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‘You’re an introvert, you know?’ she says while drinking her latte. ‘Sometimes I might be.’ You answer, uninterested in the subject, contemplating the masked pedestrians crossing the streets. ‘Do you know if he’s coming tonight?’ you ask absentmindedly. ‘I don’t know, probably.’ ‘I hope he doesn’t arrive shouting “Hello, there!”, “daddy’s home!” or some shit like that.’ ‘Mask-less obviously’. You drink your sparkling water while looking at her shirt. “A Beginner’s Mind”, reads her work logo. Who knows if working there is what she really likes, you never had the guts to ask. But your mind veers towards today’s visit. Your rage starts to fuel up. You really can’t believe how he’s cared so little about the whole situation while there’s people that had suffered it like a widespread carnage.
The TV shows a guy in a suit reciting dreadful numbers again. ‘Promises have been made, it’s a known fact they’ve done nothing to actually live up to them’ claims Faye finishing up her drink. ‘Wanna leave?’ she asks. ‘I wanna live!’ you cry, faking despair. She laughs. The green in her eyes analyzes you for a second. You are surprised by how it matches with the color blue of her shirt. ‘You are funny, you should totally go on with writing that essay.’ ‘I know I’m funny’ you answer, a little offended. ‘Haha,’ she mocks while putting on her coat, ‘Then? What stops you?’ The question is one you’ve made yourself. There’s an inherent value in music without it needing to be shitty sell-out stuff. You know it, you want people to know it, but profit always triumphs over everything. You really wonder how you would have dealt with all this if it weren’t for music.
While you were thinking, Faye paid the bill and put on her mask. ‘I don’t live here anymore’ you tell her as both of you walk towards the exit. ‘If you’re mind really is somewhere else, maybe you should take that seriously and leave.’ Recently, your life feels less adequate in this place, it is hard to explain. Faye says goodbye and gets in her car. ‘I really like spending time with her’, you think. You put on your headphones, press play and a gentle soul beat starts coming out of them, enveloping your ears. You enter the building where you work. You start rambling on about what to put on the essay. How were you going to call it? Would you wait until it’s done to come up with the title? Was it worth it to make an analysis of music as an art form that has been used greatly for other purposes than expression? You see the note on your screen “Course in Fables: writing metaphors as a way to question”. That was months ago, why was it still there? You open the document on your computer. You guess that ignorance has kept actual creativity flourishing above everything, essentially. And it is an important contributor of the current bleak state of the world. ‘Ignorance’. That really sounds like an apt title. You go on.
In 2021 I listened more music than ever. This time I’m sure. Meeting new people, seeing new places, venturing into different genres, and exploring music from the past inevitably makes my interest to keep listening all the more urgent. This is all for good.
These following albums are only a snapshot of the music appreciation of one music lover living in a city of uneven promotion of it, and, as you try to get a whole picture, the bulk of forms, techniques, intentions, and emotions conveyed through music becomes gigantic, and this, in my opinion, is something worth celebrating.
I would say that 2022 may bring an end to what has frustrated and strained us through the most part of the last two years, but even with Covid being controlled the world is still a fractured and perilous place. May music help us find a way.
Here are my 25 favorite albums of 2021.
25. Endless Arcade by Teenage Fanclub
It’s quite amazing that power-pop forebears Teenage Fanclub sound this essential after 30 years of career and one major line-up change. Endless Arcade is pure accessible rock bliss. The melodies are fun and engaging, the band has an expected but still very noticeable rapport that only helps each track. Teenage Fanclub became a household name in their genre with the help of being irresistible, and while that is something that may seem unpolished as time passes, Endless Arcade, Fanclub’s eleventh album, is still inviting despite being straightforward, and sometimes you just need music to get lost in and not worry about anything.
Sweet slices: ‘I’m More Inclined’, ‘Home’, ‘Everything Is Falling Apart’.
24. Cavalcade by black midi
black midi pierces and confronts in equal measure. Cavalcade is proof that besides being one of the most gripping groups in rock right now, they are also consistent. Schlagenheim, their 2019 debut, was an excellent showcase of virtuosity, oblique narratives, and veering songwriting. In Cavalcade they keep all these traits intact, founding new, rousing ways of creating their own brand of experimental math-rock, with tinges of prog and post-punk. From acoustic, grandiose numbers to their channeled cacophonies (which in live-form explode with free-jazz-like potency) their second album maintains black midi as a vanguardist and fearless band.
