
Companion LP: Moses Sumney : Live From Blacklachia
Best moment : The sustained vocal at the end of “Say What You Will” that seems to stretch forever into the horizon.
29
St. Vincent : Daddy’s Home
Best songs : “Live in the Dream” / “The Melting of the Sun”
RIYL : Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, 1973 New York City, David Byrne, Mitski, Feist
Companion LP: Angel Olsen : Aisles
Best moment : The visual of her lyrics on ““Pay Your Way in Pain”; when she sings “I went to the park just to watch the little children/ The mothers saw my heels and they said I wasn’t welcome” – one among many songs where she rejects the burden of motherhood for another form of liberation
28
Deafheaven : Infinite Granite
Best songs : “Shellstar” / “Lament for Wasps”
RIYL : blackgaze, post-metal, Slowdive, Ride, Alcest, Suede, Stone Roses
Companion Album : Dream Unending : Tide Turns Eternal
Best moment : “Mombasa” concluding the album at the apex of a blast beat driven black metal section akin to their ubiquitous 2013 album, Sunbather, which feels like a full circle moment
27
Lana Del Rey : Chemtrails Over the Country Club
Best songs : “Dark But Just a Game” / “Yosemite”
RIYL Weyes Blood, elegant doom, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter
Companion LP: Lana Del Rey : Blue Banisters
Best moment : Sorry Lana, but my favourite moment comes when Weyes Blood aka Natalie Mering’s deep velvety voice comes in on her, Lana, and Zella Day’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free” – they gave her the best line of the whole song: “Nobody stopped to hеar him/ Though he played so sweet and high/ They knew he had never been on the TV/ So they passed his music by”
26
Halsey : If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
Best songs : “You Asked For This” / “I am not a woman, I’m a god”
RIYL : Lorde, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, “alternative” back when the word used to mean… something
Companion LP: Doja Cat : Planet Her
Best moment : Hearing about Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails collaborating with Halsey was a moment in itself, but on “I am not a woman, I’m a god” Trent and Atticus Ross deliver their late-career coldest: an implacable sequence line, a metronomic beat, and a prickly synth riff over which Halsey vocalizes like they’re trying to outrun the thing they’re singing about, until the final chorus: a desperate belt with an abrupt end – please give us a sequel
25
Godspeed You! Black Emperor : G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!
Best songs : “OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (For D.H.)” / “ROCKETS FOR MARY”
RIYL : A Silver Mt. Zion, Do Make Say Think, Swans, Mono, Mogwai, pretending you hate capitalism but becoming a shitty landlord in Montreal anyway
Companion LP: Mogwai – As The Love Continues
Best moment : The radiant third piece’s finale of “GOVERNMENT CAME”; titled “Ashes to Sea or Nearer to Thee” that’s one of the most triumphant rock n roll moments of the year, full of optimistim and sounding like beating back the odds of the Covid era destroying your soul
24
Darkside : Spiral
Best Songs : “Lawmaker” / “Liberty Bell”
RIYL : Nicolas Jaar, Can, Pink Floyd, Rival Consoles, Jon Hopkins, Helado Negro, Pantha du Prince, space-rock, psych-rock, jazz
Companion LP: Jonny Greenwood : Spencer OST
Best moment : The brooding ‘Lawmaker’ where Nicolas Jaar sings of blind, mass submission to a miracle-giver: “He’s wearing a doctor’s coat / But in his hand is the ring of a lawmaker” over seductive drones, earthy percussion and peppy guitars – a beautifully disconcerting moment
23
Billie Eilish : Happier Than Ever
Best Songs : “Oxytocin” / “NDA”
RIYL : Taylor Swift, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, FINNEAS, James Blake, Madison Beer, Willow, Troye Sivane, ambient pop
Companion LP: Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
Best moment : Duh. The climax of the title-track where Billie submits to rage and cranks the volume, summoning a torrent of fried guitar and muffled screams as she reams out an ex; “I don’t talk shit about you on the internet,” she wails, before proceeding to talk a whole lot of shit.
