2021 Albums of the Year (Top 25)

It’s been a while since I have had a top 25 albums of the year this close to each other. That depending on the day, I might have a different top 10 than the day before. So as I settled into what would become the top 25, I focused in on the albums that got consistently better the more I listened to them. It’s not a definitive criterion, but an attempt to try to dissect what made each of these great albums so special. Starting with the rest of the top 50:

50. Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark

49. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

48. Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over the Country Club

47. Lil Nas X – MONTERO

46. Hiatus Kaiyote – Mood Valiant

45. Lord Huron – Long Lost

44. Gruff Rhys – Seeking New Gods

43. Amyl and The Sniffers – Comfort to Me

42. Emma-Jean Thackray – Yellow

41. Brandi Carlile – In These Silent Days

40. Iceage – Seek Shelter

39. Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend

38. Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR

37. Sons of Kemet – Black to the Future

36. Julien Baker – Little Oblivions

35. Lost Girls – Menneskekollektivet

34. A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Invisible Cities

33. Jazmine Sullivan – Heaux Tales

32. Valeria June – The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers

31. Grouper – Shade

30. Yasmin Williams – Urban Driftwood

29. Silk Sonic – An Evening with Silk Sonic

28. Low – HEY WHAT

27. Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, & Linda May Han Oh – Uneasy

26. Self-Esteem – Self-Esteem

Now onto the top 25.

25. Tirzah – Colourgrade

You can tell when an artist starts to work within a framework of what’s popular in music or tries to incorporate trends into their style. Then there are artists that exist almost always in their own worlds. Between Colourgrade and her 2018 debut, Devotion, Tirzah feels like the latter. An artist on her own grand sonic pathway and both records are all the better for it.

24. Indigo De Souza – Any Shape You Take

It feels only right to move from one artist who feels like she exists in her world to another that seems to have absolutely come into that territory herself with this record. No two songs on this record even sound quite the same. The through line is Indigo De Souza herself.

23. Jane Weaver – Flock

There is something so self-assured about the way Jane Weaver moves throughout Flock. The songs float from one to the next. So much of the record feels like floating on a cloud, letting Jane take you away, especially with how the whole album starts. From “Heartlow” to “The Revolution of Super Visions” to “Stages of Phases” is as strong a start to any record this year.

22. Remi Wolf – Juno

This album is a wild ride and a whole lot of fun. Remi Wolf’s energy is so contagious the more you listen to the record, the more you can feel yourself acting with reckless abandon. For as much she jumps around tonally, she never loses command of how to move through these beats. The opening track, “Liquor Store” might be the best example of this as she flows in and out of verse and chorus with that same reckless abandon she inspires in her listeners.

21. SAULT – NINE

The musical collective known as SAULT continues to make excellent music. After two full-length releases last year, they manage to again put out a great album. Last year, I wrote about how incredible the various percussive elements were on their records, and it’s no different on NINE. As you listen to each track, pay attention to those drums.

20. aya – im hole

Perhaps both the most experimental and under-listened-to record on this list, im hole is absolutely worth your time. Typically, when I listen to more experimental records, it takes me a few listens to get the hang of it. I didn’t need that time with aya’s record. The way the instrumentals morph within the same tracks isn’t just enough to keep you interested, it’s enough to keep you combing back for more.

19. Genesis Owusu – Smiling with No Teeth

A trend so far in the top 25 has been records that are hard to pin down to a single genre. Genesis Owusu’s debut might be the pinnacle of that. From track to track, you don’t know what you’re in for, you might get some rap, some funk, some R&B. Then on top of those, you add in some more international sounds and instruments and you get the triumph of the record that is Smiling with No Teeth.

18. Adele – 30

This isn’t a particularly difficult record to write about. There’s been a lot written about it already actually. For my money, Adele’s best album by a comfortable margin. If listened to in its entirety (as Adele herself intended it), it’s a heartbreaking, illuminating, and emotionally deft record. Adele’s vocal performance on any of her albums has always been a high point, but on 30 it’s complemented by a some terrific collaboration from the likes of Tobias Jesso Jr., Ludwig Goransson, Inflo (from SAULT!), and more to elevate this record beyond her normal efforts.

17. Turnstile – GLOW ON

Sometimes you just want a record that is going to bounce you all over the place. When it does it with the precision of cacophony that Turnstile deploys on GLOW ON, it’s that much more exciting. Let the chaos wash over you and you’ll know exactly what I am talking about.

16. Cassandra Jenkins – An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

A beautifully heartbreaking record. The longer I sat with it, the more I listened to songs over again, the more I realized just how deeply this record is prone to burrowing itself inside you. I don’t think I can honestly overstate how intimately this album can connect to listeners, largely because it’s so content with just being what it is.

15. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime

Unlike any other record in this entire list, Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime layers its instrumental in both entrancing and curious ways. Curious in the ways that make you start a song over as soon as it finishes. The guitar work across the entire record is the absolute star. It’s layered with so many other different sounds and styles, but it has a quality that surpasses anything else Mdou Moctar lays down on this album.

14. serpentwithfeet – DEACON

Lying on a beach in Florida was the first time I listened to this record and each time I hear it, it takes me back to that moment. Only the most special records have the ability to transport you through space and time. The sensuality and intimacy with which serpentwithfeet approaches each song is astounding. He never deviates from it. He revels in that vulnerability and in doing so, beauty emanates from each moment of the album.

13. The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore

Almost the antithesis of some of the 2021 high-ranking rap albums that I wrote about, The War on Drugs does not have a song shorter than 4 minutes on this album. If you’ve listened to 2014’s Lost In The Dream from The War on Drugs, you know this to be a good sign. And it is. Each of these songs is a story in and of itself. Take each of them on their own and it’s an enchanting journey.

12. For Those I Love – For Those I Love

I went back and forth on this record and its placement. It’s a dance record, but it’s also much more. It has the qualities of some of the seminal 00’s IDM works, but it manages to stake out its own claim. In doing so, For Those I Love explores the intricacies the genres with a lens toward both experimental and hip-hop music. It could’ve even been on the Rap Up. Instead, it finds itself in the top tier of records of 2021 largely because of the way it forsakes those genre boundaries and refuses to contain itself.

11. Black Country, New Road – For the first time

10. Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s Version)

I don’t think there’s an artist who could re-record and release one of their previous works and have it land quite like this one did. “All Too Well (10-Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” is as good a song you’ll hear this year. The whole record is not just a masterclass in songwriting but how to find depth in your own work at your own pace. The music reflects Taylor at a seemingly much different place in life, but the song remain triumphs. That is both a testament to her songwriting and her ability to have the self-awareness to see how she herself has grown.

9. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

8. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, The London Symphony – Promises

7. Squid – Bright Green Field

6. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – CARNAGE

5. The Weather Station – Ignorance

4. Lucy Dacus – Home Videos

This is not unfamiliar territory for Dacus. Her 2018 record, Historian, was released to acclaim and critical praise. It is also a record that has even gotten better with some age. But Home Videos feels different. From the opening track, it is a detailed, specific, and personal. At times, the words feel as though they are peeling up off a journal of Dacus’ drifting into your headphones. As per the title of the album, many of the songs feature Dacus taking you on a trip down memory lane. There are memories that are on video, whether that be from your family, your friends, or even you behind the camera. The older you get, the more meaningful possession of those videos becomes. But those never feel like the videos that Dacus is referencing in the album title. No, these are the videos that you replay in your head. The ones that are just for you. The ones that surface out of blue, that same blue on the cover of the album, in the dead of night. The ones that, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, help define who you are. Those memories feel as though they guide this record.

3. Laura Mvula – Pink Noise

2. St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home

1. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee

Between this record and the release of her memoir, Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner is having a hell of a year. Ever since I heard this album, I have not been able to dislodge it from my top spot. It’s simultaneously has this infectiously bouncy, pop-art component combined with sounds and feelings that draw on a much earlier era. “Paprika” is the album opener but it embodies that dichotomy so well. Zauner’s vocal performance is the element in particularly that evokes a bygone era. The instrumentals do too, but not without a modern flair to them. The basslines on tracks like “Be Sweet” have similarities to disco from the 1970s. It’s not just the guitar and drums though on this track, the synthesizers explode over the chorus in this joyous and vulnerable sentiment about believing in someone. All of that adds together to actually cement itself as my single favorite track released in 2021, but Jubilee has much more to offer than that. It is not all upbeat and fast tempos either. “Kokomo, IN” slows the tempo down, adds violins and tambourines, and elicits an actually beautiful that is reminiscent of something The Carpenters (or even Nancy Sinatra) might have put out in the 70s. The best part of the record as a whole is the fact that, as so many other albums in this top 25, refused to settle into a single sound. Japanese Breakfast and Michelle Zauner never settled at any moment on this record. They took sounds they were familiar with, that a lot of us are familiar with, and pushed them to new boundaries. For that reason, I feel more confident than any single pick in this top 25 calling Japenese Breakfast’s Jubliee the best record of 2021.

There’s so much great music on this list. I promise that’s not a brag on my taste but a compliment on every artist and their work featured on this list. I know I didn’t get around to writing about all of them, but I promise you they are all worth your time. Everything discussed here is, and that’s a kudos to each and every one of these remarkable artists. As someone who loves digging deeper and analyzing these records, I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything if this much incredible stuff wasn’t being made. I don’t take that lightly. I certainly hope you don’t either. I also hope you’ve found something new to add to your listening list. Until next time, stay safe.