Sweet slices: ‘Diamond Stuff’, ‘Dethroned’, ‘Ascending Forth’.
23. Friends That Break Your Heart by James Blake
James Blake’s unique take on what I can only call electronic R&B is devastating, to say the least. On Friends That Break Your Heart, Blake expresses a huge disappointment with someone he trusted and that fuels one of his most soulful records, and that’s saying something. His characteristic high-pitched voice, whether processed or mixed in a way he sings directly to your ear, sounds at the point of breaking. Of course groovy moments and perfectly arranged synths, pianos and keyboards embellish many tracks here. The background of the album is a melancholic one that never seizes to embrace, but it is Blake’s emotions that run through the album that ultimately invite you in.
Seet slices: ‘Foot Forward’, ‘Life Is Not The Same’, ‘Say What You Will’.
22. Things Take Time, Take Time by Courtney Barnett
The Australian indie-rock auteur, Courtney Barnett used to enrich her songwriting with noisy guitar riffs and pummeling drum fills. Of course, the melodic chops that embellish her everyday musings were evident since her first release. Now in her third album Things Take Time, Take Time these are the main attraction. This record is less focused but this lack of restraint benefits Barnett’s songwriting these days, which is all but lackluster. There are sweet passages all over, and this newfound ease on the songs gives the album a calm pace and Barnett seems to flow with it with serenity, which is something I came to appreciate after a few listens. After all, things do take time, take time.
Sweet slices: ‘Before You Gotta Go’, ‘Turning Green’, ‘Write a List Of Things to Look Forward To’.
21. Jubilee by Japanese Breakfast
I guess Michelle Zauner, the mastermind behind Japanese Breakfast, was gearing up to this. Jubilee, her third and most fully realized record is a heartfelt expression of pure joy. Zauner finds inspiration in everyday life and concludes that she can take it always with a smile. Packing excellent hooks and arrangements, the instrumentation is pristine and superbly executed. Her voice is more present than ever and the album really strikes an ideal balance between replayable and deep music. Released short after her memoir Crying in H Mart, Jubilee is a thoughtful meditation on life when you are finally unshackled from its shortcomings and it is fairly delightful.
Sweet slices: ‘Posing in Bondage’, ‘Savage Good Boy’, ‘Posing For Cars’.
20. ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE by BROCKHAMPTON
BROCKHAMPTON is one of those artists/bands that I can’t get my head around on why I like them. And don’t take this wrong, I’ve come to love them in the past few years and consider they have the most interesting outputs of the last ten years. I can’t explain it. They just have chemistry and intensity to them that is difficult to not pay attention to. ROADRUNNER is a more hip-hop album more than anything and it is as crisp as their debut trilogy with solid sounds that are presented grounded and tight. Featuring relevant contemporaries like Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA, ROADRUNNER is a record that further solidifies the self-defined boy-band as a force to be reckoned with. And well, they keep me very interested, so I guess no explanation is needed.
Sweet slices: ‘Chain On’, ‘When I Ball’, ‘The Light Pt. II’.
19. Drunk Tank Pink by Shame
The post-punk revival is at full-throttle at this point. But what makes Shame differ from bands like Idles or Iceage, is that what they borrow from the 80s forebears is an acute sense of melody, among the chaos and energy of their instruments. The rhythm changes in Drunk Tank Pink, Shame’s sophomore album, are hooks on themselves and their shouted-like delivered vocals, although similar in aesthetic to the aforementioned bands are less confrontative or aloof and more like a storyteller in the middle of a riot. There were more out-there rock records in 2021, but Drunk Tank Pink succeeds especially because Shame finds power in their well-known territory, and makes it fun in the process.
Sweet slices: ‘Snow Day’, ‘Water in The Well’, ‘Station Wagon’.
18. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
Lucy Dacus is a poignant and sharp songwriter. In her third album, she further explores ideas expressed in 2016’s No Burden, and 2018’s Historian. Home Video contains ethereal balladry, earworm indie rock, and Dacus’ penchant for tight melodic passages. Her voice, comforting as ever, is also sharp and at times echoic. But her words are still the star of the show. Dacus is ahead of her peers when it comes to creating narratives that in dramatic ways represent things she’s lived and suffered, or seen others endure. Home Video is a perfect example of a songwriter that effectively communicates feelings that in any other context are hard to even articulate. And she composes passionate music to help her convey them.
Sweet slices: ‘Thumbs’, ‘Hot & Heavy’, ‘Partner In Crime’.
17. Fading Graffiti by Spencer Krug
Spencer Krug is underrated. A colorful and cinematic songwriter, key in the development of a whole rock scene in Canada, Krug made fame by being co-frontman of Wolf Parade, fronting Sunset Rubdown, and collaborating with the likes of Dan Bejar (Destroyer) and Corey Mercer (Frog Eyes). His solo work as Moonface is the less known part of otherwise prolific output, and Fading Graffiti is his first release under his own name and is a solid showing of his musicianship. Formed mostly of songs originally composed for piano solo and released via Patreon (I proudly contributed) now recorded with a full band, Fading Graffiti is the expression of a songwriter with newfound inspiration keeping his alluring imagery and textured instrumentation as rich as in his other ventures.
Sweet Slices: ‘River River’, ‘Winter Sings To Fall’, ‘Crossroads’.
16. Other You by Steve Gunn
Steve Gunn is a guitar virtuoso (an underrated one at that), whose fingerpicking delight and arpeggiated riffs are all the more bright thanks to the beautiful background he paints behind and all the more poignant thanks to his loose, unattached narratives. On Other You, Gunn prioritizes melody, crafting his more affecting tunes ever. Without abandoning his instrumental chops, the tracks on this record, Gunn’s sixth solo, balance his wide scope imagery with an exploration of his own artistry that has had been evolving seen since a few releases past and been influenced by extensive collaborations across the musical spectrum (including fellow guitar great Ryley Walker who appears further down this list). He’s your guitarist’s guitarist, let’s say, and there’s only a handful of musicians like him out there.
Sweet slices: ‘Fulton’, ‘Protection’, ‘Reflection’.
15. Talk Memory by BadBadNotGood
After the departure of founding member Matthew Tavares in 2019, BadBadNotGood had to find a way to continue with purpose and focus. Talk Memory is just that. The band comes into its own after an important change and finding new ground in the process. Their fifth album is quite lovely, combining instrumental, marvelous backgrounds with more raucous passages here and there, but also with their jazz rhythms transforming in long-form fusion now, also adding sultry strings and several collaborators in various tracks. With their musicianship in full display, Talk Memory is a truly enjoyable record from a band that had to come across with a different approach, keeping up with the solid mark in contemporaneous jazz they have made throughout the last ten years.
Sweet slices: ‘Unfolding (Momentum 73)’, ‘Love Proceeding’, ‘Talk Meaning’.
14. Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, The Creator
After not one but two breakthrough albums (2017’s Flower Boy and 2019’s IGOR) that saw Tyler, The Creator evolve, come into terms with who he is and what he feels, and, ultimately, discuss heartbreak and loneliness in groovy and infectious ways, he has reached a point where his music can be more incidental and momentarily unattached. That of course doesn’t mean Call Me If You Get Lost, the rapper’s sixth album is an unconnected, haphazard batch of songs. The record feels cohesive thanks to the excellent beats and production, the brilliantly condensed influences of jazz and R&B and throughout Tyler gives room himself to be more explicit, while being a little more like his younger sloppy days balancing with the maturity shown in past releases. CMIYGL is ultimately another step in the direction of creating a body of work that does great to Tyler’s expressiveness and persona, and in the meantime, delivers a splendid collection of tight, groovy, and very effective hip-hop songs.
Sweet slices: ‘Lumberjack’, ‘Massa’, ‘Wilshire’.
