Music: Best Albums of 2021

[Thucydides]

Cool performance.

 

[plank]

Kiely Connell - Calumet Queen 11/12/2021

 

[tacogeoff]

Silk Sonic






This album is gonna win a lot of awards

easily the best album of the last few years for me.

 

[Thucydides]

I love this song.

 

[Thucydides]

Pitchfork top 50 albums . Glad to see Mdou Moctar in top 10 . some strange choices.

The 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

[Mikeaveli]

Pitchfork top 50 albums . Glad to see Mdou Moctar in top 10 . some strange choices.

The 50 Best Albums of 2021

I'm completely out of the loop with this year's music but I find it very hard to believe that Whole Lotta Red would be in the top 50 albums in any year let alone the top 10

 

[Thucydides]

I'm completely out of the loop with this year's music but I find it very hard to believe that Whole Lotta Red would be in the top 50 albums in any year let alone the top 10

It’s Pitchfork. I don’t take them as gospel, but I’ve discovered some great music through them.

wasn’t a big fan of that album either.

 

[Saturated Fats]

Yeah, that P4K list is definitely different from most of the other mainstream pubs. I haven't listened to the Jazmine Sullivan album in full, and I didn't really dig L'Rain - too chaotic and difficult to follow. Rest of the top-10 is good, though I didn't love Glow On as much as some people.

But yeah, as @Thucydides - the pub is still good for new music discovery, even if they've gotten a bit ornery with their ratings in recent years.

 

[Thucydides]

Last night Beach House released their latest instalment of songs from their new album due out in Feb. this one stood out for me .

 

[plank]

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Barn 12/10/21

 

[GKJ]

Pitchfork is a bunch of weirdos but at least some of their top 20 is in my top 10

 

[Hostile Offer]

That new Low album is amazing.

 

[Thucydides]

Pitchfork is a bunch of weirdos but at least some of their top 20 is in my top 10

what’s your top 10 ?

 

[GKJ]

what’s your top 10 ?

People have been asking.

Below is a list I submitted for the radio station I volunteer for (where I also presented a top 20 songs). I have to say the top 8 is what I feel strongest about:

1. CHVRCHES - Screen Violence
2. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
3. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore
4. Death from Above 1979 - Is 4 Lovers
5. TORRES - Thirstier
6. Snail Mail - Valentine
7. Art d'Ecco - In Standard Definition
8. The Joy Formidable - Into the Blue
9. Sleater-Kinney - Path of Wellness
10. Sleigh Bells - Texis

Special shout-out to Ali Barter and her Chocolate Cake EP.

I wish it were like it was back when I did a whole write up for a top 50 that I posted which was more fun for me and my musical discovery, but no longer have the capacity for.

 

[Thucydides]

People have been asking.

Below is a list I submitted for the radio station I volunteer for (where I also presented a top 20 songs). I have to say the top 8 is what I feel strongest about:

1. CHVRCHES - Screen Violence
2. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
3. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore
4. Death from Above 1979 - Is 4 Lovers
5. TORRES - Thirstier
6. Snail Mail - Valentine
7. Art d'Ecco - In Standard Definition
8. The Joy Formidable - Into the Blue
9. Sleater-Kinney - Path of Wellness
10. Sleigh Bells - Texis

Special shout-out to Ali Barter and her Chocolate Cake EP.

I wish it were like it was back when I did a whole write up for a top 50 that I posted which was more fun for me and my musical discovery, but no longer have the capacity for.

nice list. I’ll have to give that chvrches album a listen now.

 

[GKJ]

nice list. I’ll have to give that chvrches album a listen now.

