The 2021 End Of Year music lists thread

^ might be the list that most approximates my own music taste so far. Plenty of great albums in there which I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere.

gvb's lists are always a highlight

Excellent number one pick from Gorilla Vs Bear.

First time he picks something from his label but it’s well deserved. It’s a great album.

https://thequietus.com/articles/30903-the-quietus-top-100-albums-of-2021-norman-records

That write-up was funny, from casual conversation with the girlfriend to manifesto for nuance.
Doing 100 shows dedication. Lots of things I haven't even heard about.

I’m sorry but the suggestion that there were 97 albums this year better than HEY WHAT is absurd.

Yeah, there were at least 150

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1054333297/the-50-best-albums-of-2021-page-5

(Went down to 20)

whoa, Jazmine Sullivan at #1

I didn't expect her to make too many lists since HT was called an EP

All of today's lists very on-brand

CBC's top Canadian classical albums:
https://www.cbc.ca/music/canada-s-top-21-classical-albums-of-2021-1.6261267

yeah ... not a great year for new albums, imo.

none of these would make my list (except Moctar, maybe), which isn't the point ... what bums me out is that i'm not exactly head over heels over my top 5-10, either, and i tend to be a glass-half-full person about this particular topic.

― alpine static, Tuesday, November 30, 2021 3:08 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

it was a great year for albums tho?

GVB list proves that it actually was a great year for new albums imho.

it was a great year for albums, i am not making a list until ilx requires it bc there were so many good albums

it was a great year for movies but... idk about that one

I can name ten albums off the top of my head that were excellent and easy contenders for aoty.

probably twenty even.

p4k only gave 30 albums BNM in 2021 instead of the usual 45 or so. make of that what you will.

We can scramble posts and posters and say the same about 2015, 2011, or even 2025.

I would agree that it feels like a down year, especially after last year with the two Sault albums, two Taylor albums, Punisher, Fetch the Bolt Cutters...

lmao

very much lmao

I'd rather have someone punch me in my colostomy than listen to Sault or Taylor Swift.

If you can't think of great albums that were released this year, that's on YOU, compadres.

I can’t wait for the EOY ILM TRACKS POLL where 10% of the poll will be songs from Red Taylor’s version, also the #1 album of 2021

I would agree that it feels like a down year, especially after last year with the two Sault albums, two Taylor albums, Punisher, Fetch the Bolt Cutters...

― Indexed, Wednesday, December 1, 2021 11:10 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

snail mail record from this year is better than punisher imo

Actively hating Sault is a pretty spicy opinion

let's see just from what i've bought this year

tinashe
arooj aftab
thy catafalque
snail mail
men i trust
carcass
vijay ayer
dawn richard
chvrches
every time i die
young thug
rochelle jordan
deafheaven
halsey
low
manchester orchestra
the world is a beautiful place & etc.
turnstile
godspeed
poppy
darkthrone
jane weaver
foxing
king woman
converge
wolf alice
mr twin sister
fiddlehead

all released excellent career-best records this year

I love two Inflo produced albums this year - Cleo Sol and Little Simz. It’s a good recompense for a bit of a down year from Sault.

i desperately need to hear that cleo sol record

I can’t wait for the EOY ILM TRACKS POLL where 10% of the poll will be songs from Red Taylor’s version, also the #1 album of 2021

The first part only happened last year due to a troll. Red won't be the #1 album. Yes, Taylor generates discussion here, many of us are fans, but (respectfully) I don't see the point in overstating her reception for the sake of complaint.

There is a ton of stuff that came out this year that I love. But if I had to predict, I am skeptical that 2021 will be well represented toward the top of the end of decade lists. Some years just feel like down years.

Very skeptical that Valentine will be as revered as Punisher in a few years' time. (I'm one of the 5 people who like both debuts better anyhow so trying to parse the zeitgeist is dumb, I know).

