Tag Archives: Esther Rose

In Search of the 23 Best Albums of 2023: The 23 Best Albums of 2023!

8 Replies

Back in the misty dawn of time, I set out to catch up on new music. I think the era was called 2021?

In any case, in this distant eon I listened to critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s. I did the same for 2020. And then I set out to listen to new releases month by month throughout 2021, so I could come up with the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun that I did it again in 2022, and found the 22 best albums of 2022.

There are links to the 2020, 2021, and 2022 albums in the posts above, but if you’d like an all-in playlist for each year, I have that on Spotify (I’ll be moving these to YouTube Music eventually, for reasons to be explained below):

What do you do when you have best albums lists for three years in a row/? You go for four! And so I continued my monthly review in 2023:

( January/February/March April May June July/August September October/November/December )

In all, I listened to 1,071 albums released in 2023. I then whittled that down as follows:

  • Based on first listen, I ended up with 265 “yes” and “maybe” picks
  • I re-listened to that 265, and got 148 semi-finalists
  • Those 148 then got a final re-listen resulting in…

The 23 Best Albums of 2023!

Aesop Rock, Integrated Tech Solutions– Oh the old school bass, synth, and drum machine sounds! It’s a very deliberate invocation, as the 80s IT-theme, occasional appearance of video game sound effects, and shout-outs to everything from Salt-N-Pepa to Mr. T make clear. It’s not purely an exercise in nostalgia though- the flow and the mix often feels very modern. Aesop Rock has produced some of my favorite hip hop of the past few years, and I’ll happily add this to that list!

Christian Kjellvander, Hold Your Love Still– Moody and atmospheric guitar-driven music, replete with minor chords, and haunting vocals with literate and philosophical lyrics. The musical and vocal range may be limited, but this Swedish-born, Seattle-raised singer-songwriter with indie lo-fi roots more than makes up for that with the power he runs through his music.

CMAT, Crazymad, For Me– You know those Irish singer-songwriters with a wicked wit and playful inventiveness who are lush pop vocalists with a strong country flavor? Well, Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, aka CMAT is one of those. Actually, I don’t know how many more of those there are, but she’s a damn good one, and I love it!

Esther Rose, Safe to Run– I was looking forward to this given that her album How Many Times made my top 21 in 2021. And here again we have her delightfully sincere vocals, emotionally literate storytelling, and utterly authentic feeling for country, pop, rock, and their fit together. I initially wasn’t sure if I was totally sold on the track sequencing, but damn does every single individual song hold up.

Gina Birch, I Play My Bass Loud– This album from Raincoats co-founder Burch has got the dissonant sound of early post-punk, experiments with rhythm, intriguing work from her eponymous bass, and a familiar feminist edge. If it does sound of an era, well, she was one of the founders of that era, and everything here is still oh so relevant.

Grace Potter, Mother Road– My Vermont home team girl Grace Potter is in peak form here- rocking, rootsy, musically tough, lyrically feisty. This is a nearly perfect fusion between formula, form, and function. And the album even pulls off a conceptual through-line!

H31R, Headspace– Going in knowing there were 14 songs in 25 minutes and a parental advisory certainly had me feeling well-disposed. The low-fi glitchy beats and effects, spare mix, and smart and outspoken lyrics justified this inclination. There’s a lot of freshness on this collaboration between New Jersey producer JWords and Brooklyn rapper maassai.

Homeboy Sandman, Rich– Smart, positive, and often funny left of center lyrics, a pleasant conversational flow, and a varied and clever musical mix. This Queens rapper has been around for fifteen years, and it shows in how comfortable and confident he is doing his thing here. And the album reminds me how much hip hop that relaxes a little and gets into the details of small everyday life still has to say.

Joanna Sternberg, I’ve Got Me– Quirky vocals, with sharp dense emotionally internal lyrics and slightly off-kilter acoustic instrumentation. It’s often kind of sing-song, and deliberately artless, but vulnerable. All-in-all, this NYC-based singer, songwriter and visual artist is producing delightful music that I want to hear more of!

Logic, College Park– The structure of this album is literally Logic and his friend taking a drive around College Park, Maryland on the eve of his first live performance, dropping in on people and places along the way. That gives us the frame, and then the muscular musical mix, strong beats, interesting and varied flow, and self-aware narration lend it depth. At more than an hour it is a tad on the long side, but structure, contents, and fun keep it going. His 2022 album Vinyl was one of my honorable mentions, and l can see that’s no fluke!

Marnie Stern, The Comeback Kid– Blistering guitar work, booming power pop sound, 80s synth overtones, an exuberance and edge to the mix, and a unique vocal presence. All right, Marnie, all right! I also love the way she messes with us, like the second track about the sound being hard to take, which keeps layering on sonic challenges as it goes. The title refers to her decade off of new releases, but you sure couldn’t prove it by how much virtuosity is on display here.

Nat Myers, Yellow Peril– A Korean-American Blues musician, which is a story I like. But even better, it is as fine a genuine-feeling dynamic set of steel guitar traditional blues as you are going to find. It never felt less than fun and true for a single track.

No-No Boy, Electric Empire– You may find other indie rock albums with peerless chamber pop melodic instincts. You may find other musical efforts that mix in aspects of Asian musical traditions with integrity and without appeal to novelty or fetishization. You may find other nuanced and thoughtful explorations of identity and history. But I would propose that you will rarely find all those things together and done at such a high level. No-No Boy is the project of Asian-American singer, songwriter, and scholar Julian Saporiti, and this is his third album. It was a slow burn, but it really got me.

Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS– I like Olivia Rodrigo for her knack for combining chart-worthy dance/pop hooks and rocking breaks with lyrics that are somehow simultaneously bubblegum and yet acidly sharp and searing. There are a host of young female artists in this space now, but even among them she is a standout, and her plaintive and sometimes astonishing purity of voice adds another whole level to it. This is a worthy follow-up to her debut level, and an inspiring down payment on more to come.

Palehound, Eye on the Bat– Thrashy guitar with just enough poppy melody, on point vocal phrasing during both slow/quiet and loud/fast interludes, and lyrics that paint real life stories but load them with emotional meaning. Band frontperson El Kempner severely undersells when they say, “it’s kind of like journal-rock, just all of my biggest fears splurted onto some vinyl, no different from writing a diary, really.” This is their fourth album, and I look forward to hearing more!

Prewn, Through the Window– This seems constantly on the edge of being too narrow-band in sound, but also hits so many notes I like- anguished vocals, minor chords, feedback, distortion, and reverb. It can be difficult to penetrate to the dark heart of what is going on here, but the fact that there is a harrowing song about literally killing and frying every fish in the sea gives you some indication. I’m not entirely sure what Izzy Hagerup of Massachusetts is up to, but I dig it!

Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, Saved!– Avant garde artist Kristin Hayter has shed her Lingua Ignota persona, and released a gospel inspired album on which she, by her own recounting, reaches, “new levels of unhinged, spiritually and sonically.” I mean, okay, I can get behind that! And in fact, it’s amazing. The spiritual yearning is sincere, but the traditional vocal and piano arrangements of the songs are mutated through the influence of electronica, metal, and noisy distorted experimental music. The results are jarring, unsettling, and sometimes abrasive, but it never feels gimmicky, and the evocative and uncanny nature of the songs that result lends itself to the quest.

Roger Waters, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux – The natural objection here is the hubris of redoing a classic, but I admire musical hubris, and if anyone has a right to re-approach this material, it’s Roger Waters. The next issue is the inherent thorniness of covers (which, again, I love), but the good news here is this meets my criteria for “gold standard” of a cover- not a too-faithful reproduction (because what would we need that for since we have the original?), but also something that substantively engages with and honors the original in some form. Waters has produced a version of these songs that isn’t a novelty or a copy, but instead pulls out their original air of darkness even more sharply and comes from the point of view of a worn yet wise observer of life. In other words, he brings the perspective of an 80-year-old self to the music he made as a 30-year-old. The effect is truly compelling.

slowthai, UGLY– I liked this British hip hop artist’s 2021 album Tyron quite a bit. This album is just as skillfully done, but more coherent and more serious. It has a brooding weight and propulsive energy as he really gets inside to wrestle with his life.

The Hives, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons– This album is single-handedly making me believe in the 2000s garage rock revival again. And with more than a little flavor of the Jam, Stiff Little Fingers and the rockier side of post-punk. There is nothing new here. But that’s gloriously the point!

Thee Headcoats, Irregularis (The Great Hiatus)– Rollicking blues rock! With the classic name checks to prove it, bolstered by a determination to be, as one song here puts it “pretty original nevertheless”. Like the “Leader of the Pack” inspired “Leader of the Sect” or album-closer “The Kids Are All Square”… The album came about when Billy Childish’s friend and musical inspiration Don Craine of the Downliners Sect died in February 2022. Childish teamed up with his former bandmates from his ’90s group Thee Headcoats and Craine’s bandmate Keith Evans to record a memorial EP. They all enjoyed that experience enough that they decided to cut this reunion LP. I love what it does so much!

U2, Songs of Surrender– Regular readers will know that I like a good concept album. This “new” album from U2 scores highly in that regard. The band presents new recordings of forty songs from throughout their career with a stripped-down acoustic approach, in four sets of ten chosen by each band member. As you might imagine, this ends up being a little long, as in, around two and three quarter hours. But it is worth it- the treatments and sometime lyrical reworkings expose anew the power of the songs, and as a set it sounds very coherent. You may think me mad, but I think this works!

Who is She?, Goddess Energy– Sweet melodies, bright chords, driving music right on the centerline between pop and punk, and energetic charmingly artless vocals. All of this, and odes to Movie Pass, Marianne Williamson, and telling off Anne Hathaway’s haters. How can I not be smitten? This “supergroup” of members of local Seattle bands Tacocat, Lisa Prank, and Chastity Belt makes some real magic together.

And there you have The 23 Best Albums of 2023! But wait, there’s more! For a limited time only we can make you the special offer of 77 “honorable mentions” to round out our list to a nice even 100:

  • 100 gecs, 10,000 gecs– I do love me some hyperpop! This particular St. Louis duo’s iteration is equal parts synth bedroom pop, autotune, and thrashy guitar feedback excess, and is high energy, silly, and total sincere.

  • Alan Palomo, World of Hassle– Originally from Mexico, composer, producer, and songwriter Alan Palomo has apparently been making beautiful and catchy genre-bending music since the late 00s but has remained off my radar until now. The loss is mine! This lush, catchy, and smart amalgam of electro and 80s soul had me smiling and bopping my head the whole time!