13. For The First Time by Black Country, New Road
For The First Time, the adequately-named debut from this Londoner 7-piece post-punk band is one of the most amazing rock debuts of the past few years. This ambitious, wide-scope record lives up to the potential of the instrumental possibilities this band has, harnessing the energy each of the musicians brings to the table to create prog-rock for the internet era. The narratives are abstract, at least in the first encounter, the rhythms complex, the songwriting veers away from its nearest comparisons and ultimately the achievement of putting together these 6 long-winding, morphing tracks is still outstanding on its own. Black Country, New Road (who have a sophomre record ready for 2022) thrill with For The First Time a record of great magnitude, and funneled power that, like an epic adventure, once it finds its stomping ground it never loosens its grip.
Sweet slices: ‘Athens, France’, ‘Science Fair’, ‘Sunglasses’.
12. The Turning Wheel by Spellling
I couldn’t help but think of Joanna Newsom when I first listened to Chrystia Cabral’s cleanly-delivered high-pitched vocals, but in a strict sense, that’s the only evident similarities. Writing as Spellling since 2017, Cabral’s music (and voice) has extensive range and an acute experimental approach. Her third album, The Turning Wheel, the first record of hers that I listen to, is gothic and orchestral, with structures evolving and morphing across its 12 tracks reminding me a bit of Julia Holter’s own take in expansive chamber-pop. The Turning Wheel is restless, pushing its tracks to their perceived boundaries, with Cabral’s voice overseeing everything like a celestial narrator, sparking life to its marvelous and often cinematic instrumentation (I felt I was in Hyrule castle of the Zelda games at the end of ‘Awaken’). This is undoubtedly one of my favorite musical encounters of the year. A pleasing and yet challenging piece of pop at its most grandiose.
Sweet slices: ‘Little Deer’, ‘Awaken’, ‘Revolution’.
11. Smiling With No Teeth by Genesis Owusu
There’s a lot to unpack in what is my favorite debut of 2021. Genesis Owusu, a Ghana-born, Australia-based artist is eclectic in his approach, and Smiling With No Teeth is a technicolor effort. Yes, hip-hop and R&B-influenced beats are central to his music, but this album goes a long way in demonstrating the artist is not bound to a genre. Urgent post-punk, punchy new wave, and smooth neo-soul are just a few of the sounds that Owusu explores throughout the record. His voice keeps the album moving with his energetic choruses, innocuous rapping, and piercing lines making everything sound bright and engaging. It was really a surprising and enjoyable discovery and being his day view, it really gets me excited for Owusu’s future.
Sweet Slices: ‘Waitin’ On Ya’, ‘Smiling With No Teeth’, ‘No Looking Back’.
10. I Don’t Live Here Anymore by The War On Drugs
There are few rock bands right now like The War On Drugs. Singer-songwriter Adam Granduciel’s endeavor for larger-than-life choruses, thriving melodies, and soaring instrumentals, reaches a whole new level on I Don’t Live Here Anymore. The album is tighter and more focused than its predecessor, Granduciel’s voice, always heart-felt, is more frontal, his guitar licks are clearer and one thing that remains solid is his almost perfectionist approach to the soundscapes in the background throughout these tracks. His lyrics about growing away from your old self, leaving the common places you visit throughout life, and the spiritual changes that come with moving on, are more rousing thanks to the band’s unsparing creativity in composing sparkling heartland rock and bright Americana. Granduciel is heading to something memorable in the future, taking into acount The War on Drugs’ evolution and their fifth record is resounding proof that they are without question and with much drive, rock staples. Something rare nowadays.
Sweet slices: ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore, ‘Occasional Rain’, ‘Old Skin’.
9. Daddy’s Home by St. Vincent
Annie Clark, writing as St. Vincent since 2009, has never fitted herself inside a musical mold. On her already significant career of quirky indie rock and electronic music, her records explore genres at the same time she controls them with utmost precision. However, she’s been evolving her sound to more approachable structures in the past few releases and yet her hand is still tight around what she composes. Daddy’s Home is a very satisfying release because of its retro-leaning, 70s soft-rock and soul bursts quite affectingly and it’s particularly special after 2018’s Masseduction, where she unleashed a more electro-pop, kaleidoscopic sound. On that record, Clark started expressing more personal views and urgencies, and now she immerses herself in what has troubled her mind influenced mainly by his father serving time in prison. The arrangements are pristine and greatly mixed. With great instrumentation and Clark using her voice like never before, Daddy’s Home is a willfully accomplished record from one of rock music’s most exceptional exponents.
