Top 40 Songs of 2021

These lists are always a sort of personal soundtrack. They remind me of where I was and what I was doing each year. More than anything this year, ‘where I was and what I was doing’ was very simple: at home with my family. So it’s probably no surprise that many of these songs tend toward the contemplative. That doesn’t mean there’s no joy here, but it’s probably the quietest list I’ve put together in a while.

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

40. I Need Your Love – Tristen
There’s something soul-enriching about a perfect two minute pop song. No artifice, no unnecessary exertions. Pure conservation of energy.

39. Long Distance Conjoined Twins – Home Is Where
Folk emo hardcore riots. With harmonicas.

38. Shellstar – Deafheaven
This sort of neo-90s shimmering guitar noise has never fully gone out of style, which also means it’s never really experienced a revival. But this is among the best of the genre in recent years.

37. Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head – TORRES
An indie rock fireworks display.

36. Peace of Mind – Tim Easton
Back in the early 2000s, a friend of mine got in touch with Tim Easton when he was on tour and got him to swing through our tiny college town to play a backyard show. Most of the audience was the made up the high schoolers from our debate camp. To this day, it’s still probably one of the 10 or 15 best shows I’ve ever seen.

35. Make Up My Mind – Vanessa Peters
A beautiful day out kayaking. Most of the time you can glide calmly along enjoying the scenery. But then the rapids come, your pulse rises, and you begin paddling for your life.

34. Valentine – Snail Mail
Nothing on this album hit me with nearly the same force as her debut, but this one comes the closest. Especially that moment when she explodes “why’d you wanna ERASE me.”

33. At It Again (Again) – Slow Pulp
Dreamy bedroom pop that is here and gone in two minutes.

32. Cut Cut – CUIR
I have no idea what these French punks are screaming about in this song, but it absolutely slays.

31. Paprika – Japanese Breakfast
I mostly didn’t love the turn toward bubblegum pop on this record, but this song is a strong exception. I absolutely adore the horns.

30. Qué Lío – Natti Natasha
I tend to expect big thumping songs from Natti Natasha, so I’m always delighted to discover songs like this one, which seem to just float on the breeze as it passes by.

29. Spike the Punch – Alex Lahey
A lovely little slice of power pop

28. God’s Gift To Women – Harmony Woods
Best line of the year: “Keep writing those records about how you know best, like you’re a walking fucking copy of Infinite Jest.”

27. La Perla – Sofia Kourtesis
Coiled energy being released in carefully measured doses.

26. Dominoes – Lorde
I was hoping for a barn-burner from Lorde this year, and it didn’t quite happen. But I’m reasonably happy to settle for this very relaxed little diss track.

25. Followed the Ocean – Grouper
A beautiful noise.

24. Introvert – Little Simz
Kicks the album off in incredible style. The orchestral sweep sets the stage and then she strolls out: cool, collected, ready to blow you away.

23. Do You Mind? – Orla Gartland
Long after the pain first tears through you, when it’s no longer reasonable to act like your world is being torn apart but you also can’t make yourself act normal. And more than anything you just want to get away.

22. No Sense – Blankenberge
Blankerberge excel at big driving shoegaze. This one doesn’t really offer anything to deviate from that mold, but if you’ve got a good fastball, sometimes it’s a perfectly good idea to just throw another one right down the middle.

21. Ghost – Rodeola
The sort of song that feels like being wrapped up in a warm blanket.

20. Kiss Me More – Doja Cat ft. SZA
I’ve seen this song described as ‘bubblegum pop’ and ‘R&B’ and ‘disco’ and ‘funk’ among many other things. I don’t know about all that. But whatever label you want to settle on, it’s a delight.

19. Male Fantasy – Billie Eilish
I know a lot of people were mildly disappointed in this album, but I actually dug it a lot more than the debut. The idea of a followup record that deals with the languid ennui of becoming a star is a cliché, but very rarely is it addressed so deftly.

18. New Age – Mackie
Mackie was a member of the punk band Blitz back in the 80s. He left the band before the recorded this song. So now, four decades later, he’s covering it. And absolutely killing it, too.

17. The Right Thing Is Hard to Do – Lightning Bug
I’m such a sucker for a stately shoegazy torch song.

16. Tried To Tell You – The Weather Station
A song about the things we lose by refusing to be open to the beauty of the world around us, which is, appropriately, stunningly beautiful itself.

15. Pretty Pictures – Indigo De Souza
This was a really nice album with plenty of other less conventional tracks. In another year, I might have gone with one of them. But this year, I just wanted something beautiful.

14. Grass Is Blue – Gordi
Gordi covering a Dolly Parton tune, and yes it’s exactly as good as you would expect.

13. Brando – Lucy Dacus
“You called me cerebral. I didn’t know what you meant. But now I do, would it have killed you to call me pretty instead?”

12. Dino’s – Gordi & Alex Lahey
I love Gordi and I love Alex Lahey (see: elsewhere on this list), so it’s no surprise I love their collaboration. It really captures that feeling of falling for someone long before you know enough about them for it to actually make sense.

11. coping mechanism dub – Car Culture
I have literally no information about this song. I’m pretty sure I found it on Bandcamp, but it doesn’t appear to exist there anymore. Who is this? What even is going on here? No idea. But I love it.

10. Little Things – Big Thief
It never fails to amaze me what magic you can create with one guitar and two chords.

9. Morne – Benoît Pioulard
The sound of the universe breathing.

8. Last Day on Earth – Beabadoobee
An indie pop gem about the onset of lockdown. Produced by Matty Healy from The 1975 and you can really hear that influence in the chiming guitars.

7. Farfalla Run (Tossing Remix) – Batch Kalat
Deep ambient textures, a hint of unexplored menace, the crisp clarity of a cold winter night.

6. Jackie – James McMurtry
So many gorgeous lines in this song: “Half a section in the short grass at the foot of the plains / Grows broomweed in the dry times, ragweed when it rains” – “Watch the country roll by in the halogens’ glow” – “She jack knifed on black ice with an oversized load / There’s a white cross in the borrow ditch where she went off the road”

5. Drivers License – Olivia Rodrigo
The thing I love most about this song is its emphatic earnestness. She knows it’s silly, she knows that it’s an overreaction. But knowing doesn’t make it hurt any less, and doesn’t make it any less important to really feel the feelings as they are.

4. Camera Roll – Kacey Musgraves
A very close call between this and Hookup Scene–two absolutely jewels from the record. This one gets the slight edge for that final verse, which just breaks my heart every time.

3. Occasional Rain – The War On Drugs
I really do like the incredible attention to detail in this album’s production, but I also think its best song is the one with the lightest touch. It’s a perfect album closer: contemplative, heartfelt, just a little bit wistful.

2. Play It By Fear – The Sonder Bombs
A propulsive explosion of a song with the best chorus of the year, which starts “I’m too big of a nihilist for a world like this, I know.”

1. R U 4 Me? – Middle Kids
A blistering, joyous, emotional rollercoaster. I first heard this song on a crisp spring morning out walking the dog and immediately fell in love. It’s only grown in my affection over the year.