  • Alice Longyu Gao, Let’s Hope Heteros Fail, Learn and Retire– The title lets you know there’s a point of view, which is great. But even better is the mix of energetic, wacky, and experimental on display here as it combines electronic, sing-song, noise rock, and high-octane dance music. This Chinese-born American singer, songwriter, DJ, and performance artist has it going on!

  • Angel Bat Dawid, Requiem for Jazz– Meant as a deliberate response to the “Jazz is Dead” line that has been kicking around since the 1959 film The Cry of Jazz, this extraordinary album by Chicago composer, clarinetist, and educator Dawid holds a literal requiem mass for the form that both celebrates it and turns it inside out, both in service of what jazz has meant in the Black world, and what something new in its spirit could mean. It’s orchestral, experimental, dissonant, exuberant, and incantatory.

  • Ava Max, Diamonds and Dancefloors– I do appreciate good dance music, and this starts off on the right note in terms of energy, production, catchiness, and verve. And it keeps going at the same level track after track. Ava Max is now my second-favorite Albanian-American musical powerhouse! (Sorry Ava, Action Bronson got there first.)

  • BabyBaby_Explores, Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow– Musically quirky, distorted and dissonant, lyrically snarky, and vocally weird, without losing the through line of darkly inflected guitars and drums. This Providence Rhode Island trio is an exemplar of what post rock can do. I want more!

  • Be Your Own Pet, Mommy– Powered by the true force of nature Jemina Pearl, Be Your Own Pet released one of my favorite albums of the 00s, Get Awkward, and then promptly imploded. The ensuing years saw her grow up, start a family, and emerge even stronger and more in charge, and their old garage rock swagger plus her enhanced substance are a great combination here. Not to mention which, the album opens with a BDSM song. What’s not to like?
  • Big Freedia, Central City– This album from New Orleans-based rapper Big Freedia is overflowing with humor, booming bawdy energy, and classic mix motifs. This is apparently a subgenre known as “bounce music”. It’s musically delightful, and heaven knows this is a historical moment where exuberant energy from a gender nonconforming gay man who embraces femininity is extremely welcome.
  • Bun B/Statik Selektah, Trillstatik 2– There’s a light sprightly feeling to much of the lyrical and musical mix of this collaboration between Texas hip-hop legend Bub B and East Coast producer Statik Selektah, but also depth in its portraits of life. The vocal flow doesn’t always keep up but is also often affecting, and, considering the album was recorded live in one twelve-hour session, this is pretty amazing!

  • Bush Tetras, They Live In My Head– Excellent moody minor chords rock, somewhere between post-punk and 90s, and vocals with a haunted, plaintive edge. It turns out this New York band has been kicking around since the late 70s and was one of the early No Wave bands, which tells you why they sound like everything between. They’re OG!

  • Butch Walker, Butch Walker as…Glenn– Walker started off heading a glam metal band in the 80s and has ventured over all kinds of territory since then. This album finds him engaged in a very specific kind of character- it presents the persona of “Glenn”, a burned-out musician playing a cheap and rowdy bar. You’ll hear hints of Billy Joel, Springsteen, and Jackson Browne here, as well other similar voices. The concept sound is thus inherently a little derivative, but it feels fantastically sincere.

  • Ceci Bastida, Every Thing Taken Away– What I read about her was, “Since moving from Tijuana, Mexico, to the United States, the former Tijuana No! keyboardist and singer Ceci Bastida has released records and podcasts extending the Latinx punk tradition.” What I have to say is, this album is brilliant, nervy, electronic and rocking, with stripped-down beats, fun, and attitude!

  • Chase & Status, 2 Ruff, Vol. 1– Stuttering beats, glitchy sounds, metallic bass like looming dread, and the vocal autotuning actually works, turning them into urgent yet distorted prophetic voices. Dread that you can dance to! This U.K. drum’n’bass/dubstep duo has apparently been kicking around since the early 00s, and I’m told this is less polished and more like a mixtape that their usual albums. Amen!

  • Cheater Slicks, Ill-fated Cusses– Echoing clangy guitars, a thick feedback-laden background, and vocals that are consciously artless. They’ve been in the Boston music scene since the late 80s, and it turns out they can still bring it. It sounds like punk, it sounds like garage rock, it sounds like the snottier reaches of 80s hardcore.

  • Colter Wall, Little Songs– This is such a lyrically, vocally, and musically full-bodied and genuine invocation of the heyday of 70s Outlaw Country (with occasional dashes back all the way to Hank Williams) that I can barely process that it’s coming from a 28-year-old Canadian. Well done 28-year-old Canadian, and somebody please let pop country radio know!

  • Danny Brown, Quaranta– Oh, I like the mix here! Muscular, surprising, full of glitches, stutters, computer samples. The flow and the lyrics likewise have a knack for hooks, and being varied and interesting. Thank you Detroit rapper Danny Brown (and associated collaborators) for reminding me what fun hip hop can be.
  • Debby Friday, Good Luck– This Nigeria-born, Canada-based artist has been known for rave-inspired dystopian sci-fi works. How could i not love that conceptually? And actually, it’s artistic, lurching, almost like a hardcore electronic dance music. I’m in!

  • Deerhoof, Miracle-Level– I love Deerhoof, but there are a few things here that further set it apart as their oeuvre goes. It’s their first all-Japanese album and recorded live in a professional studio, another first for them. Perhaps because of that, it’s got tautness, clarity, and sometimes even a relaxed jam feeling on top of their usual off-kilter mix of sweet melody and noisy anarchy. It doesn’t feel as held-together as their best albums, but it is interesting all the way through.

  • Detwat, HiTech– I have learned that ghettotech is a fusion of electro, techno, ghetto house, and Miami bass that has arisen from Detroit’s club scene. I’ve also learned that I love this. It’s very fresh! It shows the verve of both good hip hop and electronic, with stuttering energy, humor, and a sophisticated mix.

  • Dhani Harrison, Innerstanding– Knowing he’s George Harrison’s son, I went in with a certain semi-conscious expectation, and ended up encountering something more daring and experimental. To be sure there are hints of the sunny hazy side of 60s and 70s rock here, but also aspects of electronic, experimental, shoegaze, and noise rock as well. He reminds me of one of my favorites from last year, Particle Kid (aka Willie Nelson’s son Micah), in the way he both enhances and subverts the musical legacy that he’s inherited.

  • Dhanji, RUAB– I like the old school soul G-funk samples, the sometimes-dizzying kaleidoscope mix, and the challenging experimental sounds of this 25-year-old rapper from Ahmedabad, India. Much of it isn’t in English, and much of the time I don’t care! US hip hop could learn a thing or two about shaking things up a little from this youthful debut album.

  • DJ Ramon Sucesso, Sexta dos Crias– I kind of love this! It’s grating, lurching, but also delightful in it’s use of multiple aspects of hip hop, house, techno, and 2000s EDM styles. A little deliberately rough to get through, but this 21 year-old Brazilian DJ-producer’s album is confirming for me that I need to check out some more baille funk!

  • Eli Escobar, The Beach Album– Nice classic hip hop and electronic sounds (think electro, house, early techno) and a smart varied mix. This album knows (as one track says) that it is “taking us back.” And leans into it full force, to excellent effect! Escobar began playing records, throwing parties, and making beats as a late-’80s teen, and his love for a familiarity with the evolving NY dance scene shows up here in the best kind of way.

  • Feeling Figures, Migration Magic– Crunchy and fuzzy guitars! Female vocalists! Punk and yet pop instincts! 10 songs in less than 30 minutes! It isn’t the most groundbreaking thing every, but you can’t fault a thing about how it’s done, and I likes it!

  • Florry, The Holey Bible– Country rock from this Philadelphia band with a 90s alt country feeling to it, but more than a dose of 70s sunshine, and playful wit in vocals, lyrics, and arrangement. All this is delivered without sacrificing the feeling of authenticity, and genuine emotion.

  • Foyer Red, Yarn the Hours Away– A weird, nervy, jerky, rock, multi-layered, sing-songy, with gonzo synths. If more people were as inventive with pop rock as this Brooklyn band, it would be a grand world!

  • Goat, Medicine– The opening starts with a suitably growling distorted guitar that sounds like a 70s psyche rock freakout. Track two has a bit of an ornate pop feel to it, backed up by EDM effects. The third track combines strains of all of these and pumps up the echo. And so it goes on from there! My sources tell me that Goat is a Swedish alternative and experimental fusion music group, released in the US on the Sub Pop label. I tell my sources I dig this!
  • Greta Van Fleet, Starcatcher– I mean, Great Van Fleet is a forgery, right? But their forgery of Zeppelin, Rush, and other 70s hard rock luminaries on this album is so true to the original and exquisitely delivered, I can’t help but love it as a work of art in its own right. Rock on, young lads!

  • Grian Chatten, Chaos for the Fly– This debut studio album by Irish musician Grian Chatten (best known as the lead singer for Fontaines D.C.) has the raw edge of his work with them, but also a delicate orchestration which lightens the emotional heaviness and brings new depth and subtlety, and a hint of sweetness, to his sound.
  • Immaterial Possession, Mercy of the Crane Folk– Jangly and unnerving hints of post-punk, the Doors, the medieval trippy bazaar side of psychedelia, and horror aspects of goth and industrial. It doesn’t sound totally coherent, sometimes the flow is a little off, but this Georgia quartet has something interesting going on!

  • Indigo De Souza, All of This Will End– Oh these earnest young things who so effortlessly combine singer-songwriter vulnerability, dance music fun, and crunching 90s guitar rock! There is a whole crop of them out these days, and we are blessed for it. Though it didn’t quite make my 2021 list, this North Carolina singer’s album Any Shape You Take caught my eye for the same strengths of musical inventiveness and emotional rawness that are on display here.

  • Jad Fair/Samuel Locke Ward, Happy Hearts– I found this to be nearly unclassifiable, in a good way. It comes across as almost a sing-song children’s album, except awkward, adult, and sometimes dark, with a good feeling for sweet melody, and plain vocal delivery. It definitely shows that this comes from a wildly inventive place- Jad Fair, prolific ever since he started with his brother David as Half Japanese during the mid-’70s, went into overdrive during the 2020s. During this period, he was contacted by Samuel Locke Ward, a home taper from Iowa with a strong D.I.Y. aesthetic. Working remotely, they began making one song per week, leading to this album.

