Top 10 Albums of 2021

Cooler Returns by Kiwi Jr. is my album of the year.

1. Kiwi Jr. — Cooler Returns Growing from their enjoyable first record, this is the most clever and catchy album I heard this year. Really fun from top to bottom.
2. Laura Mvula — Pink Noise A turn to danceable pop that loses none of the lyrical and musical complexity in the transition.
3. Torres — Thirstier Great rock songwriting feels rarer and rarer these days. Most of the excellent stuff hides in indie subgenres or metal, but Torres made a great rock record.
4. Little Simz — Sometimes I Might Be Introvert This album is 65 minutes long and contains 4 interludes, which is usually a deadly combination for making my top 10 list. But it’s consistently creative throughout the hour, showing a lot of musical and lyrical growth from her last, also great, record. The lush production is a plus here, as it moves Little Simz up from an indie rapper to more of a mainstream powerhouse, and she has the lyrical talent to back that move up.
5. Yola — Stand for Myself Another example of going big-time with the production and bombast that pays off. Yola’s voice can easily cut through the catchy tracks, which lean less towards her past country work and more towards pop, rock, and soul.
6. Sufjan Stevens — A Beginner’s Mind Yes, this is technically a collaboration with Angelo De Augustine, but this album so thoroughly Sufjan that one can forgive me crediting him alone. Indeed, this album could almost be criticized as fan service, as it seems to revel in the platonic form of Sufjan — whispered vocals, singable harmonies, and just enough production to sit nicely between the spareness of his acoustic work and the wall of sound of his electronic and orchestral works. I’d come to expect only surprises from Sufjan (some pleasant, some not), but the surprise here is that the album is a pure play to his past glories and strengths.
7. Turnstile — GLOW ON Lightyears ahead of their debut, which was an interesting hardcore record but not the stuff of a top 10 list for me. Now I’m not sure what genre they are, and that’s a great thing in this case. The tracks have constant surprises, with electronic and pop elements mixed with pieces from their hardcore roots. It all works, and creates an original sound that I did not see coming after their first record.
8. Celeste — Not Your Muse Just listen to Stop This Flame and you’ll understand why this album had to make the top 10. A lot of great British soul records came out in 2020 and 2021, and this is one of the best.
9. Every Time I Die — Radical I usually relegate metal records to their own category because most folks find them hard to listen to. But some albums, like this one and Code Orange’s last year, are too good to not get special attention. Both albums are reminders that metalcore is generally terrible, but it has enough genre fluidity to occassionally create amazing records. What stands out here is how *funny* it is — every song’s lyrics are entertaining. Meanwhile, the band is thoughtful about when it pounds you vs chilling out, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. A credit to their hometown of Buffalo.
10. Japanese Breakfast — Jubilee Between this album and Michelle Zauner’s promo tour for Crying in H Mart, this is the year JBrekkie moved from respected indie figure to pop star. She deserves it after this album, which is smart, funny, sad, and personal, just like her last 2 records, but with big choruses to give it all some kick.

Honorable Mentions

Dodos, Brockhampton, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Katy Kirby, Iceage, Jesse Malin, Alessia Cara, Jungle, David Crosby, Richard Dawson, Arlo Parks, Fruit Bats, Miranda Lambert, illuminati hotties, The War on Drugs, Jerry Cantrell, Halsey, Sleigh Bells, Shannon Lay, Tune-Yards, Makhaverskan, Aimee Mann, Pom Pom Squad, Garbage, Martha Wainwright, any of the various King Gizzards.

Honorable Mention Metal Albums and Lingua Ignota:

Carcass, Fear Factory, Employed to Serve, Converge, Obscura, Trivium, Cradle of Filth, Gojira, Archspire, Summoning the Lich, First Fragment, and Lingua Ignota, the only album that had me say “holy shit” out loud twice on the first listen through.

Honorable Mention Rap Albums:

The Bug, Tyler, The Creator, Nas, Aesop Rock, SAULT, Vince Staples, Backxwash, JPEGMAFIA.

Here’s a playlist of the best tracks from all of these albums and more: