I’ve been writing up my lists of favorite albums here for fifteen years now. This is the first year in all that time that I don’t have full writeups on all the albums that I’d like to cover. I tried to carve out some space for it, but 2021 has been a pretty eventful year. Among everything going on out there, in our little corner of the world we had a baby and then moved to Sweden. So for the past few months I’ve been full-time parenting while also teaching three classes, and doing all that while trying to deal with an intercontinental move. It has been an incredible experience, but also a very busy one.
So I’ve enjoyed a lot of music this year, but haven’t had nearly as much time to sit listening carefully. Whether or not that’s reflected in this list, I’m not sure. But I can say that these are mostly the albums that I enjoyed listening to with our little guy.
As usual, I’ve created a Spotify list. But Spotify pays artists basically nothing, so I’ll make my annual request: if you like this music, go pay real money for it. At Bandcamp preferably. Artists are really hurting these days, after two years of limited or non-existent touring. Music is so so good, and artists should be compensated for giving it to us.
10. Harmony Woods – GRACEFUL RAGE
I’ve loved the last two Harmony Woods records, and this one is more of the same. But more. More of what? More emo, more explosions, more audio saturation. It doesn’t always work out—the middle section of the record in particular feels a little overworked—but it makes for a powerful punch.
9. Vanessa Peters – Modern Age
One of my favorite artists with another lovely record. It’s the loudest record she’s released in a long time, and in general I prefer her quieter, more introspective songs. But there’s something refreshing about letting your hair down and playing it loud. That was especially true this year, when this CD lived in our car stereo all spring and summer and soundtracked our trips to the park with the baby.
8. Magdalena Bay – Mercurial World
The music of the 2020s often feels like it’s really just 80s music made by kids born in the 90s for kids born in the 2000s using the production techniques of the 2010s. Magdalena Bay feel like a peak example of this phenomenon. It’s Madonna interpolated through Grimes and broadcast on TikTok. As an old millennial, I find almost everything around the band to be somewhat baffling (and more than a little annoying). But the music…the music absolutely rips. And that’s enough.
7. Deafheaven – Infinite Granite
They’ve been dialing down the metal in recent years, but this one is a major step beyond what they’ve done before. Where the melodic element used to live underneath the noise, providing a tiny counterpoint, the hierarchy is fully reversed here. These songs are soft, almost tender. That doesn’t mean it’s not a loud record. But they’re hitting the drums hard and turning the amps up high not to blow you away, but to give you a chance to fully experience every harmonic breath.
6. Middle Kids – Today We’re The Greatest
A blend of mid-2000s indie rock, late 70s power pop, with songs that could just as easily have been written in a folk tradition. But lyrically, it owes far more to a contemporary sensibility. There is pain here, and loss, but also an insistent joyfulness.
5. Grouper – Shade
Another record built around aural texture. It does not feel like a cohesive whole, unsurprising for an album composed from pieces recorded over the course of fifteen years. It works best in the extremes—the pure quiet beauty and the chaotic destructive madness—and in the relationship between those experiences. That relationship is captured very well by the opening two tracks, which cast the whole world into the storm and then strum softly back into the light.
4. Kacey Musgraves – star-crossed
One of those records that managed to be both a huge disappointment and a stirring success. Given her career progression to this point, it felt like a Kacey Musgraves breakup album had the potential to become a new all-time standard in the genre. But instead of leaning into the pathos, she tried to make Art. But the thematic structure doesn’t really work, and some of the genre-busting choices succeed but others really don’t. Even still, there are some absolutely killer tunes here. And that’s more than enough to save it.
3. Benoît Pioulard – Bloodless
Soundscapes that layer gorgeous slow sweeping melodies on top of tape hiss and the distant crackling of stars. I love everything he does, and this record is no exception.
2. The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Another gem from one of the best bands in the world right now. The production is going to turn some folks off—I’ve seen some unfavorable comparisons to Steely Dan—but I think that’s a little misguided. Yes, it’s sleek. And yes, the musicianship is expert. But this record is filled with unexpected twists and turns that keep it from ever feeling even a little bit sterile.
1. James McMurtry – The Horses and the Hounds
This one really snuck up on me as my #1 for the year. I enjoyed it on the first listen, but would never have flagged it as the year’s best. But the more time I spent with it, the more it meant to me. McMurtry has always been a genius of character studies, but he’s really outdone himself this time. Every song feels like a novel sanded down to its pure, perfect core. The back half of the record drags a tiny bit, but the opening sextet absolutely blows me away every time.
Honorable Mentions
11. Antlers – Green to Gold
12. Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR
13. Rodeola – Arlene
14. Amy Shark – Cry Forever
15. Lightning Bug – A Color of the Sky