Sweet slices: ‘Pay Your Way In Pain’, ‘Down’, ‘…At The Holiday Party’.
8. Carnage by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Nick Cave’s late-career output with The Bad Seeds has been a magnificent reflection and dissection of grief. After 2019’s sorrowful Ghosteen Cave now has joined forces with his score-composing partner Warren Ellis, a longtime member of the Bad Seeds. Carnage borrows the ethereal sounds and surreal narrative of Ghosteen and Skeleton Tree but sounds a lot more grounded and is actually a more compact (and short) effort. Just as Ellis conjures up a more earthly approach to looming bass lines and bright synths, Cave’s delivery is a lot more tangible than on the past few releases. This emphasizes the passages where he’s sounding hopeful because he still finds beauty and admirable traits in life and the world. Oh, and hearing him swear on ‘Shattered Ground’ is just awesome. Nick Cave, now seeing his life blossom after his son’s tragic passing, founds new inspiration to express uncertainty amid impending catastrophe and how to find meaning when nothing in the future is clear.
Sweet slices: ‘White Elephant’, ‘Shattered Ground’, ‘Balcony Man’.
7. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
Where to start when it comes to Sufjan Stevens? In September 2020 he released a sprawling, forceful electronic record with The Ascension and then, in May this year, a 49-track album of instrumentals called Convocations dedicated to his deceased father. And recently, in September he came out with this beautiful collaboration with Angelo De Augustine, a singer-songwriter that is signed to Stevens and his step-father’s label Asthmatic Kitty. A Beginner’s Mind though having Stevens as an overlooking role sees both singers as equals, sublimely complementing each other’s voices throughout 14 tracks that are inspired by different classic films. The music is textured indie-rock with Stevens’ past orchestral folk influences being widely used to carry both artists’ voices as they use the aforementioned inspiration to tackle the search for meaning in life and the incessant uncertainty of death. It’s an exciting chapter in both singers’ discography: for one part makes Stevens’ catalog become even more wide scope and for the other showcases De Augustine’s up-and-coming talented songwriting. A Beginner’s Mind is an admirably conceived and carefully crafted record.
Sweet Slices: ‘Back To Oz’, ‘Olympus’, ‘It’s Your Own Body and Mind’.
6. The Color Blu(e) by Blu
I’ve been enjoying Johnson Barnes’ rapping quite a lot since first encountering his 2020 collaboration with Exile, Miles. That album is a deep and ambitious study on Barnes’ identity and Black culture as a whole, and one of my favorite from last year. It was an amazing discovery. I was pleased to know that Barnes, aka Blu, was releasing a solo album in 2021, The Color Blu(e). Despite it being my favorite color, the most appealing part of the album is that Blu uses this particular theme to reflect upon his identity, his role in society, and the scrutiny he has been submitted to all his life. The great use of samples that revolve around the color blue is a superb framework in which Barnes delivers great bars, makes the album spark, and works very well. Being this thematically cohesive never affects the record’s flow, engagement, or personality. Blu’s rapping is colorful (pun intended) and relevant. He sounds invested in his words and that only gives this record a life that makes its particular hue shine fiercely.
Sweet slices: ‘Because The Sky Is Blu(e)’, ‘You Ain’t Never Been Blu(e)’, ‘Blu(e) World’.
5. I Know I’m Funny haha by Faye Webster
Sweet, enveloping, smooth, gentle, outstanding. Those are several adjectives I can use to describe Atlanta’s Faye Webster’s 4th album, I Know I’m Funny haha. Webster’s narrative and imagery are full of loving statements, pretty quotes, and whimsy turn of phrase. Her peaceful voice makes the whole affair feel more personal like you are having a late-night conversation with a close friend over a cup of coffee. The music is of course loungey and sparse, but the humming bass, foggy guitars, and glowing melodies construct a record with a peculiar atmosphere. Webster’s writes at her own pace, the occasional string arrangements garnish her words, but the thing is, you are left never wanting for the conversation to end. This brand of sensational folk, R&B, and indie rock is known to Webster, but she manages to dazzle sensationally. And yes she’s also very funny.
Sweet slices: ‘In A Good Way’, ‘Both All The Time’, ‘Overslept’.