  • Jeff Rosenstock, Hellmode– It starts off with an anthemic punky power-pop query about whether love will outlast finding out the singer has fucked up. From there, sometimes emo-earnest, sometimes punky overdrive, (and often snarky). It reminds me of a space somewhere between early Green Day, your 00s emo de jour, and Harvey Danger. I am told that he, “is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Long Island, New York. He is known for his former bands Bomb the Music Industry! and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, as well as for his work as a solo artist and as a composer for Craig of the Creek. He is the founder of Quote Unquote Records, the first donation-based record label.” Well all right!

  • Jockstrap, I<3UQTINVU– I<3UQTINVU (“I Love You Cutie, I Envy You”) is a remix compilation from this UK duo’s 2022 album I Love You Jennifer B. I found that album to be too polished and muted, but these reworkings are anything but. The glitchy beats and vocals, spare mix, and ability to go EDM, experimental, and rocking sometimes all at the same time really stand out. There are genuinely surprising moments throughout, and the sound is familiar enough to be accessible, but also challenging and a promise of new possibilities.

  • Joe Jackson, Mr. Joe Jackson Presents Max Champion in What a Racket!– The album is presented as the work of the fictional Max Champion, a turn of the century music man. As such, it’s thoroughly in early 20th century music hall style. This is what we call “high concept”. And, in the hands of someone less skillful than Joe Jackson, it might be extremely annoying. But what actually results here is a flawless set of songs that sound totally period but also feel contemporary and alive, and if the whole thing reads a bit like an album-length treatment of “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, well apparently I needed that and didn’t even know!

  • Joell Ortiz/L’Orange, Signature– Producer L’Orange joins with Ortiz to re-interpret his 2021 album Autograph (hence Signature, get it?), in the process producing a new “old” album. New in that the reinterpretation stands on it’s own, “old” in the sense that they mine some classic sounds. I like the lurching offbeats, unusual and powerful mix, positive ownership of the lyrics, and the swagger and power of the flow.

  • JPEGMafia & Danny Brown, Scaring the Hoes– This collaboration between innovative Detroit rapper Brown (who already has an entry further above) and Brooklyn-based JPEGMafia (aka Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks) is a dizzying breathless ride. The flow is blistering, the mix experimental and kaleidoscopic, and the fun they had in making it is manifest.

  • Kate Davis, Fishbowl– Oh the crunching guitars. The driving songs. The melodies! The crystal-clear vocals and emotionally literate lyrics. I do so enjoy what Kate Davis does

  • Kesha, Gag Order– Wow! I did not know a lot about Kesha beyond some vague sense she was dance-related. Which she is, but also raw, ragged, angry, powerful, spiritual, musically varied, and given to unusual production choices. Compelling all the way through!

  • Laura Cantrell, Just Like a Rose: The Anniversary Sessions– Well that is some lovely countrified electric Americana! Full of brightness and clarity, with lyrics and chord changes that have a feeling for authentically honoring country while bringing in pop rock energy. Cantrell has been recording in this vein since the late 90s, and this is her 6th solo album (raising a family and having to work for a living having taken a lot of her time along the way).

  • Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Sticks and Stones– Willie Nelson’s son is here with some good old-fashioned country (a la outlaw) and rock (a la southern rock and 70s singer songwriter). It’s not the newest sound in the world, in fact anti that, but it is a great delivery of said sound that never rings false.

  • Macklemore, Ben– As your contemporary pop superstar hip-hop goes, Macklemore is top of the crop. It’s heavily produced, but the production flourishes are earned, and in service of substantive lyrics and a winning persona. Even the ubiquitous guest star mania is well-deployed.

  • MJ Lenderman, And The Wind (Live and Loose!)– This live album from Asheville singer-songwriter Lenderman is full of distorted guitars, sometimes in a country vein, sometimes more like southern rock or even noise rock. All topped with a yearning drawled melancholy to the vocals, and a lyrical side featuring heartache, humor, and oddly poingant slices of life.

  • Morgan and the Organ Donors, M.O.D.s– Holy retro soundscapes! Driving, chiming guitars, cracking drums, harmonies. You will hear some 60s girl-group, some garage rock, some pop side of punk, some 80s jangle, some 90s riot grrrl. And it never sounds less than organically whole and fresh, which isn’t an accident. Morgan and the Organ Donors are a band made up of four friends who play a few shows a year at a bar they like in Olympia, Washington. Except the friends are former Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail on drums, as well as two K Records artists, James Maeda of Spider & the Webs and Olivia Ness of C.O.C.O., on lead guitar and bass.

  • Mozart Estate, Pop-up! Ker-ching! And the Possibilities of Modern Shopping– Based on the name of the album alone I went in already half in love. What a delight then to hear a perfectly-delivered version of the most exuberant varieties of pub rock, early UK new wave, and UK 80s alt pop acts like Squeeze and The Beautiful South. It is in all wise a familiar sound, but so beautifully rendered that I cannot get mad at it!

  • Noname, Sundial– Smart metaphysical poetic hip hop, positive but with plenty of raunch and bite, disarmingly approachable vocals, and a compelling swirl in the musical mix including jazz, gospel choruses, Brill Building pop, and classic 80s beats.

  • Oddisee, To What End– Oddisee is the stage name of Brooklyn-based Sudanese-American hip-hop artist Amir Mohamed el Khalifa. The pure dynamism of what he puts out here musically, lyrically, and mixologically is extremely winning! It reminded me of certain veins of personal story directed 2000s hip-hop (think Jay-Z or Kendrick Lamar), with some of the feelings and concerns of conscious hip-hop.

  • Olivia Jean, Raving Ghost– Olivia Jean is the lead of the “garage goth” band the Black Belles and, incidentally along the way, Jack White’s newest wife. I mention those only because both factors, maybe, give you a clue to what her musical POV is. Swinging, retro, and vaguely sinister on the first track, slightly punky power pop on the second, a metal feeling on the third. And later, there is the version of “Orinoco Flow” that turns it into a girl-group/punk number. It may all be a little formulaic, but damn it’s a good formula- Olivia Jean is a cool rocking righteous chick, and I am here for it!

  • Open Mike Eagle, Another Triumph of Ghetto Engineering– This Chicago MC really delivers on the album title! Great attitude and presence, a smart and interesting low fi mix, hooky and poetic with both positivity and darkness.

  • Owl City, Coco Moon– I heard this was from an electronica collective, which put me a little on edge. In fact, it turns out to be electronic , but in the way, for example, the Postal Service is electronic. And in truth reminds me of the brighter and more quirky side of Ben Gibbard’s work. Somewhere between deep storytelling and high-energy summer fluff, and unusually informed by the artists’ Christianity. Per Wikipedia: “Owl City is an American electronic music project created in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. It is one of several projects by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young, who created the project while experimenting with music in his parents’ basement.” Three cheers for experimenting with music in parent’s basements!

  • Pink Navel & Kenny Segal, How to Capture Playful– The dense and quirky flow and lurching left-field mix here caught my attention up front. The intelligence of the geeky pop culture-obsessed lyrics and varied and unusual sample and mix choices kept me tuned in. This collaboration of innovative L.A. producer Kenny Segal and nerd culture aficionado and Massachusetts hip hop artist Pink Navel (aka Devin Bailey) is great!

  • Pretenders, Relentless– The album opens with a bruising start almost at home in grunge. At other times it feels like an old blueswoman holding court. Or punk returning. Or 80s hard rock radio. But Chrissie Hynde’s voice is unmistakable, and her chords still chime like bells. It ends on an oddly muted note, but the darkly textured songs throughout commanded my attention.
  • Quasi, Breaking the Balls of History– Janet Weiss did not take her summary dismissal from Sleater Kinney lying down, instead joining with her ex-husband to put out the first new Quasi album in ten years. Quasi has been a reliably interesting and challenging band since the 90s, and they’re still in the game here. By turns crunchy, shimmery and shoegazey, and kaleidoscopically weird, this is a delightful listen from start to finish.

  • RAYE, My 21st Century Blues– Sophisticated emotional R&B informed by hip hop, full of musical surges and a voice that is remarkable for precision of phrasing and versatility. The album also grapples with real life- abuse, relationships gone bad, emotional and physical bottoming out, in a way that feels authentic but is still pop music smooth.

  • Ron Gallo, Foreground Music– A blistering guitar open with echoing vocals is an effective way to worm your way into my heart. But he was already there thanks to his album PEACEMEAL being in my top 21 list for 2021. As for this album, is it extremely self-referential? Entirely tongue in cheek? So musically and lyrically fucking clever you don’t care which? Yes! And yet, though undeniably often wacky, it’s not all fun and games, there’s a heart of furious dissent. Is there a better contemporary protest song than the sharp and yet ultimately poignant, neo-psych “BIG TRUCK ENERGY” or a more anguished love song than “I LOVE SOMEONE BURIED DEEP INSIDE OF YOU”?

  • Rosa Pistola, Cumbiaton Total– Well this was wonderful! Such lively, varied, and over the top hip-hop and dance music glee. Per Bandcamp: “Cumbiaton Total is a headfirst dive into Mexico City’s raw and unique take on the reggaeton sound, and its rising recognition. Compiled by NTS with Rosa Pistola (a central figure at the heart of the scene), the release coincides with a mini-documentary that explores the community spirit around the scene, with interviews and footage of the artists that feature on the release.”  It is entirely in Spanish, but so fun I don’t care that I can barely understand a single lyric.

  • RP Boo, Legacy Volume 2– The spare excellence, stuttered pop culture sampling, and driving repetition of these DJ mixes reminds me of the 90s heyday of this kind of music. And indeed, Kavain Space, aka RP Boo, had gotten his start DJing in the Chicago house music scene of the 90s and was already legendary for developing the “footwork” style before he began finally publicly releasing his mixes in the 2010s. This sample collects mixes from the 00s, but it’s new to us. And excellent!

  • Ruen Brothers, Ten Paces– An atmospheric indie rock with cowboy ballad flavorings, minor chords, and weird western themes. How am I not going to fall for this? I’m NOT not! Turns out on subsequent investigation that they are an English duo infatuated with American music a la rockabilly. Well, okay lads!

  • Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, Dancing on the Edge– Spontaneous feeling stripped down Americana-flavored indie rock with articulate personal lyrics and transparent vocals. It has an often-upbeat feeling, but with an undertow of complexity and sadness. Louisville Singer-songwriter Davis has headed the band State Champion, started a music festival, and founded a DIY record label, and here on his first solo outing he proves to be a dynamic voice worth listening to.

  • Sextile, Push– Dance instincts, a stuttering electronic beat, and a punk heart. All Music Guide tells me this LA band is “Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Electronic, New Wave/Post-Punk Revival”. Whatever they are, I like it!

