The 2021 End Of Year music lists thread

"idol"

TIME 10 BEST SONGS

https://time.com/6125601/best-songs-2021/

Farruko - "Pepas"
Wizkid - "Essence"
Taylor Swift - "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)"
Lucy Dacus - "VBS"
YOASOBI - "怪物"
City Girls - "Twerkulator"
Olivia Rodrigo - "good 4 u"
El Alfa, Chael Produciendo, CJ - "La Mamá de la Mamá"
Morgan Wade - "Wilder Days"
Doja Cat - "Woman"

That's one hideous mash-up. Reminds me of those bands doing ridiculous pop pastiche for people to make fun of, except BTS sound serious.

Pretty diverse list

Was the song a near carbon copy of Paramore’s “Misery Business”? Sure.

goddammit, stop with this; It’s been very effectively debunked (retroactive credit not withstanding)

The Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / LSO album is very deserving of all the mentions it’s getting, I don’t care if there’s 500 other “jazz” albums that are better than this one in 2021 or complaints that this is the token jazz album everybody is picking. Both artists are legends on their own and it’s beautiful piece they have created together in here.

eh

that is maybe my favorite album this year

the Dry Cleaning album is nice

have also been enjoying still slipping vol. 1

This is my Top 20 as it stands right now, still subject to change as I hear more stuff

1. Natural Information Society With Evan Parker - Descension (Out Of Our Constrictions)
2. John Zorn - Bagatelles Vol. 1-4
3. Low - Hey What
4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – At State's End
5. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
6. Keith Rowe - Absence
7. Vanessa Rossetto - The Tower (The City) (w/ Lionel Marchetti) / Legends of the American Theater cassette / A Stem of Woodapple with Fruits / What Is Your Middle Class American Problem? 7"
8. Charmaine Lee - KNVF
9. Rhododendron – Protozoan Battle Hymns
10. Clara Ionnotta - Moult
11. Upper Wilds - Venus
12. The Bug - Fire
13. Les Filles de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works
14. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince
15. Koreless - Agor
16. Vijay Iyer/Linda May Han Oh/Tyshawn Sorey – Uneasy
17. Blanck Mass – In Ferneaux
18. Ahmed – Nights on Saturn (Communication)
19. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt– Made Out of Sound
20. Ripatti - Fun Is Not a Straight Line

want to hear a lot of those, esp. Keith Rowe and Vanessa Rossetto

It absolutely rips no longer having to engage with popular music

Uneasy v good. I liked Moult when I listened to it but need to give it some dedicated quiet time. A lot of the the rest are artists that I like but didn't know those albums so I look forward to listening to more.

I’ve got a little overlap with Whitney here

Ha, WHINEY - sorry

https://i.imgur.com/mgMUUSt_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Joy Orbison's "still slipping vol. 1" is really lovely and is comforting, and its title and its final track "born slipping" are definitely references to Underworld's born slippy

Whiney and I have some big crossover

If we go by the same time as last year, these are the lists that will be posted in the following days:

Tomorrow?
P4k
Popmatters
Wire

Next week:
Textura
Vice
Bandcamp
Washingtonpost

The next next week:
Latimes
Vinylfactory
Paste song list
Aquarium drunkard
Said the gramophone
Ravensingstheblues
Kexp Reverend’s list
RA

Oh actually Textura’s is published already:

https://www.textura.org/archives/articles/2021picks.htm

Again I don’t know a single one of these albums.

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-songs-2021/

pretty unexpected #1? it's a good song but kinda low-key, not at all what i would have expected so much consensus around & like, where were they for "door" and "so hot you're hurting my feelings"? those would have been way more obvious picks in 2019

generally super agreeable list though, to the point it's surprising and confusing?

Oh they included the Backxwash title track!! That alone makes me dislike this list less than most of theirs

it feels much closer to the character of the ilm 77 than usual?

Yes, agreed

https://www.stereogum.com/2169206/the-50-best-albums-of-2021/lists/year-in-review/2021-in-review/

eh

lol

Actually a pretty good list and yeah it seems more aligned with ILM than previous years.

That number one is a bit confusing, I like it but it’s not the strongest song she’s made (the singles from her last album were all better imho) and I’ve been seeing in other lists as well and it’s weird because I don’t remember that much excitement over it when it was released? Pitchfork didn’t even review it.

Cassandra Jenkins got BNM for album and track so I’d betted that’s the one that was going to win

That stereogum one might be the worst so far.

giving the war on drugs aoty in 2021 is a deeply hateful act

idk if i've seen the great flock of dimes or men i trust albums on many other lists, but otherwise it's pretty bleh

I have no memory of listening to the Polachek song.

xps yeah "bunny is a rider" didn't really seem to have a ton of excitement around it or anything & she's done a lot better in the past

i also would have bet on "hard drive"

checked last year's list to confirm that usually stereogum is much more agreeable and interesting than whatever they came up with this year

Bunny as a number #1 makes it look like it wasn’t that great of a year for music, since it’s the sort of song they’d place in idk #73 in previous years.

“The door” per example is a way better song imho and it didn’t make it to the top 50 in their 2019 list.

That said I love Caroline Polachek’s solo career so far and wont complain much about it.

Not a big fan of "Bunny" but there's a lot to like in Pitchfork's list imo. A few tracks I'd forgotten about like the OPN/Elizabeth Fraser collab. Surprising not to see "Chaise Longue" which seems to be the indie rock consensus track of the year.

the list seems to reveal there was no consensus rap banger this year

Pitchfork always seem to be a bit snobby about UK indie that gets massively hyped by UK media tho xp

lol I didn't realise P4k even knew about the existence of Bad Boy Chiller Crew

One of the strangest things about the p4k list is that only two artists got more than one track on it: Doja Cat and Doss. In a year with four insta-classic Olivia Rodrigo singles, Doss got more tracks on the list!

Oh wow yeah no Wet Leg on the p4k one. I don’t really get the hype for that song so didn’t mind the exclusion.

Overall I think this is one of the best p4k eoy lists I’ve seen.

Don't know what's up with the first 100 tracks but someone seems to be gradually updating the rest of this playlist w/the P4k tracks list (for those looking for one):

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4jJOtuZt79DeaCZQJrnXkJ

One of the strangest things about the p4k list is that only two artists got more than one track on it: Doja Cat and Doss. In a year with four insta-classic Olivia Rodrigo singles, Doss got more tracks on the list!

― josh az (2011nostalgia)

DOSS EP also has 4 insta-classic songs in there!

Surprised only one of the Big Thief tracks made it

I don’t get the Doja love, but I may be an outlier

Overall I think this is one of the best p4k eoy lists I’ve seen.

Fully anticipated a shitpile but instead it's merely garbage.

Anyone has the wire list? I see their 2021 rewind issue is out already.

Ah no it’s out dec 10 sorry

I did not contribute to the Stereogum main list, but the two jazz titles will also appear on the jazz list I put together for them, which will be running this week sometime.