I'll have no trouble with albums or movies this year.

it won't be as revered but phoebe bridgers' popularity is also on a different scale

Things I bought this year that might make a year-end list:

Apartment House, John Cage Number Pieces 4CD
Asphyxiate, Altar of Decomposed
Biomorphic Engulfment, Incubation in the Parallel Dimension
BLK OPS, The Heroic Dose
Weedie Braimah, The Hands of Time
The Bug, Fire
Cadaveric Fumes, Dimensions Obscure
Cannibal Corpse, Violence Unimagined
Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few, Cosmic Transitions
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle
Fire, Defeat
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra, Promises
Muriel Grossmann, Union
Irreversible Entanglements, Open the Gates
Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble, Now
Madam Data, The Gospel of the Devourer
Madam Data, For Agnes Martin – Six Architectures in Light and Water
Mastodon, Hushed & Grim
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust
Jason Moran, The Sound Will Tell You
Replicant, Malignant Reality
Scorn, The Only Place
Slant, 1
Sons of Kemet, Black to the Future
Sunn O))), Metta, Benevolence
Cecil Taylor Ensemble, Göttingen
Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Enigma
Herbie Tsoaeli, At This Point in Time: Voices in Volumes

just finished that Sunn O))) this morning, it's fantastic. love the "Troubled Air" performance.

Cool to see the Wau Wau Collectif album at #50 on the GvB list, a personal favorite that I've had a hard time explaining to anyone else. Senegalese folk-dub-jazz-?? but that makes it sound difficult when it's actually super warm and surprisingly catchy

I'm slightly tempted to call this a down year for albums too, but it really depends on what genres you like, and I have a bunch of jazz to catch up on among other things

AOTY summary is helpful. Consensus so far is Floating Points by some margin.

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2021/

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, November 30, 2021 6:13 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Little Simz has overtaken it

Cool to see the Wau Wau Collectif album at #50 on the GvB list, a personal favorite that I've had a hard time explaining to anyone else. Senegalese folk-dub-jazz-?? but that makes it sound difficult when it's actually super warm and surprisingly catchy

this sounds great!

Luke Stewart- Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier Volumes 1 & 2
Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates
Peter Gregson- Patina
Kessler- Ambivalent EP
James Brandon Lewis Quartet- Code of Being
Skylark- Crossing Over
Patrick Shiroishi- Hidemi
Richard Skelton- Sutr
Matthew Liam Nicholson- Nine Movements
Fuubutsushi- Good Sky Day
Fuubutsushi- Natsukashii
Fuubutsushi- Yamawarau
Fuubutsushi- Setsubun
Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die LIVE
Jessica Ackerley and Daniel Carter- Friendship
Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective- Ngủ Ngày Ngay Ngày Tận Thế
Matt Evans- Touchless
Slikback- MELT
LNS & DJ Sotofett- Sputters
Msylma & Ismael- The Tenets of Forgetting
Crazy Doberman- Everyone is rolling down a hill...
Art School Girlfriend- Is It Light Where You Are
Eimar Reidy & Natalia Beylis- Whose Woods are These
Facta- Blush
Scotch Rolex- Tewari
Low- HEY WHAT
James Brandon Lewis- Jesup Wagon
Iglew- Light Armour EP
IOSONOUNCANE- IRA
Skee Mask- Pool
Chris Schlarb & Chad Taylor- Time No Changes
Illuvia- Iridescence of Clouds
Iu Takahashi- Late in Life
Luke Stewart/Patrick Shiroishi- split cass
Moon Reflecting- Non-GMO Rain Dance
Rachika Nayar- Our Hands Against the Dark
xLWBxDRx- prairie spells, a ribbon wove
Colin Webster- vs Amp
Anne Bourne- wave
Enzo Carniel & Filippo Vignato- Aria
Natural Information Society & Evan Parker- descension (Out of Our Constrictions)
Bored Lord- Lavirga EP
PUNKT.VRT.PLASTIK- Somit
Ahmed- Nights on Saturn (Communication)
ZULI- All Caps EP
Hafez Modirzadeh- Facets
Quin Kirchner- Live at Pro Musica

album of the year for me is the absolutely sublime wave, from Anne Bourne. https://annebourne.bandcamp.com/album/wave

so I mean maybe it was a bad year for "pop" music, but jazz, drone, ambient, and *weird stuff* were all really great imho.

I figured some people were holding off on new releases until touring was back in swing

also vinyl manufacturing delays etc.

nice list tables!

Yeah, there are a fair number of things on table's list that are candidates for mine as well, but I got them as promos and didn't have to buy them. Those Luke Stewart solo albums in particular are really cool.

gonna make a playlist for work from that list for sure

haven't had much time this year to look for new stuff myself, but i the three albums i kept coming back to were tirzah, nite jewel and suzanne kraft - all quite understated, off-ish, slightly emotionally drained-sounding pop albums, i guess

Anne Bourne the Toronto cellist? Didn't know she released something.