  • Shamir, Homo Anxietatem– An unusual vocalist with a surging voice, music that’s equal parts new-wave, electronic dance, folk, and hard rocking (with a bonus blues song thrown in), and a powerful point of view. This Las Vegas native is a bundle of talent who has been beaming out great indie pop since 2012, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

  • SKECH185, He Left Nothing for the Swim Back– NY-based hip-hop artist SKECH185’s fiery social and political truth-telling and producer Jeff Markey’s swirling, lurching sonic mix of sounds combine for a powerful package.

  • Sleaford Mods, UK Grim– I was on the fence about this the way I was about their last album. There’s the sameness and simplicity, but also the power in the simplicity, the propulsive poetic barrage, and the witty trenchant and literate rant attached.

  • Snooper, Super Snooper– Punk in a vein that reminds me of early Jam and American hardcore, but also includes playful distortion, drum machines, and sound effects reminiscent of new wave, hip hop, and electronic music. The album rips through 14 songs in 23 minutes without every losing vitality and fun. I am now more than halfway in love with this Nashville band!

  • Sweeping Promises, Good Living Is Coming for You– Such a bright clear classic new wave sound! They wouldn’t sound out of place on a circa 1983 double-bill with Missing Persons. Which is not to say there is anything inauthentic here, behind the slinky synthy excellence, there’s some genuine heft and personality to the vocals of lead singer Lira Mondal. Dagnabit, I think I love this Kansas by way of Austin by way of Boston by way of Arkansas band!

  • Teke::Teke, Hagata– Their album Shirushi made my 2021 Honorable Mention list, and this one is charming me in a similar fashion. Eclectic, alternately serrated and swinging, with an edge of dark frenzy and a hefty dash of mirthfulness. Yes, it is all in Japanese, and no that doesn’t matter, the wealth of its sonic landscape is well worth the journey.

  • TERRY, Call Me Terry– Ringing jangly propulsive guitars, walls of synth sound, catchy refrains, delightfully artless vocal phrasing delivering elliptical lyrics. Listening to this felt like I was in a great part of the alt 80s, yet also contemporary. Three cheers little Australian indie band!

  • The C.I.A., Surgery Channel– You know, this sounds a bit like a surgery channel! It leans toward a nervy sharp-edged post-punk, with more than a hint of the rawer end of 90s alt bands like Babes in Toyland, but also some chilly electronic/synth work a la Kraftwerk. This turns out not to have been released by a national intelligence agency, but by musical auteur Ty Segall, his wife Denée Segall, and Emmett Kelly of Cairo Gang. I really like it, and I don’t even feel the need to be clandestine about it!

  • The Go! Team, Get Up Sequences, Pt. 2– Get Up Sequences, Pt. 1 was one of my honorable mentions for 2021, and Part 2 is entirely as charming. Imagine a high school AV team made an album exuberantly mixing electronic dance, international music, and hip-hop with liberal use of synthesizer. This gives you some sense of what this Brighton, UK six-piece band is up to, and it is glorious!
  • The Men, New York City– With the band name, and the album name, you might expect getting a rocking outing that would fit in well with the garage rock revival of the early 00s. And you would get it! Not the most original thing ever, but joyful noise well delivered.

  • The Reds, Pinks & Purples, The Town That Cursed Your Name– I love the shimmery achy thing that they do here, an invocation of hazy summer days listening to the Cure in the alternative 80s. It’s suffused through with a lyrical nostalgia as well. It is rather same track to track, but a gorgeous sameness.

  • Thy Slaughter, A. G. Cook & Easyfun, Soft Rock– The glitchy mix, degraded sound effect kaleidoscope, and over the top melodic fragmented songs are super fun. Even if this collaboration of artists from London-based record label/art collective PC Music doesn’t quite come together with an album’s coherence, things like this that give me hope that pop music may eventually find its way to a genuine “new”. Or at least an “interesting”!

  • Tyler Childers, Rustin in the Rain– You could be forgiven for thinking that you had fallen into some kind of country music historical review here, with hints of the outlaws, the Burrito Brothers, and the 70s and 80s Nashville Sound. But you’ll get hints along the way of a modern sensibility animating things- references to e-mail, tips of the hat to electronic music, a country ballad cast as an ode to a same sex partnership. Six albums in, this 32-year-old singer songwriter remains a vital sign that a country that embraces both the old and the new is possible.
  • Van Morrison, Accentuate the Positive– Gadzooks, he’s done it! After a string of COVID conspiracy screed albums, his last album was a skiffle and covers-heavy outing that I rather liked. But it still had a hint of COVID rant about it, and continued the bloated 1 1/2-2 hour length of those other albums. Here we have all covers, a one hour run length, and a relaxed master having fun with rock, country, & R&B standards. If it’s not revelatory, it works from start to finish.

  • Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, Failure Not Success– The attitude and snark! The wordplay! The sure feel for decades of ass-kicking rock! Opening with a spot-on cover of “Love Comes in Spurts”! Yes, it’s his second entry on this post alone, but I’ll say the same thing I did when I put his 2021 album Where The Wild Purple Iris Grows on my honorable mention list for that year- How did I not hear of Billy Childish until now?!?!

  • Willie Nelson, Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90 (Live at the Hollywood Bowl)– You may think I’ve lost my mind! It’s not that common to get a live album that works as a fully satisfying album. It’s even rarer for me to sign off on something that clocks in at more than 3 hours. And, as a (largely) covers album, this even breaks the cardinal rule of having the same song appear more than once! Nevertheless, this live album of a concert at the Hollywood Bowl celebrating Willie’s 90th birthday is a delight from start to finish. It starts with a hefty set of great covers by many obvious choices, with some brilliantly unobvious ones thrown in as well, and then a thirteen song set of Willie himself teaming up with various luminaries, ending in a rendition of “Happy Birthday”. I may be hallucinating, and it’s not something you could listen to in full every day, but I think this is an essential piece of the legacy of an essential American musician.

  • Witch, Zango– “On their first album in nearly 40 years, the Zamrock pioneers prove their malleable, genre-spanning style still sounds like the future.” So says Pitchfork, and I don’t disagree! It reminds me of the sunny rock/soul crossover of the late 60s a la Sly Stone, the African polyrhythms informing new wave, good old fashioned crunchy 90s guitar rock, and other things besides. The musical approach is so fresh and alive I’ve got to consider it!

And there you have even more ! The 23 Best Albums of 2023, and 77 honorable mentions.

If an all-in playlist for the the 23 best would be appreciated, I have you covered on YouTube Music (as mentioned above, I’m switching to YouTube Music because of the artist’s protest against Spotify mass-demonetizing musicians that weren’t “popular enough”):

And if you’d like a “list only” version, I can respect that:

The 23 Best Albums of 2023

  1. Aesop Rock, Integrated Tech Solutions
  2. Christian Kjellvander, Hold Your Love Still
  3. CMAT, Crazymad, For Me
  4. Esther Rose, Safe to Run
  5. Gina Birch, I Play My Bass Loud
  6. Grace Potter, Mother Road
  7. H31R, Headspace
  8. Homeboy Sandman, Rich
  9. Joanna Sternberg, I’ve Got Me
  10. Logic, College Park
  11. Marnie Stern, The Comeback Kid
  12. Nat Myers, Yellow Peril
  13. No-No Boy, Electric Empire
  14. Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS
  15. Palehound, Eye on the Bat
  16. Prewn, Through the Window
  17. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, Saved!
  18. Roger Waters, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux
  19. slowthai, UGLY
  20. The Hives, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons
  21. Thee Headcoats, Irregularis (The Great Hiatus)
  22. U2, Songs of Surrender
  23. Who is She?, Goddess Energy

Honorable Mention


To all the faithful brethren, sistren, and otheren who enjoyed this ride in 2023, rest assured that, while medical conditions have sputtered our start a bit, I am planning on a 2024 review. In face, doing so is vital to a 2025 project I have in mind. About which, announcements sooner or later…

In Search of the 23 Best Albums of 2023: April

6 Replies

Do you mostly listen to older music? Me too! In fact, I spent a lot of the new millennium so thoroughly backfilling on genre deep dives and missed gems of the 60s through 90s that I hit 2020 with very little familiarity with newer artists. What to do?

I set out to educate myself! In 2021 I listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked my own favorites. I did the same for 2020, picking my top 20. And I started off listening to new releases each month, eventually finding the 21 best albums of 2021. I had so much fun in the process that I decided to do it again in 2022, listening each month and discovering the 22 best albums of 2022.

There are links to the 2021 and 2022 albums in the posts, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve set that up in Spotify:

And now in 2023 I’m doing it again! I got a little behind in the beginning of the year, so I batched the “yes” and “maybe” albums of the first three months together:

( January/February/March )

Speaking of “yes” and “maybe”, this is how those categories work:

Yes– This represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in running for best of the year.

Maybe– These albums have something to recommend them, but also something that gives me pause. I put them in their own category, because I’ve found “maybes” sometimes linger and eventually become “yeses”.

Now that we’ve got all that sorted it, let’s proceed with my picks for the most promising albums from 99 April new releases!

Black Thought/El Michels Affair, Glorious Game– The Roots founder Black Thought and producer El Michels Affair have teamed up well on this album, with Black Thought’s philosophical lyrics and authoritative flow marrying up with an innovative and sharp live/sampled mix from Michels. Add to this the dub and classic soul elements, experimental touches, and the import of the lyrics combine to make a thoroughly excellent package.

Esther Rose, Safe to Run– I was looking forward to this since her album How Many Times made my top 21 in 2021. And here again we have her delightfully sincere vocals, emotionally literate storytelling, and utterly authentic feeling for country, pop, rock, and their fit together. I’m not sure if I’m totally sold on the sequencing, but damn does every single individual song hold up.

Facs, Still Life in Decay– A spare, glowering, bruising set from this Chicago experimental trio. There are also layers of depth in the billowy darkness, a kind of emotional transformation even. It reminds me of the more metallic ends of post punk, of industrial, of the heavy break of a Nirvana song.

Kero Kero Bonito, Intro Bonito– High-energy mix, playing with fragments of electronic, classic video-game sound effects, dance, new wave, J-pop, and hip-hop. It is sweet, melodic, and so darn catchy that it works equally well whether the individual songs are in English or Japanese.

