The 2021 End Of Year music lists thread

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

NPR 100 best songs
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/02/1054377950/the-100-best-songs-of-2021-page-1

Exclaim top 30 songs

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/best_songs_of_2021

xp Wet Leg #2, lol

NY Times' Best Jazz Albums of 2021

Two of these titles will also appear on the Stereogum list, which will be running next week, I think.

unperson, I'm a little confused by the love for "Son Beans," despite having a deep affection for Wadada Leo Smith. Certainly not one of the best jazz albums of the year. But maybe this is more for the jazz thread.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/019/104/6bf.jpg

I love the Sun Beans album; everybody on it is playing beautifully and the whole thing has a ritual/ceremonial aspect that I love. But I didn't put it on my list. I went with Sacred Ceremonies, the Wadada Leo Smith/Bill Laswell/Milford Graves 3CD set.

Still need to get that!

unperson, I'm a little confused by the love for "Son Beans," despite having a deep affection for Wadada Leo Smith. Certainly not one of the best jazz albums of the year. But maybe this is more for the jazz thread.

you are aware that this is your opinion, yes? your second sentence is not a thing that actually exists.

Just as your inane opinion that this was an "off year" for music is also an opinion? Yes, I'm aware.

It’d be great if the critical community could come up with some sort of centralized annual albums/tracks poll, maybe something with a Patreon. I’d support it.

"I'm confused by the love for this, it's certainly not one of the best of the year" tells me all I need to know

What-his-name does that excel sheet every year which seems like a centralized thing

"I'm confused by the love for this, it's certainly not one of the best of the year" tells me all I need to know

― alpine static, Thursday, December 2, 2021 10:23 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Why don't you go and listen to all the good music you didn't listen to this year instead of being a salty dickhead?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vqbxoXrhL.jpg

On a positive note, our own Reverend Dollars gets a shout in Sasha Geffen's Artforum list:

https://www.artforum.com/print/202110/best-music-of-2021-sasha-geffen-87214

re:Whiney, Rob Mitchum.

I’ve had a few people ask, and yes, I plan to do it, just haven’t had a chance to start it up yet. Will get it together soon! https://t.co/Rxr4RZqB6Z

— Rob Mitchum (@robmitchum) December 2, 2021

that Geffen list looks pretty cool

There's some good stuff on it, yeah!

Revolver Magazine
Fan Poll: 10 Best Albums of 20021

10. Between the Buried and Me - Colors II
9. Archspire - Bleed the Future
8. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
7. Ice Nine Kills - The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood
6. The Pretty Reckless - Death By Rock & Roll
5. Gojira - Fortitude
4. Spiritbox- Eternal Blue
3. Evanescence - The Bitter Truth
2. Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon
1. Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/fan-poll-10-best-albums-2021

ooh sun-el musician made #13 on the npr tracks list

it's quite an interesting list except for the very top

Yeah NPR has some great ones out of the top portion.

Indexed posted this on Rolling Country: Country Music Writers Pollrunner Himes wrote a Paste column about Afro-Americana that was then considered racially insensitive--gotta vet these things before they go up, Paste, and lots of others---so Nashville Scene cancelled (savingcountrymusic.com seizes opp to use wheelhouse term) the venerable Poll: https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/nashville-scene-abruptly-cancels-20-year-country-critics-poll/
The column was "heavily redacted" and now gone altogether.
No such Poll this year nowhere.