The 2021 End Of Year music lists thread

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.

Sir, this is a Wendy's

Textura jazz list is almost troublingly melanin-deficient

I was going to level that accusation but found two black people in the top 5 and decided not to go there, but it also struck me. Their picture in eveningwear alone gave white musicology stronghold vibes.

It's also just a bad list.

Or, it's not bad, but there are maybe three or four albums on there that I've heard and thought were decent. unperson would know better than me, obviously.

It's also so funny that the ambient world is large enough to include the sub-genres that Textura posts about— it's like a completely different world than the one I inhabit, and I listen to a LOT of ambient music.

lol I swear "Bunny Is a Rider" was in my top 5 singles before the pfork list came out.

Textura has a bit of a taste for warm milk ime but tbh I haven't listened to any of those albums in full. I do want to hear the Hahn.

really it is morbidly funny that pfork have given song of the year to a song whose title is literally an answer-back to an Of Montreal songtitle from 2007, and yet Of Montreal, still releasing great music in 2021, have been completely and utterly ignored by literally everyone

Anyway, the Thumbscrew erasure on all these 'lists' can only be explained by deep state shenanigans. I might have said the same about Jessica Ackerley/Daniel Carter but I see table is fighting the good fight there.

xpost Well look if Of Montreal were wrong about Bunny, what else were they wrong about?

I can't deny it/Bunny is a rider

The Textura list is fairly white, but more than that, it's an extremely conservatory-trained list. It's almost all chamber jazz or stuff that blurs the line between jazz and modern classical. Which is fine, that's their angle on the world. There are about seven albums on the list I liked enough to write about.

Just listened to the Caroline Polachek song that topped the Pfork list. It's... fine?

The production reminds me a little of this track from my own 2021 Faves list (which I like better):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir9ZylmT494