Natalie Merchant, Keep Your Courage– If Natalie Merchant can make a bad album, we have not yet discovered it. The songs here are serious and it ends on a somber note, but not unusually for her, and with much lush beauty, soaring emotion, and poetic turns of phrase along the way. About the only complaint I can lodge is that this could have come from her at almost any time in the last 30 years. Well…

Nourished by Time, Erotic Probiotic 2– I read before listening that Baltimore-raised singer-songwriter and producer Marcus Brown (aka Nourished by Time) “channels everything from ’90s alt-R&B to bedroom indie-pop and bubbly synthpop in the vein of ’80s Prince”. I would say that’s correct, though it doesn’t quite convey how delightful the meld is. What results is recognizably part of its various influences but doesn’t quite sound like anything else out there. More of this please!

Spencer Cullum, Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 2– This Nashville-based English pedal-steel master has produced something redolent of the more acoustic side of psychedelic and prog, a la 70s AM radio sound, with pleasingly ornate yet whimsical musical touches a-plenty. It never sounds like it is taking itself too seriously, but without a moment’s lag in musical quality. All-in-all, a weird delight.

TERRY, Call Me Terry– Ringing jangly propulsive guitars, walls of synth sound, catchy refrains, delightfully artless vocal phrasing delivering artsy elliptical lyrics. Listening to this felt like I was in a great part of the alt 80s, yet also contemporary. Three cheers little Australian indie band!

TisaKorean, Let Me Update My Status– The energy, inventiveness, and sheer fun in the first two tracks here alone shows up most of the hip-hop albums so far this year. The multi-layered production makes it like an orchestra, but an orchestra of voice samples, bright synth music, and repeated tonal motifs that provide a structure that holds the whole thing together. I had a similar reaction to this Houston-based artist’s 2021 album mr.siLLyfLow, and if this is lower on the delightfully gonzo factor than that outing, it is higher on coherence.


Maybe

  • Bruiser and Bicycle, Holy Red Wagon– So much goes on in the first track alone in terms of high energy, quirky moments, and off-kilter arrangements. And there are at least two songs going on simultaneously in the second song. By the time the third track shifts from shoegaze to electronic to 70s folk to 90s guitar, you’re 22 minutes in. They are apparently a “freak folk” group. They are apparently from Albany, NY. By the end of it, I’m not sure what journey I’ve been on, and if it quite came together as an album, but I never once wanted to turn it off.

  • Indigo De Souza, All of This Will End– Oh these earnest young things who so effortlessly combine singer-songwriter vulnerability, dance music fun, and crunching 90s guitar rock! There is a whole crop of them out these days, and we are blessed for it. Though it didn’t quite make my 2021 list, this North Carolina singer’s album Any Shape You Take caught my eye for the same strengths of musical inventiveness and emotional rawness that are on display here. I’m not totally sold on the sequencing, but it’s got a chance!

  • Kara Jackson, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?– The power of the plain voice of this one-time National Youth Poet Laureate is what drives this album, but the stripped-down musical settings- spare piano backings, minimal instrumentation, make everything pop that much more. Her voice itself is a choral instrument, and the songs have poetry, but also stories, and know how to have melody and structure as well. And the variety of approaches is amazing, none of them feeling less than heartfelt. The whole thing is a slow burn, but more powerful for it. I’m not quite sure about the overall flow as an album, but it never let go of me.

  • Lael Neale, Star Eaters Delight– There are the chilly artsy edges, the arch intelligent lyrics, a driving directness to the musical approach. I can see why I like her, even if I’m not 100% sure that flow and sequence came together.

  • motifs, Remember a Stranger– I loved this album from Singaporean dream pop quintet motifs almost as much as I loved Air Guitar by the Singaporean band Sobs last year, for all the same reasons. The fact that it is so dreamy has me a little on the fence, but apparently there is a scene in Singapore I need to check out!

  • Poison Ruin, Harvest– Orchestral intros that give way to rocking menace, sometimes shambling metal, sometimes something more like hardcore (which the vocals are reminiscent of as well). It is a good deal more accessible and fun than so many a recent metal album. I don’t know that it’s great, but it’s certainly welcome!

  • Robbie Fulks, Bluegrass Vacation– Chicago singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks has a decades-long love of country music roots. That, and a basket-full of talented bluegrass musicians recording in Nashville has produced this delightful album. This is not “new,” but it certainly does ring true.

  • Teleman, Good Time/Hard Time– The parts are recognizable enough- synth pop, new wave, a little disco revival, a pinch of art/prog. But together they work in a way that, if it isn’t new and fresh, still sounds genuine and is engaging from end to end.

  • The National Honor Society, To All the Distance Between Us– The sound here is somewhere between a chiming 60s, a paisley jangly 80s, and a dreampop 90s. It isn’t the most original thing ever, but so solidly done. Surprisingly, given the UK-feeling influences, they are a Seattle band, and they’re doing it well- the album won’t let you down for a single track.

  • Wednesday, Rat Saw God– Oh I like this! Moody layers of guitar, alternating feedback-laden surges and quiet lulls, lead-vocalist Karly Hartzman singing with just the right tone of lackadaisical anguish. On the song “Bull Believer” they let it all go for 8 minutes, and then on “Get Shocked” they show they can pull it together into a two-minute package. Either way, there are worlds of feeling inside these songs. There are sequencing issues with the faster and slower moments, but that’s the only thing keeping this Asheville, North Carolina from “yes”.

And there we have the April review! Out before the end of June, so I think we’re catching up. There’s even a chance I’ll have May out too before month’s end, and if not, shortly thereafter…

In Search of the 21 Best Albums of 2021: The 21 Best Albums of 2021!

24 Replies

Well my friends, here we are!

It was over a year ago that, as part of an effort to catch up on newer music, I set out to find the 21 best albums of 2021 by listening to new releases each month, and sorting them into yes/maybe/no. If you missed the individual monthly installments, you can find them here:

( January February March April May June July August September October November December )

This was one of three music-related blog series I did this past year. The final installment of my review of critic’s choices for the best albums of the 2010s is here, and the wrap-up of my review of the critic’s consensus on the 20 best albums of 2020 is here.

But you don’t want to hear about all that now, do you? You want to find out what the 21 best albums of 2021 were! We’ll get there in just a second, but first a quick overview of how I got to the final list:

  • Over the course of the year I listened to 1,026 (!) new releases
  • From these, I got a “Yes” list of 244 albums
  • Adding to this some entries from the “Maybe” list that had lingered with me got me 356 total possibilities
  • Re-listening to these 356 albums, I narrowed it down to 163 semi-finalists
  • I then gave these 163 another listen to get my top 21 (and 79 honorable mention)

And here, without further ado, are the plucky finalists. Aka,The 21 Best Albums of 2021!

Arlo Parks, Collapsed in Sunbeams– A solid selection of British Soul, with a poetic sensibility throughout. Her lyrical emotional sophistication is breath-taking, and often haunting. On a musical level it is, in a way, very straightforward smooth soul. But that’s the knife edge that slips the lyrics in between your ribs before you know what’s happened.

Baio, Dead Hand Control– A solo effort from one of the leads of Vampire Weekend. It booms into gear from the get go, and feels like I’ve fallen in to the Pretty in Pink/Some Kind of Wonderful soundtracks. You can take the boy out of the Alternative 80s, but you can never fully take the Alternative 80s out of the boy… Having listened to it several times at different points during the past year, I can testify that every time it makes me happy.

Bruiser Wolf, Dope Game Stupid– Vocally and lyrically unusual, surrealistic, smart, and sometimes downright hilarious hip-hop. It deals, as many hip hop albums do, with the street life and the drug trade, but makes such unusual musical, lyrical, and vocal choices that it sounds nothing like every other hip hop album while doing it. 

Celeste, Not Your Muse– A very well-produced British R&B/soul/jazz/dance offering with smoky, soulful, affecting lyrics. It’s a good mix of uptempo and downtempo songs, and works equally well on both. Just lovely the whole way through- she doesn’t have to be anyone’s muse if she doesn’t want to, but she obviously knows the muse well herself.

Czarface/MF Doom, Super What?– One of two posthumous hip-hop legend releases we have in our list. RIP MF Doom. I don’t think it’s just sentiment that’s got me liking this- the delightful swirl of music and samples, pounding vocal flow, themes of superhero/sci-fi, pandemic, and pop culture, all add up to a great outing! And, amidst the celebration, sadness that there isn’t more to come.

Defcee & Messiah Musik, Trapdoor– This Chicago hip-hop artist brings super-smart and conscious lyrics, muscular vocal delivery, and a spare approach to beats and mix. This reminds me of a certain stream of 90s hip-hop that I’ve missed.

Demi Lovato, Dancing With The Devil…The Art of Starting Over– Imagine you are a sometimes not taken seriously pop princess. Imagine that as you were seemingly on top of the world you were actually wrestling with addiction, depression, eating disorders, and recovery from sexual assault. Now imagine that you go public with these struggles, your near-death from them, and release an album that is unstintingly honest and vulnerable about the process. And that you somehow make it into musically lush and vocally powerful pop music. Simply amazing.

Esther Rose, How Many Times– Solid acoustic folk with nice country flourishes. She has a clear and engaging voice, and things here are charmingly not perfectly smooth. As a result, it’s lively and utterly genuine-feeling. this is a great example of an album that does not necessarily have titanic ambitions, but wins through by flawless execution.

Guided by Voices, Earth Man Blues– Nobody else quite does what Guided by Voices does, and they are doing it very well here. Every track is like an instant classic, and they’re all in different styles. It feels hard to believe you haven’t known these songs your whole life.

JJJJJerome Ellis, The Clearing– This album is really, a philosophical thesis about Blackness in America, ranging from history and literature to modern pop culture and everything in-between. That general subject area is anchored by Ellis’s specific meditations on music, and his own personal experience with his lifelong stutter (which he works in to the lyrics and music in various ways). All this is accompanied by clear beats and the light touch of smartly deployed electronic keyboard effects. It is fairly heady material, but also engaging in a way that keeps it working through multiple listens.

Judith Hill, Baby I’m Hollywood– She does classic smoldering soul, old style R&B, funk, and swinging rock equally well, with a voice that doesn’t have a note of falseness in it. Between musical variety and verve, soaring vocals, and sharp lyrics that address the personal and the social, there isn’t a single thing here not to love! Hill started as a backup singer who broke out on her own, was a former contestant on The Voice, and afterward was produced by Prince, and you can hear how much she’s mastered along the way.

Lana Del Rey, Blue Bannisters– This was her second album this past year, and, as always, she’s amazing. I did wonder about the slow vein it started in and mostly maintains, but as it goes on, it’s clear that this is deliberate- the album is a meditation on the richness of heartbreak and feeling blue. And it’s magnificently done.

Leeanne Betasamosake Simpson, Theory of Ice– Luminous lyrics and vocals, with an electronic-infused acoustic pop sound. She’s a First Nations Canadian writer/musician, and you will certainly hear that thematically here. But it’s so personal, evocative, and poetic that I think it reaches any audience even if that subtext is missed.