22
Madlib : Sound Ancestors
Best Songs : “Road of the Lonely Ones” / “Theme De Crabtree”
RIYL : instrumental hip hop, jazz rap, boom bap, spiritual sampling, Four Tet, J Dilla,
Companion LP: Clams Casino : Winter Flower
Best moment : Madlib’s brilliant technique on “Road of the Lonely Ones” resurrecting a mournful hook from the obscure late-1960s Philly soul group the Ethics, brightening their lost-love lament with a skittering drum break. The track’s hazy melancholy plays eerily like a tribute to MF DOOM, though Madlib created it before he learned of his friend and collaborator’s untimely death
21
Smerz : Believer
Best Songs : “Glassbord” / “Remember (bonus track)”
RIYL : art pop, electronic, modern classical, UK bass, Norwegian, Eartheater, Kelela, Loraine James, Cecile Believe, Jessy Lanza, Arca, Bjork
Companion LP: Sega Bodega – Romeo
Best moment : Norwegian songwriters Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg’s cold, creeping title track “Believer” layers their vulnerable, detached vocals over rattling polyrhythms – beguiling enough to lure you through each disorienting curve
20
Iceage : Seek Shelter
Best Songs : “Shelter Song” / “The Holding Hand”
RIYL : post-punk, art punk, sleazy blues-rock, Spiritualized, The Rolling Stones on heroin, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Deerhunter, blood-letting
Companion LP : Nick Cave & Warren Ellis : Carnage
Best moment : The album-opener “Shelter Song”s wearily triumphant build over jagged riffs; when Lisboa Gospel Collective bolsters vocalist Elias Bender Rønnenfelt’s gravelly tones as he sings of getting kicked and knocked down, the band swells in commiseration – who knew punk rock could be this gorge?
19
Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés: Clamor
Best moment : When experimentation reaches its apex in “Cant de la Sibil·la,” a sensational meeting point of musical tradition and technological thrust, where Holly Herndon’s “AI baby” Spawn the combined voices of Arnal and Catalan folk duo Tarta Relena in an incredible hymn that has to be heard to be believed
Best Songs : “Milagro” / “Jaque (ft. Kronos Quartet)”
RIYL : art pop, glitch, avant-folk, IDM, Rosalia, Arca, Holly Herndon, flamenco, reggaeton,
Companion LP: Circuit des Yeux – io
18
Space Afrika : Honest Labour
Best Songs : “Girl Scout Cookies” (feat. Bianca Scout)” / “Lose You Beau”
RIYL : sound collage, ambient, ambient dub, techno, UK garage, Burial, Autechre, Massive Attack
Companion LP: Andy Stott – Never the Right Time
Best moment : The first half of “Girl Scout Cookies”’s drifting ambient pop that floats on Bianca Scout’s voice, which is somehow as light and sharp as Elizabeth Fraser’s, and a disappearing synthesized glissando, singing about how she’s “run out of chances,” ending the song by repeating the words, “For the last time” – dream pop with an industrial underbelly
17
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine : A Beginner’s Mind
RIYL : indie folk, chamber-pop, Elliott Smith, Fleet Foxes, Joanna Newsom, singer-songwriter
Best Songs : “Back to Oz” / “Reach Out”
Companion LP: Richard Dawson & Circle – Henki
Best moment : The moment you realise the dark, gorgeousness of “Pillar of Souls” was inspired by the 1992 horror movie Hellraiser 3, reverberating with the haunting melancholy of 2015’s Carrie & Lowell, but with lyrics like “Cenobite seized within the throes / To be released from the Pillar of Souls” – pretty fucking great
16
Lost Girls : Menneskekollektivet
Best songs : “Real Life” / “Losing Something”
RIYL : art pop, synth pop, spoken word, ambient trance, Jenny Hval, Julia Holter, Susanne Sundfor, Eartheater
Companion LP: Perfume Genius – IMMEDIATELY Remixes
Best moment : When Jenny Hval sums up the importance of music in the pandemic era on “Carried by Invisible Bodies,” her voice inquisitive, as if she were looking for her words in the air, “All this is, what, I guess, the only story being told about reality that really works is right now/ We are given all these body parts, the responsibility of them/ You know, your face, your mouth, the nose that you use/ …The narrative is don’t touch them/ So maybe I am here then to allow myself to touch them”
15
Loraine James : Reflection
Best songs : “On the Lake Outside (feat. Baths)” / “Running Like That (feat. Eden Samara)”
RIYL : IDM, Autechre, future pop, Laurel Halo, Kelela, SOPHIE, Space Afrika, Skee Mask