4. Course In Fable by Ryley Walker
If you read Ryley Walker’s Twitter it could come off a bit pretentious and a little too sarcastic. That’s most likely intentional. But what is also true is that Walker loves music, and praises his forebears heavily both in social media and through his own output. Course in Fable is, for this writer, his best album to date. A fruitful combination of his textured and often virtuosic guitar-picking and his more jazzy influences, showing melodic prowess combined with several instrumental noisy passages. Everything is all the more interesting by his always piercing remarks and tongue-in-cheek lyricism which give the songs the sensation of having many levels each as exciting as the last. Probably as a result of getting sober and finding a new grasp in the textures he has extendedly explored in his discography, in these tracks is difficult to predict what will come next and somehow is always something enticing and for that is essential listening in 2021.
Sweet slices: ‘Axis Bent’, ‘Rang Dizzy’, ‘Clad With Bunk’.
3. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert by Little Simz
Introversion can be unbalancing, even paralyzing at times. Simbiatu ‘Simbi’ Ajikawo, a British-Nigerian rapper knows this too well. Her technicolor fourth album as Little Simz, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is a defiantly ambitious and thoughtful examination of this personality trait but Ajikawo’s wide-reaching vision enables her to simultaneously praise womanhood, celebrate black culture and criticize the system that has marginalized those two things for many generations. Musically, SIMBI (see what she did there?) is a crisp and versatile record. It packs perfectly arranged and lush orchestral instrumentation and musical-like choruses flourishing many passages and tracks, tight beats that flirt with gangsta hip hop, sultry neo-soul, and R&B, and even pop-leaning and Latin-influenced rhythms and tunes. This record exposes a spectacular array of sounds that prompt you to an enveloping and rewarding experience brilliantly delivered by a unique artist.
Sweet slices: ‘How Did You Get Here’. ‘Woman’, ‘I See You’.
2. Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra
The peak of musical collaboration in 2021. English producer and electronic artist Sam Shepherd also known as Floating Points, teams up with saxophonist and jazz legend Pharoah Sanders to create, or more accurately, conjure a record of absolute beauty named Promises. They initially met because Sanders enjoyed Floating Points music so much, he approached the producer in an opportunity. Composed by Shepherd, Promises is a ‘continuous piece of music in 9 movements’ full of enveloping instrumentation courtesy of the London Symphony Orchestra, every moment anchored by an unforgettable 7-note progression. This sweet melody repeats throughout the suite but it is all the more poignant thanks to Shepherd’s gentle and quiet synth arrangements in the background and the excellent bursts of virtuosity from Sanders, who is a tacit protagonist of the album and also lends his voice and some pretty humming. Promises is an instrumental voyage full of soul and cosmic scope. A remarkable achievement, especially right now, that should be revered as the masterpiece it came to be.
Sweet slices: You read it, play the whole damn thing front to back.
1. Ignorance by The Weather Station
Ignorance is spear-headed by ‘Robber’, my favorite song of 2020 and, to be more emphatic of how much it moved me (and a bit melodramatic): my favorite song of the pandemic. However, how the record builds up after that to become a work full of texture, catharsis and emotion are more than enough for me to love it. Tamara Lindeman is a careful crafter, weaving the instruments of his new full band with utmost focus, glossing them over with her calm and fervent voice to express anxiety and angst regarding subjects like divorce, love, and most prominently, the climate crisis. She is very vocal about that last topic in her social media, and it definitely shows, propelling her songwriting at every turn. But what most impresses me is how inviting Ignorance is. The music is sweet but powerful, elements coming and going as it flows like a gentle brook, leaving you with nothing else to do but to listen to Lindeman’s timely message because she feels it too. The urgency is not for the listener to be confronted but to be empathetic: the crisis, Lindeman remarks, concerns us all. Being this relentlessly evocative in the midst of uncertainty and at the same time deeply passionate about one of the most important imminent catastrophes of our generation is what makes it my favorite album of 2021.
Sweet slices: ‘Trust’, ‘Subdivisions’, ‘Loss’ and (duh!) ‘Robber’.
There’s something
And it’s the light on your hand
There’s something
And it’s the touch of my wristband
There’s one thing
And it’s the weight of our wish
There’s one thing
And it’s our very first kiss
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