Luke Haines, Luke Haines in…Setting the Dogs on the Post Punk Postman– Oh my god, I love it! The kind of simultaneously personal and international tales of intrigue delivered in melodic pop and rock that Warren Zevon used to deliver. One might also hear hints of Elvis Costello or Nick Lowe. It pulls you in to its own weird world, and I never wanted it to end.

Nick Waterhouse, Promenade Blue– 50s/early 60s rock/soul revival sound with a wild edge and hint of alt rock darkness. Think of a kind of intersection of Buddy Holly/Buster Poindexter/Brian Setzer/early Elvis Costello. It’s nonstop excellent, and I fucking love it.

Remi Wolf, Juno– Musically, this is coming from a dance/pop direction, but her personality, hilarious and super-smart lyrics, and the verve and variety of the music mix all put it over the top. Apparently, she was on American Idol in 2014 as a high school student. She was way too good for them, as she subsequently proved by getting a music degree and then self-releasing her own material. This is her studio album debut, and I love it more each time I hear it. It’s not quite clear to me why she isn’t running the world, but I’m convinced eventually she will be!

Ron Gallo, PEACEMEAL– I mean, I’m both interested and leery when you start with a backwards vocals intro. This betrays a kind of 60s psychedelia/70s concept album bent which is borne out, but in the best indie lo-fi home-recorded kind of way, in the rest of the album. This is angsty, quirky, idiosyncratic, and delightfully unafraid to be awkward and goony.

Sarah Mary Chadwick, Me and Ennui are Friends Baby– Yes, that cover is really something. And it gives you a clue, in a way, to what’s going on inside. I love the ragged vocals and bitter emotionally sophisticated lyrics. The phrasing and music interplay belies the simplicity of each, creating layers even though it’s substantially only her voice and piano. Between all this, the album is legitimately harrowing. It’s like something this raw, revealing, and deliberately unpretty shouldn’t be out there. But here it is.

St. Lenox, Ten Songs of Worship & Praise for our Tumultuous Times– Boisterous, quirky and awkwardly earnest vocals and lyrics, music informed by gospel and electronic, unconventional spirituality, this really does achieve its stated aim of delivering songs of worship for our modern age!

Sturgill Simpson, The Ballad of Dood and Juanita– This is the kind of “extended story” country album that you might have found coming out of Outlaw Country in the 70s (as if to prove the point, Willie Nelson appears on a track here). It is ridiculously well done, vocally and musically straight up, country music story-telling in top form. It’s hard to believe he’s contemporary since the sound is so classic, but this is his seventh album, and sounding classic is apparently kind of his forte.

Valerie June, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers– Solid vocals and affecting lyrics, livened by skillful layered production. It pulls together acoustic, indie rock, classic soul and R&B, and psychedelia, and sounds equally natural and authentic doing it all. Bob Dylan has cited her as one of the contemporary artists he listens to, and I can see why. This is exquisite and gorgeous!

So there you have it, the 21 best albums of 2021.

But wait! Did I mention something above about honorable mention? I did! Having come all this way, it seemed remiss to not include albums that didn’t quite make the top 21, but still quite caught my fancy. 79 of them, to round us out to a nice even 100:

  • Aesop Rock/Blockhead, Garbology– I’ve listened to many great hip-hop albums this past year. And a whole lot of bad ones. So the bar is pretty high, but this collaboration of Portland-based underground hip-hop impresario Matthias Bavitz, aka Aesop Rock, and Manhattan record producer and DJ Tony Simon, aka Blockhead, deliverd. The vocals are pleasingly goony and un-smooth, the musical mix is wildly varied and muscular, and the lyrics are smart and off-kilter.

  • Alex Beeker, Heaven on the Faultline– This was just delightful from the first few bright, clear and poppy, lof-fi synth-organ notes. A sure feel for melody and hooks, packed with clever musical choices and lyrical surprises as well. I genuinely didn’t want it to end.

  • Amythyst Kiah, Wary + Strange– A plaintive folk-inflected beginning, then a muscular bruising blues track, then back to soulful orchestral folk, on to an eerie steel blues, and so on (with a country song tossed in the middle too). Musically excellent, and informed throughout with vocal power and sharp, clear, lyrical picture-painting.

  • Andrew W.K., God is Partying– Deliberately over the top melodramatic metal. Operatic, stirring, maybe hilarious. Is it serious? Is it ridiculous? Is it a skillful and heartfelt homage to metals and stadium rocks past? Friends, we don’t need to choose- It’s all of those things, and I freaking love it!

  • Arab Strap, As Days Get Dark– Dark and fascinating. Lyrically like some of the darker turns of goth music, but musically on the soft edge of indie folk and electronica, and the vocals are a kind of low-key narration. It all seems calculated to undersell how disturbing the content is.

  • BackRoad Gee, Reporting Live (From the Back of the Roads)– This British-Congolese artist brings together African pop, hip-hop, UK dub, and a delightful skillful wielding of varied sound effects and musical backgrounds. All this would work well just on the sonic side, but on top of that, lyrically it grapples honestly and intelligently with details of hard life in Africa and the UK.

  • Bat Fangs, Queen of My World– Do you know how much I appreciate jumping in at full rock from the first note? I appreciate it a lot! This album is steeped in the brighter side of 80s hard rock and hair metal, but with female leads. This works well, they deliver flawless cock rock without the downsides of cock attitude.

  • Benny the Butcher/Harry Fraud, The Plugs I Met 2– This collaboration brings together a New York-based MC and a hip-hop producer. There’s beautiful musical sampling work, fun weaving in of Scarface references, smooth vocal style, and lyrics with strong storytelling.

  • Big Jade, Pressure– I was a little flummoxed by this. It’s often the kind of bragging and dissing brand of hip-hop that I usually pass on. On the other hand, the gender inversion of how she does it is interesting, and the vocal stylings are strong and dynamic. There’s also a certain self-awareness in the unpleasantness of the character she puts forward. I can’t dismiss it!

  • Billy Childish/Wild Billy Childish & CTMF/CTMF, Where The Wild Purple Iris Grows– This English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist delivers blistering punk/garage with hints of rocakbilly, and 80s-style folk-punk. And there’s a stinging blues-drenched Dylan cover to boot! I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of him earlier (he’s been kicking around since the late 70s), because what he’s doing is right up my alley!

  • Birds of Maya, Valdez– Recorded in 2014 as a follow-up to their well-received 2013 debut, but just now released due to the Philadelphia-based band reforming. Bruising noise rock, pieces that go into surging, crunching length, with hints of psychedelia and metal along the way but informed by punk spirit- this is as excellently straight-up as 2000s hard rock gets.

  • Charlotte Cornfield, Highs in the Minuses– This Canadian singer-songwriter is a hidden (at least heretofore to me) gem! Her songs know how to work a chord change and are solid musically, but where they really shine is the lyrics. They seem in a way, insularly personal and specific, but in that very specificity are somehow relatable- this is her life, and her thoughts and feelings about it, and hey, that kind of reminds me of my life, and my thoughts and feelings about it.

  • Circle/Richard Dawson, Henki– Dawson is an English neo-folk musician, and Circle is a Finnish experimental rock band. They describe this album as “flora-themed hypno-folk-metal”. That’s actually a pretty fair description of the mind-bending sound here. A little like prog rock, a little like Bowie and Ferry at their most theatrical, a little pinch of Bauhaus, a little off-kilter musically, vocally and lyrically, but always interesting and feeling looming with import. It’s not like everything else.

  • Cola Boyy, Prosthetic Boombox– Some disco throwback, some home-studio electronica, a lot of wit and eclecticism, not to mention solid fun. Score one for the Oxnard music scene!

  • Dave Gahan & The Soulsavers, Imposter– I don’t know what I was expecting from a Depeche Mode member’s side project, but I guess something generally Depeche Modey? To be sure, this is darkly textured and full of mood, but this series of widely ranging covers is musically treated as an invocation of old fashioned R&B, 60s soul, and the darker minor chords of 60s rock. Among others, he covers Neil Young and Dylan, which is a good way to win me over. There’s always been strong of homage to soul and R&B in synth pop, and I can see the dotted line between Depeche Mode and what he’s doing here musically, but it’s still an interesting and welcome surprise!

  • Deap Vally, Marriage– Now that kicks off with a crunching guitar and feedback start! A female rock duo from Los Angeles, sounding exactly like a female rock duo from Los Angeles should. They do fast, they do slow, they do mid-tempo, and they’re gloriously menacingly rocking the whole time.

  • Deerhoof, Actually, You Can– I do love me some Deerhoof! Reville and Apple O are two of my favorite albums of the 00s, and I’ve seen them live several times, which has never been less than great. The opening song is about vegetables and a refrigerator, and every song sounds like a power-pop song exploded and was reassembled. This is lacking some of the surging moments and structural unity of their best albums, but is a pretty worthy outing, all in all.

  • DMX, Exodus 1:7– The other of the two posthumous hip-hop legend releases we have in this list. RIP DMX. This starts off muscular and menacing. Then is, by turns, a flashback to late 90s/early 2000s hip-hop, spiritual, and a considered meditation on age and parenthood. A tour de force, and fitting final testament.

  • Dry Cleaning, New Long Leg– This UK band sounds like they’re doing a conscious throwback to/revival of the angular and nervy early era of post-punk. And they do it very well! The musical side of it is excellent and the dry spoken word vocals of vocalist Florence Shaw are a great bonus touch to top things off.

  • Ducks Ltd., Modern Fiction– This sounds like some hi-energy alt 80s jangle pop. That, and the name, are both good ways to dispose me favorably. A bit of a time capsule sound from this Toronto band, but darned if it isn’t well done!

  • Elvis Costello, Spanish Model– I do like an unusual album concept, and this surely is one- the original masters of Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model, only with the lead vocals removed, and various Latin American musicians doing lead vocals in Spanish. Costello himself is backing this project, and the results are pretty inspired- it reminds you how strong the original tracks were musically, and the variety of vocal approaches to the material takes things off in whole new directions. Call me crazy, but this works!

  • Eris Drew, Quivering in Time– What do you do if you’re holed up in a log cabin in New Hampshire during plague times? If you’re DJ and producer Eris Drew, you mix together this very fine house/electronic album. Electronic music is often a tough sell for me, but this is so full of energy, and a wit in production that moves it dynamically forward while the trance of the beats pulls you hypnotically under that I never even thought about touching that dial. Or clicking that mouse, as it were.