Companion LP: Jessy Lanza – DJ Kicks
Best moment : Any time #LoraineJames breaks the fourth wall; like on “Leaving the Club Early”; “I know you may not like this one/ So press the skip button/ But it’s just fun, you know, it’s just fun… Hate the music that I’m playing/That is why you’re not staying/That is why there’s no dancing”
14
L’Rain : Fatigue
Best songs : “Find It” / “Blame Me”
RIYL : neo-soul, jazz, psych pop, sound collage, Kelsey Lu, Spellling, Anohni, Kelela, gospel
Companion LP: Spirit of the Beehive – Entertainment Death
Best moment : The gorgeous heartfelt guitar and vocal interplay on “Blame Me”; “You were wasting away, my god. I’m making my way down south” that feels like you’re falling backwards into a chasm with your hand on your forehead swooning so hard you can’t stop falling slowly into the abyss
13
Rochelle Jordan : Play With the Changes
Best songs : “All Along” / “Love U Good”
RIYL : new jack swing, club pop, UK Garage, deep house, Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Machinedrum, Jimmy Edgar
Companion LP: Dawn Richard – Second Line
Best moment : Toronto-centric shout-outs such as the one on “Already”; “Now you say you wanna meet up/ On Bloor street to talk/ Talk about regrets and shit, how you really had a bad bitch” over lush, dynamic club with swooping acrobatic vocals – so proud that she’s from my hometown
12
Erika de Casier : Sensational
Best songs : “Busy” / “Friendly”
RIYL : Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Sade, Toni Braxton, Destiny’s Child, TLC, feminism, make-out jams, quiet storm, alt r&b, triphop, downtempo, bedroompop
Companion LP: Tinashe – 333 (this gem needs a vinyl press ASAP)
Best moment : On “All You Talk About,” she says you can’t buy her love, but admits that she loves diamonds anyways. Then she croons, “I’m sorry about it / my room ain’t as tidy as I wanted,” adding a whisper in the left channel, “I like to keep it really tidy,” where she sounds like she’s trying to stifle a laugh
11
Grouper : Shade
Best songs : “The Way Her Hair Falls” / “Kelso (Blue Sky)”
RIYL 📝 : spectral folk, ghost folk, ambient, Vashti Bunyan, Twin Peaks, Mount Eerie, Jessica Pratt, Marissa Nadler
Companion LP: Marissa Nadler – The Path of the Clouds
Best moment : Listening to this in the bath on Christmas Day. On “Ode To The Blue” with Liz Harris’s voice lower yet emotionally clearer than she’s gone before. Time stops still and you feel the pull of fingers drag across steel strings and cedar fretboards as another enchanted fairytale gets written
10
Arca : KICK iii
Best songs :
ii: “Luna llena” / “Muñecas”
iii : “Joya” / “Señorita”
iiii : “Paw” / “Queer” (ft @planningtorock)
iiiii : “Sanctuary” (ft. @ryuichisakamoto.g) / “Fireprayer”
RIYL : SOPHIE, Autechre, Oneohtrix Point Never, Bjork, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Rosalia, Planningtorock, reggaeton, transformation, playful sex, deconstructed club, electronic, art pop, IDM, glitch, ambient
Companion LPs : KICK ii / iii / iiii / iiiii
Best moment : When Alejandra Ghersi pulls a Missy Elliott on “Señorita” and hawks a loogie “Phlegm spit in your open hole before I cum in it” – mother’s got bars! XL Records have said there’s no immediate plans for a vinyl release but until then we have these stunning universes to lose ourselves in
09
Tirzah : Colourgrade
Best songs : “Send Me” / “Tectonic”
RIYL : #thexx, #fkaTwigs, #JaiPaul, #ArthurRussell, #JessieWare, #MassiveAttack, #MicaLevi, #CobySey, #triphop, #ambientpop, #neosoul, glitch
Companion LP: Dean Blunt : Black Metal 2
Best moment : The subtle funk on “Tectonic” – with its steamy undertones and almost telepathic intimacy it feels disarming, almost voyeuristic, with an ASMR-tingling vocal delivery
08
The Weather Station : Ignorance
RIYL : Big Thief, Helena Deland, Waxahatchee, Angel Olsen, Laura Marling, Cowboy Junkies, U.S. Girls, Sharon Van Etten,
Best songs : “Atlantic” / “Loss”
Companion LP: Dorothea Paas : Anything Can’t Happen
Best moment : On “Robber” when Toronto artist Tamara Lindeman sketches out a villain – before lifting the veil on larger forces at work “No, the robber don’t hate you, he had permission/ Permission by words, permission of thanks/ Permission by laws, permission of banks/ White table cloth dinners, convention centers/ It was all done real carefully.” Can you blame yourself for ruthlessness if you were never given a choice?