I had worried, for liking it so much, about becoming one of those superfans who just decides every time they release something that whatever they do is gonna be great after over 25 years just eat up anything they put out and preconvince themselves that it can only be great since they understand it, but I’ve seen too much acclaim for the album and band, and they kind of drifted back from making songs for radio like they did on their last album

 

[Thucydides]

I had worried, for liking it so much, about becoming one of those superfans who just decides every time they release something that whatever they do is gonna be great after over 25 years just eat up anything they put out and preconvince themselves that it can only be great since they understand it, but I’ve seen too much acclaim for the album and band, and they kind of drifted back from making songs for radio like they did on their last album

Haha, I feel that way about the war on drugs . I’ll give it a listen this week-end .

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Haha, I feel that way about the war on drugs . I’ll give it a listen this week-end .

Pretty much just came here to say this, they’re fantastic.

I’ll work my way through the pitchfork list slowly- I use it to find stuff outta my normal tastes, but I’m not sure I’ll ever understand playboi carti.

 

[Cas]

My ten best metal albums of 2021:

1. Panopticon - …And Again Into the Light
2. Dvne - Etemen Ænka
3. Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst
4. Haunt - Beautiful Distraction
5. Khemmis - Deceiver
6. Thy Catafalque - Vadak
7. Noltem - Illusions in the Wake
8. Imperialist - Zenith
9. Wolves in the Throne Room - Primordial Arcana
10. The Ruins of Beverast - The Thule Grimoires

Others I thought worthy:

Alsa - A Distant Fire
Aquilus - Belum I
Crescent - Carving the Fires of Akhet
Darkthrone - Eternal Hails...
Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion
Helloween - Helloween
Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm
Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime
The Temple - The Temple
Unto Others - Strength
Worm - Foreverglade

I'm sure I'll keep finding more.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I'll do a top 5 as I didn't listen to enough 2021 albums, less than 40. Nor did I think there were enough good albums for a top 10:

1. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg (debut)

2. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

3. Iceage - Seek Shelter

4. The Joy Formidable - Into The Blue

5. Failure - Wild Type Droid

 

[Sentinel]

I haven't compiled my "best of 2021," but this song is f***ing EPIC:

 

[Elvis P]

... Nor did I think there were enough good albums for a top 10: ...

Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg

Playboi Carti: Whole Lotta Red

Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victime

The Weather Station: Ignorance

Turnstile: Glow On

Low: HEY WHAT

Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / The London Symphony Orchestra: Promises

Tyler, the Creator: Call Me If You Get Lost

L’Rain: Fatigue

10. Jazmine Sullivan: Heaux Tales

 

[Bixby Snyder]

My list is mostly metal because that's what I mostly listen to and Bill Gibbons cause it's Billy F'n Gibbons and probably the only good non metal album I listened to.

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
Cannibal Corpse - Violence Unimagined
Carcass - Torn Arteries
Billy F. Gibbons - Hardware
Enforced - Kill Grid
Exodus - Persona Non Grata
Between the Buried and Me - Colors II
Green Lung - Black Harvest
Darkthrone - Eternal Hails

HM
Jinjer - Wallflowers
1914 - Where Fear and Weapons Meet
Frozen Soul - Crypt of Ice
Archspire - Bleed the Future
Asphyx - Necroceros

 

[Roo Returns]

My ten best metal albums of 2021:
Unto Others - Strength

I love these guys. They also put out a Halloween EP. Saw them a few weeks back in NY, a very good show. I love the thrash meets goth meets post punk.

My top five:

1. Turnstile - Glow On
2. Unto Others - Strength
3. Nopes - Djork
4 Xenia Rubinos - Una Rosa
5. Kowloon Walled City - Piecework

Honorable mentions go to new releases from LLNN, St. Vincent, Converge w/Chelsea Wolf and Stephen Brodsky, Mogwai, Gojira.

 

[Ceremony]

Artists from that Pitchfork list I have heard of: The War on Drugs, Adele, Olivia Rodrigo, Japanese Breakfast, Tyler the Creator
Music from those artists I have knowingly heard: Adele, Olivia Rodrigo (I looked up that one song that was apparently like Misery Business by Paramore - it isn't)

I realise Pitchfork is an American-based site but I don't know what to say