  • For Those I Love, For Those I Love– This is kind of fascinating, a varied and interesting electronica background, thickly accented spoken word vocals, and sometimes searingly personal lyrics. Irish producer and songwriter David Balfe produced this response to losses throughout his life, including the 2018 suicide of his long-time friend and musical partner Paul Curran, and Dublin’s struggles as well. It’s powerful.

  • Foxx Bodies, Vixen– Oh, help me. It’s that band! Punky. Poppy. Heavy crunching guitars, but with melody. Female lead with a strong presence. They’re from Los Angeles in this case, seem to have been kicking around since 2016, and do a very high level of engaging gender politics along the way. What’s not to love?

  • GA-20, Try It… You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor– GA-20 are a band of blues revivalists from Boston, and in this album are covering songs by 70s Chicago bluesman Hound Dog Taylor. The sound leans toward the electric, rocking, chaotic side of blues, and I love just about every second of it. This is one of those recordings that reminds you how vital the blues can still be.

  • Goat Girl, On All Fours– If I had to think of two words to describe this album from British group Goat Girl (which, despite the name, seems to be all human women and not fantastic hybrids) it would be “lush” and “hypnotic”. Musically, it’s a combination of instrumental rock and electronic rock, fused together by strong production and a knowing way with melody. And the vocals are clear and powerful.

  • Greta Van Fleet, The Battle at Garden’s Gate– Why lovingly recreate a 70s hard rock sound? Why not! The thing is, it’s done so well, with such sincerity, that it doesn’t sound like a knock-off, but a genuinely new album from that era that somehow just popped into contemporary existence. It will be fascinating to see how this group develops over time.

  • Guided by Voices, It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!– This is the second Guided by Voices album of the year, and, as is their wont, sounds different from the other one, and sounds excellent. This one is more in an early 70s prog/psychedelic groove, with enough guitar in a punk/80s alt vein to keep it moving. I thought Earth Man Blues was more solid all the way through, but this outing is also worthy.

  • Jack Ingram/Miranda Lambert/Jon Randall, The Marfa Tapes– Several pop country stars hang out together on a porch in West Texas and record what they get up to, and it’s better than anything on pop country radio. There’s a lesson here! The songs are stripped down (including talk between takes, mistakes, and background noise, almost like demos really), honest, and shine like gold.

  • James McMurty, The Horses and the Hounds– This folk/rock/alt country veteran from the 80s brings stripped down music, ragged vocals, and lyrics that are so sincere and on-point that they’re almost klunky (but in a charming way). He tells impossible not to visualize stories here in the way that country excels at, and the music is rock-country heartland solid.

  • Jazmine Sullivan, Heaux Tales– This album is a musical tour de force with the mix of R&B and hip-hop stylings, vocally dynamic, and, beneath a shiny pop veneer, a nuanced and at times quite personal exploration of female empowerment and both resistance to and complicity with hip hop culture’s misogyny.

  • Jerry Douglas/John Hiatt/The Jerry Douglas Band, Leftover Feelings– By turns rollicking, relaxed, and tender, this music lives at the intersection of rock, blues, and country. Hiatt’s voice is just the right kind of finely aged to fit with this and make it feel utterly authentic. You may hear echoes of Dylan, Springsteen, the more wistful edges of Outlaw Country, and even, I swear, Carl Perkins here. None of it is derivative though, that’s just the mythic space this album is inhabiting.

  • Juan Wauters, Real Life Situations– This Uruguayan musician living in New York City took advantage of COVID confinement to produce a mix of slice of life sound samples, hip-hop, electronic dance music, acoustic, latin pop, and jazz. The whole musical package, along with lyrics in English and Spanish, creates a very listenable urban pastiche of exactly what the title is promising.

  • Juliana Hatfield, Blood– I really like Juliana Hatfield, and I’m also required by law to like smart, angsty, fuzz-guitared 90s songstresses in general. She’s never not had an edge, but this is nasty in a sharp-tongued kind of way, and hilarious. The lyrics feel a little too topically on the nose sometimes, but that’s a minor nit to pick with this solid outing.

  • Karen Peris, A Song Is Way Above the Lawn– Speaking of 90s songstresses… This album by Innocence Mission alumni Peris is meant to be a children’s album, but it works for adults. In fact, it’s exactly those aspects that might make it work for children- a kind of lyrical naiveté, a fable-like quality, a straightforward even somewhat bare musical and vocal presentation, that makes it so affecting. It feels a little like a haunted fairy tale.

  • Kate Davis, Strange Boy– So, I’m kind of in love with this album. Kate Davis, apparently, is a pop and jazz singer-songwriter who is now on her fifth album, a cover of Daniel Johnston’s Retired Boxer. Johnston himself was an outsider musician who’s stripped down approach to music came out of his own experience with mental illness. Somewhere between the quirky charm of the original material and her talented interpretation- her lackadaisical vocals synch perfectly with the lo-fi music- this is just great.
     
  • Krolok, Funeral Winds & Crimson Sky– If you tell me you’re a Slovakian black metal band, I’m always going to want to hear what you have to say next. As it turns out, I really did! This sounds, and I mean this in the very best way possible, like a metal band did a Halloween album for a vampire theme park. Musically, they pulled off something that bands like this often have a hard time with, bridging the looming atmospheric parts with the more straightforward metal parts. Lyrically, I barely caught a word, but I feel like every word penetrated my soul. Easily one of my favorite metal albums of the year.

  • La Femme, Paradigmes– I mean, it’s much more than half in French, but it’s so swinging and hi-energy and musically dynamic that I can’t help it!

  • Lana Del Rey, Chemtrails Over the Country Club– The subtlety of the first track alone is breathtaking. Throughout, the music is restrained, even minimal, but there’s such honesty and authenticity in the vocals, and her voice itself is an instrument. All of this supports, as per her usual, sophisticated lyrics. It’s not quite in the league of her other release from the year, Blue Banisters, but it’s powerful!

  • Lil Nas X, Montero– Given the hubbub that’s been generated around Lil Nas X, I was certainly curious about his first full-length album. This heightened expectation game can go two ways- but in this case, BELIEVE the hype. In its playing with higher callings and lower pulls, playful musical experimentation, and lyrical wit, this album reminds me of Prince. The transparent and prominent discussion of gay identity, relationships, and eroticism, rare not just in hip-hop but in mass-market pop music in general, is great. It even employs autotune to good effect- as a production tool rather than a crutch. In general, this album is thoroughly conversant with, and yet rises above, 2000s hip-hop idioms. Pretty great all around.

  • Lilly Hiatt, Lately– I have a friend who is a big John Hiatt fan, and, under her influence, I am learning to significantly appreciate him. So I was naturally curious to see what his daughter Lilly was up to. It turns out that she’s up to making a really good country-themed album, with great playing, powerful vocals, and just the right mix of verve with respect for traditionalism.

  • Little Simz, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert– Sometimes (often) I might be too, so I like the title! And boy does this album by a UK hip-hop artist/actress get off to a booming operatic start. She’s vocally powerful enough to keep up with the music too, and subsequent tracks are full of great production, intelligence, wit, positive energy, and strong presence.

  • Lord Huron, Long Last– I’ve been curious about this Lord, and his great lakey realm, for a while. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this was a very welcome surprise- country inflections with that spooky minor chords sound, sometimes in a downright cowboy ballad vein, but with a heartfelt genuine air. There’s even a framing device for the album that works. It was all superb, and was headed toward being in the 21 best until a 14-minute ambient track at the end. Alas!

  • Lucy Dakus, Home Video– Produced with dark musical tones and vocals with trace of haunting, this meditation on adolescent experiences in the shadow of a strong church upbringing is arresting. It reminds me of the kind of interior work Sufjan Stevens does. I sometimes wondered whether it was too similar musically track to track, but it also never let go of my attention.

  • Mae Powell, Both Ways Brighter– Bright melodic music, stripped down almost naïve vocals, charming and intelligent lyrics painting vivid pictures. There is nothing here not to like. For me personally, the San Francisco references are a nice plus too!

  • Margo Cilker, Pohorylle– Oregon-based Margo Cilker cut her teeth playing covers of Creedence, Dylan, and Neil Young before touring extensively on her own material. She clearly learned the craft, with dense story songs, a voice that never sounds false, and a sure feel for country-tinged Americana. There’s also some excellent use of the word “fuck”, and even when a song gets a little polemical it never sounds less than achingly sincere.

  • Martha Wainwright, Love Will Be Reborn– Many an artist has done a moving, even heart-rending, post-divorce album, but few find the subject matter so suitable to their native talents. I’ve loved Martha Wainwright since her 2005 debut album, and the reason why is amply on display here. Rich music, yearning vocals, and lyrics that are genuine, bitter, and hopefully vulnerable all at the same time.

  • Matthew E. White/Lonnie Holmes, Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection– This is a powerful melding of funk, jazz, and electronic beats from Virginia musician Mathew E. White, with vocals that are in turns growling and poetic from 71 year-old multi-media artist Lonnie Holley. I’ve noticed that these kinds of collaborations between artists can be either ponderous or magic. This one is magic- revelatory, challenging, but always interesting and listenable. I didn’t hear anything else like it this year.

  • Meatbodies, 333– Oh guitars. Wall of guitars. Every time I hear you anew I’m reminded of how much I love you. From this LA area band, I hear hints of grunge, Zeppelin, Jesus & Mary Chain, psychedelia. This gives you some idea of what you’re in for here. And I really like being in for this kind of thing!

  • Mon Laferte, 1940 Carmen– The second album out from this Chilean songstress this past year. It is just so darn pretty, and her voice is stunning. It also has a mix of Spanish and English, and dips into pop styles of the 60s, making it more accessible (to me, anyway) than her earlier in the year all-Spanish album which focused on Mexican folk music.

  • Moor Mother, Black Encyclopedia of the Air– Moor Mother is the stage name of Camae Ayewa, an American poet, musician, and activist from Philadelphia. With a trippy poetic spoken word start, weirdly syncopated instrumentation and electronic sound effects, it doesn’t sound like everything else. A truly winning outing of left field hip hop and experimental electronic music with dense powerful poetic lyrics.

  • Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, The Future– On the first track this Denver-based singer-songwriter seemed to be channeling late 60s/ early to mid 70s Bob Dylan, which is a great way to get my attention. Subsequently, though, he proves to be doing a romp all through the Americana and R&B of that era. And he does it very well! Does it feel a little like a museum piece? Yes. But a flawless and sincere one!