07
Japanese Breakfast : Jubilee
RIYL : indie-pop, synth shoegaze, dream pop, Angel Olsen, Snail Mail, Beach House, Mitski, Alvvays, Soccer Mommy, Wilco
Best songs : “Posing in Bondage” / “Be Sweet”
Companion LP: HTRK – Rhinestones
Best moment : Michelle Zauner teaming up with Jack Tatum (of Wild Nothing) for a song desperate for a warm blanket of trust and affection – that sick slinking bassline, those atmospheric ’80s R&B guitar stabs, Michelle’s wholehearted commitment to the kind of vocal performance and hook you’d expect from Cyndi Lauper or Stacey Q – specifically the payoff of the chorus sounds euphoric
06
Spellling : The Turning Wheel
RIYL : Kate Bush, Minnie Riperton, Radiohead, Prince, Stevie Wonder, L’Rain, Weyes Blood, Julia Holter, art pop, experimental pop
Select gems : “Boys at School” / “The Future”
Companion LP: Nite Jewel – No Sun
Best moment : On opener “Little Deer” Chrystia Cabral sounding like Kate Bush fronting Radiohead over the baroque fairytales of a dozen musicians—brass, strings, woodwinds, conga, a choir – and specifically the ease in which she says the line; “Little deer/ Your eyes are wide/ Your heart has claimed no sin, no shame, no rage, no name to write above your holy grip, my angel” – a truly majestic entry into one of the most fantastical art pop records of the year
05
Skee Mask : Pool
Best moment : On “Collapse Casual,” a trip into ’70s funk via a fucking a sample of Scooby Doo’s bark (!) flipping into a bruising drum’n’bass roller, sounding like vintage Aphex Twin being ground beneath a rusty stylus.
Best songs : “Testo BC Mashup” / “CZ3000 Dub”
RIYL : Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre, arctic breakbeat, ambient dub techno, IDM, atmospheric, drum’n’bass
Companion LP: DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ – The Makin’ Magick II Album
04
Little Simz : Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Best songs : “Woman” (feat. Cleo Sol) / “Protect My Energy”
RIYL : UK hip hop , conscious hip hop, neo-soul, jazz rap, Kanye West’s MBDTF, Injury Reserve, Tyler, the Creator, Isaiah Rashad, Tkay Maidza, JPEGMAFIA, Vince Staples, Obongjayer
Companion LP: Injury Reserve – By the Time We Get to Phoenix
Best moment : The song “Introvert” sounding like like theme music for a champion boxer jogging into the ring except the match is taking place at a cathedral over the sounds of church horns and bells. Simz vigilantly defends her title “I see sinners in a church, I see sinners in a church” embracing being a loner and continues throwing blows, even if it means bad manners in the house of the Lord
03
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra : Promises
Best moment : As “Movement 3” bleeds into “Movement 4,” Pharoah Sanders setting his sax aside for wordless vocalizations – small flutters of syllables closely into the microphone – his naked voice is disarmingly intimate and incredibly moving
RIYL : astral jazz, spiritual jazz, lush ambient, post-minimalism, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Floating Points, Flying Lotus, Steve Reid, zen, meditation, ethereal hymns
Best songs : Just listen to all the “movements” – the whole damn album : )
Companion LP: Nala Sinephro : Space 1.8
02
Low : HEY WHAT
Best songs : “All Night” / “Hey”
RIYL : ambient noise pop, post-industrial, slowcore, Bon Iver, David Bowie’s Blackstar, Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool
Companion LP : Jonsi – Obsidian
Best Moment : On “Days Like These” when Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker describe a vast and subtle longing for a kind of transcendence not found on Earth. “Know that I would do anything,” they cry, their fried-out vocals taking on the call-and-response pattern of a hymn. But in this strange, desaturated grief, there’s no action to take. Even the song doesn’t end, really; it just stretches out, twinkling in the distance
01
Magdalena Bay : Mercurial World
Best songs : “Chaeri” / “You Lose!”
RIYL : synth pop, dance-pop, prog pop, ethereal wave, Grimes, Carly Rae Jepsen, Dua Lipa, PC Music, Caroline Polachek, M83, Charli XCX
Companion EP : Doss : 4 New Hit Songs
Best moment : So many examples because this Miami duo basically took all my favourite pop music influences and melded them into one: the enveloping chorus of “Domino” and the off-kilter beats behind “Dreamcatching” recalling Grimes’ K-pop-inspired Art Angels and her ethereal Pixie Stix high. The cordial sweetness of “The Beginning” serving up Kero Kero Bonito’s bubblegum positivity and the subtle darkness it conceals. There’s Dua Lipa and Carly Rae Jepsen in the baroque sweep of strings and piano covering “Hysterical Us” and “Prophecy”. When the duo gets anthemic, as on “You Lose!” and the bombastic end of “Chaeri”, there’s a little bit of M83 that creeps in. And of course, there’s Charli XCX‘s disparate explorations of pop’s hallmarks, specifically her emotive futurism and how i’m feeling now’s candid take on hyperpop. An unreal debut.
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