The 2021 End Of Year music lists thread

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.

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!

Don't know if you mean the description sounds great or the album itself. Listening to it now and it does indeed sound great!

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

― treat the gelignite tenderly for me (Sund4r), Wednesday, December 1, 2021 12:40 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Simply the most sublime drone/deep listening experience I've had in years, I sometimes just leave it playing on a loop for hours at a time. Gorgeous stuff.

xp i meant the description, planning to check out the album when i have a free moment

All of today's lists very on-brand

― Indexed, Wednesday, December 1, 2021 bookmarkflaglink

As I made my way through the Paste list I actually thought there was a higher degree of aggro albums than I'd expect from them.

https://www.complex.com/music/best-albums-of-2021/

Yeah, curious to read that Complex list but I noped the fuck out when no less than five different ads immediately popped up.

same

there's rap on it

also Adele at #3

Yeah, curious to read that Complex list but I noped the fuck out when no less than five different ads immediately popped up.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, December 1, 2021 4:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same except not curious to read

lol

Thanks for the heads up on Wau Wau Collectif. This is super trippy, Loving it so far.

appreciate your list of "career best" albums, Brad, and agree on most, but do you really think the GYBE album is their best??

i like it, but...

UPROXX BEST SONGS

https://uproxx.com/music/best-songs-2021-list/

I like that it’s unranked. Also cool they chose “Michelangelo” as the Cassandra Jenkins track (that’s the one on my Faves playlist).

The Godspeed is very good, it’s not a top ten of the year but will likely be in my top 25.

this feels like a pretty standard year in terms of overall quality

there's only a fairly small number of lists so far, seemingly a lot of those from the uk so there's quite a bias towards acts the uk press loves much more than the us in the minor consensus so far, like little simz

but idk really who's going to end up near the top of the consensus this year except floating points? this year feels relatively light on big critical consensus event albums but that's not the same as it being a weak year

the last year i remember being notably weak was probably 2014?

weather station and tyler will surely be up there too, but idk the weather station album was underwhelming after how good the singles were

Japanese Breakfast will be way up there

strong year, standard year, weak year, however you want to characterize it ... i think when you look across the consensus top 10 or 20 or whatever, you will see a year where many big/great artists are holding on to albums until touring is more certain. i mean, most years we are looking at Beyonce and Fiona Apple and Kendrick Lamar and Kacey Musgraves and Radiohead and on and on, and this year it's Floating Points and Japanese Breakfast and Little Simz? that's a full level or two down from the profile of artists that you usually see dominate these things.

i'm not saying that's a bad thing, btw

there weren't the same number of big event albums as usual to get to the top of these lists, and those that did come out often flopped, relatively (lorde, kacey, etc)

but it was still a very solid year, i found just as much to love as usual

Plenty of big profile artists released albums this year but they got a bit of a lukewarm response, top of my mind:

Drake, Kanye West, Lorde, Billie Eilish, Kacey Musgraves, Adele … I guess Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber too but noone is expecting them to do a decent album at this point

The one I think was the best received “event” albums were Taylor’s Red but that’s a remake and Olivia Rodrigo but she’s a newcomer.

Did people not like Billie Eilish? I think that album is terrific.

Lil Nas X, Silk Sonic also were sort of “event albums”, considering “old town road” was massive and Silk Sonic has Bruno Mars in there. I saw a lot of hype for both albums before they were released.

Xpost: In my view several critics and fans loved the Billie Eilish album but the singles were a hard sell for the general populace to pay attention to it.

I think Lorde and Adele suffered similar fates, they’re not bad albums but at their level of profile and given what they did on their past albums I guess people expect a hit single.

Artists like Olivia Rodrigo or Lil Nas X per example delivered, “driver’s license” and “old town road” were so big that without a second hit single they would’ve faded out of the conversation.

I actually liked the Billie Eilish record better than the debut, but it’s usually a bad omen whenever this happens.

the billie eilish album was great, a big step up from her debut, and id be a lsurprised if it isn't high up on these aggregate lists before too long

Her first EP was also much better than When We…, IMO. It’s kind of a “funny” situation where an artist’s big, Grammy-winning debut album represented a significant dip in quality.

happier than ever didn't spawn a million hits like her debut but i don't think it really flopped, critically or commercially, it's just a little weird for radio i guess?

while the lorde album underwhelmed both fans and critics

I wouldn't be surprised to see consensus on Little Simz, Magdalena Bay, Cleo Sol, Low, Arooj Aftab, Erika de Casier, Richard Dawson, Yola, Tinashe, Eilish, Summer Walker, Jazmine Sullivan, Olivia Rodrigo.
And there are tons of things I'm hearing only now and I definitely plan to have several jazz albums in my year-end list.

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

― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, December 1, 2021 9:32 PM (yesterday)

No Sun

About You

Colourgrade

lol sorry for shitty formatting

Carmanica's list

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/arts/music/best-pop-albums.html

or

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1750-the-new-york-times-jon-caramanicas-best-albums-of-2021/

more NYT

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1751-the-new-york-times-lindsay-zoladzs-best-albums-of-2021/

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1749-the-new-york-times-jon-pareles-best-albums-of-2021/

I like Mdou Moctar, but the votes do seem a bit "not arsed about exploring music from here usually, but it has a rock component"

"his band plugs North African rhythms and modal vamps into rock amplifiers and drums" - Pareles

"shredding is a universal language" - Zoladz

etc.

I like Mdou Moctar, but the votes do seem a bit "not arsed about exploring music from here usually, but it has a rock component"

Plus, his last album was better so add some "mainstream/generalist critics late to the party" to that equation.

I mean, Mdou Moctar is probably among the best contemporary rock guitarists and there is a whole tradition and genre of guitar rock/blues from that region. I don't think rock fans or critics who are otherwise voting for shit like Adele and Olivia Rodrigo need to be exploring non-rock Tuareg music to recognize Moctar as a great rock artist.

ufo and alpine static otm