  • Naytronix, Other Possibilities– The first track is like space jazz playing with a radio tuning dial, the second has what sounds like an electric xylophone intro, the next is like AM radio gold being played on an 80s synth keyboard, and so on. That’s the musical side, the lyrical side is full of longing, and the vocals are heavy on melody with an occasional side trip into gonzo distortion. Naytronix is the solo musical project of Nate Brenner, who is also a member of the band tune-yards whose album Sketchy. I was very favorably impressed with earlier this year. As for this album, I think it literally delivers on the promise of its title, introducing an array of sonic possibilities.

  • Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Carnage– The dark hypnotic power of the opening track pretty much had me, and it didn’t let up from there. Cave’s darkling imaginings are well-supported here by the brooding music and its eerie flourishes. Poetic, beautiful, and often heartbreaking.

  • Nicole Atkins, Memphis Ice– North Carolina-based self-professed purveyor of “pop noir” Nicole Atkins recorded this album in Memphis, and it feels like an excellent merger of her lush pop vocal style and the 60s soul Memphis sound.

  • Night Beats, Outlaw R&B– I love the idea that the album name brings to mind- an R&B equivalent of Outlaw Country. I wouldn’t quite say it’s delivering that, but it is an R&B brimming with a feeling of 60s rock- I hear some Beatles in there, some Who, some Cream, some Del Shannon. There’s even a spooky gunfighter ballad and a garage rock banger that sneaks in to the mix from somewhere. This was just great, a thoroughly enjoyable turn from this Texas band.

  • Papur Wal, Amser Mynd Adra– Driving upbeat rock with great hooks and a pop feeling. A lot of the album is in Welsh, which definitely is a barrier to my understanding, but the music is so darn accessible!

  • Pip Blom, Welcome Break– This Dutch band knows how to do a poppy, high-energy rock song, and I like the earnest straightforwardness of leader Pip Blom’s vocals. Is it super-profound? Probably not. But it is super-fun, and flawlessly executed. And okay, yes, I’m a sucker for a guitar-crunching, female-led band. So sue me!

  • Pokey LaFarge, In the Blossom of Their Shade– Vocal pop with country, 50s rock, swing, ska, and Latin sounds in the mix. This description is true, but I think it undersells how delightful the combination of this, and his plaintive croon, is. This is some really excellent music.

  • Pom Poko, Cheater– Discordant, but high on melody. Quirky. Clever. This is from the school of post-pock that still knows what makes a perfect pop-rock song, but has blown up the formula and beautifully reconstructed the pieces (think Deerhoof). Also, they’re Norwegian, which may have something to do with it.

  • R.A.P. Ferreira, The Light-Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures– Rory Allen Philip Ferreira is an American rapper and producer from Kenosha, Wisconsin. On this album he brings vivid, poetic, spiritually-infused vocal flow with relaxed beats and some spare jazz-inflected background. It might be hard to keep this going for an hour, but at a half-hour run time, it never flags for a moment.

  • Rats on Rafts, Excerpts From Chapter 3: The Mind Runs A Net Of Rabbit Paths– This feels like an album lost in time. Multiple times, actually. You’ll hear traces of psychedelia, 80’s new wave/synthpop, and Industrial. It all adds up to surging atmospheric music. And, as the album name might lead you to expect, it’s also a high concept story album. This could all get out of hand, but it doesn’t, and it’s weirdly wonderful.

  • Remember Sports, Like a Stone– There’s this band I fall in love with every few years. The basic elements are: an all-female or 3/4 female band, real guitar rock with real drums, and punk power and verve but strong melody and pop sensibility. It has been, variously, the Skirts, the Bangs, the Soviettes, and Vancougar. This is that band. I’m in love! They should watch out, though, because my love-band inevitably seems to put out less than a handful of albums and breaks up before meeting with the reception they deserve. Alas!

  • Robert Finley, Sharecropper’s Son– This blues and soul veteran returned to recording in 2016 after a break of many years, and is here coming out with an album produced by the Black Keys. You might figure these would be the elements of excellence, and they gosh darn are. Muscular electric blues and soul.

  • Silk Sonic, An Evening With Silk Sonic– Silk Sonic being a collaboration of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, you might be expecting some kind of invocation of 70s soul and funk. Hearing Bootsy Collins is involved with the album, you might expect that even more so. You would be exactly right, and it’s like glorious slow-pouring sonic gold.

  • Steven Wilson, The Future Bites– The mix of melody, samplings, and electronic dance music here brings to mind early 80s Peter Gabriel. It has a tendency toward the ethereal, but the dark bitterness of Wilson’s lyrics and more grating musical touches keep it grounded. All in all, very interesting!

  • TEKE::TEKE, Shirushi– Now this is suitably strange! A Japanese band who’s music is a mix of surf music, traditional forms, and psychedelia-flavored electronic. There’s the language issue, and the fact that it sometimes get a little too experimental, but on the other hand it’s a fun and interesting listen, and the experimentation goes somewhere.

  • Tele Novella, Merlynn Belle– Vocally charming, with clever clear lyrics, and it casts a spell. Is this a flamenco album? A sad country album? An outing from a twee singer songwriter? All yeses, and I love it!

  • The Bug, Fire– I mean, you start off with a narration about robots and prisoners, I’m intrigued. This is like heavy electronica, with a strong dub influence- stomping metallic beats, synthesizer as its own form of percussion, rapid-fire lyrics full of looming apocalypse. Excellent from start to finish.

  • The Coral, Coral Island– This album opens with one of those classic psychedelia spoken word intros. The jangly psychedelia-flavored indie rock that follows, and high concept travel narrative interludes throughout, show this is exactly what this English band is going for, and they deliver-flawlessly.

  • The Darkness, Motorheart– Hard rock and metal, in a gloriously trashy 80s vein. Some throwaway Star Trek references. Guitars, guitars, guitars! It’s kind of like this UK band received the instruction “make an over-the-top parody of this kind of music, except do it totally sincerely” and then brilliantly executed on that mission.

  • The Go! Team, Get Up Sequences Part I– So fun and energetic- it mixes full on indie rock in a synth/bedroom pop vein, 80s-flavored hip-hop, and what sometimes sounds like high school band practice. This is one of those albums where nothing else this past year sounded like it. And it’s delightful!

  • The Hold Steady, Open Door Policy– The Hold Steady’s ability to do storytelling in a song is really nonpareil. Except for, you know, Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. So yes, you’ll hear echoes of them throughout, but never in a way that sounds like a mere copy. The music has complexity and variability, with power and swagger. They won me over on the first track, and never lost me from there.

  • The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Dance Songs for Hard Times– Obviously, the band name is great, and the album name is hopeful. The even better news is that this Indiana country-blues band delivers with a set of rocking hi-energy blues songs. Every last track is solid fun!

  • TisaKorean, mr.siLLyfLow– The fresh sound directions from this this Houston rapper, producer, and dancer include soundtrack and cartoon sampling, gonzo vocal flow, and hilarious lyrics. Also, some of the sound effects made my dog bark fitfully. It doesn’t always feel like it fully fits together, but it’s all great. Dog and man recommend!

  • Transatlantic, The Absolute Universe: Forevermore– The phrase “Progressive Rock Supergroup”, frankly, should set off alarm bells. And then the fact that the album is an hour and a half long? One should be running for the hills. It’s an interesting story, though. Faced with a dispute over whether to release a double-album or something more streamlined, the principals of the band decided- Why not both?!??! The shorter version isn’t simply a selection of songs from the longer album though- each was independently produced, so the same song on each can sound quite different. This is the longer version (I did review the shorter version but didn’t like it as well), and it’s pretty amazing. It feels like the high point of 70s Prog Rock/concept albums resurrected itself, in a way that’s simultaneously familiar but fun, and, for lack of a better word, friendly. Against all likelihood, I wanted every minute of the whole hour and a half.

  • Volbeat, Servant of the Mind– “Scandinavian rock band” is one of my happy places, so hearing they were Danes favorably pre-disposed me. Seeing them described as playing a fusion of rock, metal, and rockabilly further piqued my interest. In practice they’re also pretty darn fun. Is it a little formulaic? Yes. Is the more than hour run length a concern for me? Also yes. But it is so gleefully and sincerely delivered- a rocking good time that isn’t trying to do anything more than that- that it works from start to finish.

  • Wesley Stace, Late Style– This is groovy! It’s got smooth vocals, lyrics that work with the jazz-influenced music, a somewhat schmaltzy yet mysteriously still cool delivery, and songs that are clever, topical, and have a dark undertone under a cheerful delivery. It reminded me, in turns, of Randy Newman and Elvis Costello. What I subsequently discovered is that Wesley Stace is the English singer/songwriter who goes by the name John Wesley Harding, which makes even more sense in terms of why I like this so much, having admired Harding’s work since the 80s.

  • Willow, Lately I Feel EVERYTHING– This was much rockier than I was expecting. “Rocking” somewhat from a young Taylor Swiftian kind of direction, but full of attitude and musical verve. And sometimes coming in from metal and even Bikini Kill territory, with R&B and hip-hop dashes along the way. Well done young Willow!

And that is it, my friends. The 21 best albums of 2021, and 79 honorable mentions. If you’d like it in list-only form for reference, we can accommodate that:

The 21 Best Albums of 2021

  1. Arlo Parks, Collapsed in Sunbeams
  2. Baio, Dead Hand Control
  3. Bruiser Wolf, Dope Game Stupid
  4. Celeste, Not Your Muse
  5. Czarface/MF Doom, Super What?
  6. Defcee & Messiah Musik, Trapdoor
  7. Demi Lovato, Dancing With The Devil…The Art of Starting Over
  8. Esther Rose, How Many Times
  9. Guided by Voices, Earth Man Blues
  10. JJJJJerome Ellis, The Clearing
  11. Judith Hill, Baby I’m Hollywood
  12. Lana Del Rey, Blue Bannisters
  13. Leeanne Betasamosake Simpson, Theory of Ice
  14. Luke Haines, Luke Haines in…Setting the Dogs on the Post Punk Postman
  15. Nick Waterhouse, Promenade Blue
  16. Remi Wolf, Juno
  17. Ron Gallo, PEACEMEAL
  18. Sarah Mary Chadwick, Me and Ennui are Friends Baby
  19. St. Lenox, Ten Songs of Worship & Praise for our Tumultuous Times
  20. Sturgill Simpson, The Ballad of Dood and Juanita
  21. Valerie June, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

Honorable Mention

If you find yourself going in to album-review withdrawal with the ending of this series, fear not! I’m thinking of doing a follow-up post comparing my list to what the critics came up with as their favorites for the year. And there’s a rumor afoot that I may do this again for 2022…