I guess I just blog once a year now. I've had lofty ideas about trying to post at least once a month with a check-in of my favorite music from that month, but I just don't sit down often enough to do that. It's like a PA at work, I start listing my accomplishments in January and forget about it in February, and then I have to do a big deep dive in December to figure out what I did all year. So happy December!
If we can call it happy. Omicron is here to prolong this hellscape. Disappointing trial results from the vaccines for young children are here to keep me on edge through the majority of 2022. Another year just passed us by and we continue to wait.
But music keeps happening. Music is how I keep time. Again, I keep track of music as it comes out. I just don't write about it.
In 2021 we lost some giants. Rest in peace, Gared O'Donnell. And Gift of Gab, Biz Markie, and many more.
Sorry, some things I had to just get out there. Seems like the perfect mood to write about great music. Let's go. Not ranking this year, just going in kind of chronological order, to help keep time or whatever. All of this stuff was great and I felt weird whenever people shrugged about the music that came out this year. Either they didn't get it, they weren't looking in the right places, or they were just looking for something different from me. I will say it was nice that there was no big marquee album topping everyone's list this year.
Here we go. Divided by season because whatever, why not.
Best of Winter 2021 (the pre-vax)
Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales
I forget where I first heard of Jazmine Sullivan but it was recent. Late 2020. Enough to get hyped on this when it came out because her voice is amazing and does so many unique things and I dunno. It's a great voice. This album has such a great feel, divided by interludes that seem as important as the music itself, about what life is like for these Black women. It also means there are like 7 actual songs, so it's almost an EP. But every song matters.
Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz
This should have been a joke album. It is pretty funny. And the joke lasted all year long...I can still listen to these songs and chuckle about this dude acting like a toddler who doesn't need a woman telling him to clean his room or brush his teeth. Very basic but funny. But it's not just that. The music on this is AMAZING. A pounding beat, all sorts of garage post punk sounds, a saxophone. The synthy "Creatures" is pretty much a perfect outsiders song straight out of the 80s but also timely. I really want to see this band live. Like, I want to see any band live, but this would be quite the show.
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage
Dude, this album. It is tense. Since Skeleton Tree, these guys have been on another level. They've always been brilliant, but they keep outdoing themselves somehow. I don't even know what to say. It's Nick Cave, who has become maybe the most consistently brilliant lifer in modern pop music. If you know, you know.
Best of Spring 2021 (the vaxxed dayz)
serpentwithfeet - DEACON
I didn't know how he would follow up the brilliant soil, my #1 album of 2018. That one was an impossibly heavy exploration of Black queer struggles. When I heard this one was going to be a positive, uplifting celebration, I was a little reluctant (it took me a whole 5 seconds to preorder the album on vinyl when it was announced) but figured I'd trust him to follow his muse. What we got was an impossibly light celebration of Black queer love. All the deep love but also silly things like wearing socks with sandals and super catchy a capella trumpet sounds.
Squid - Bright Green Field
I'll admit that I was initially drawn in by how goofy the sing-speak sounded with the adventurous post punk sounds. But the lyrics were quite interesting and I stuck around more enjoyed the rhythm section and the guitar noodling and got some real feeling from the vocal stylings. Mostly, the music is an adventure that hits me in all my spots. This is maybe the kind of band I'd be in if I had the talent/dedication. Super dynamic, you really feel every beat as it bounces all over the place, builds, explodes, bounces around some more, pulls you in, pushes out out, and keeps going.
McKinley Dixon - For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her
This should have been so much bigger. I think the only thing working against McKinley Dixon is the inevitable comparisons. Whenever I try to talk about him, I fall back on saying he sounds a bit like Kendrick Lamar. Who is the GOAT in my opinion, and most opinions. I'm not trying to compare him to the giant, but he flips his flow around in similar ways and the jazz music reminds me of To Pimp a Butterfly. It's conscious, it's experimental, it's highly entertaining, it got me interested in hip hop again after a bit of a lull. Endless creativity. The way he starts with something super catchy, then immediately breaks it to speed up the flow, destroys the beat to rebuild...how in the hell is he only at 10k monthly listens on Spotify? Buy his stuff on Bandcamp.
Best of Summer 2021 (here comes Delta...)
Death Goals - The Horrible And The Miserable
I think I just listen to little enough chaotic hardcore music that when I give it another chance I love it so much. This album takes so many sharp turns, it's pure exhilaration. This is just two dudes. Somehow. The heaviest stuff. Anything that makes you feel this alive in 2021 needs to be savored.
Backxwash - I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES
Speaking of hardcore. The heaviest stuff. Unforgiving hardcore/industrial hip hop. I was blasting this in my Honda Fit one day on my drive home from work, and I am a late 30s white dude, and some teenagers pulled up next to me, I just nodded while the hardest stuff they'd likely heard that day blasted out of my economy car, and they just yelled "you're amazing" which made me feel pretty good about my life choices. At least I made their day. Again, you find what makes you feel alive these days and for me some days it's Black trans industrial hardcore hip hop.
We Are The Union - Ordinary Life
Some days it's white trans ska. I don't make the rules. But I totally dove right back into the ska scene 25 years after it changed my life and set me on my path of musical discovery I've been following to rewarding destinations after rewarding destinations. WATU is special. I've listened to most of the big ska releases of 2021 and most of it feels like a retread (there are still some great bands still doing great things), this album is about Reade's struggles and rewarding path toward her coming out as trans. It's striking in how relatable it is, even to this cishet dude. Songs like "Broken Brain" about struggling with getting your brain to pay attention instead of getting lost in itself, or "Everything Alone" about making poor decisions out of boredom/loneliness. It all leads to the great climax in "December," about shedding the old identity to become one's true self. The horn lines are catchy, the whole thing is catchier than any pop song I heard this year. Ska still has something to say.
Dave - We're All Alone In This Together
Very British. He just raps in a way that makes me feel it all. Like in the first track with the lines like "Me and him got more in common than he thinks but I tell him it's nothin' big so I can go on and live with myself." It's being alone, it's being together. He can rap for 9 minutes with no beat and it just pulls me in. Together. There's also plenty of fun songs with clever wordplay like "Twenty To One" which finds many different meaning to "Twenty to One." It's just great stuff.
Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow
This one is wild. Some of the grooviest, funkiest beats. It's basically jazz fused with funk, all about the planets and astrology and a kind of spirituality that I don't quite align with personally, but it'd be hard to resist a cult if it were led by Emma-Jean Thackray. She has a wisdom about her, the music builds and feels like freedom? I don't know, it's a good escape from this crazy world to look beyond the stars, or at least beyond the moon.
Tyler, The Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
I'm finally getting into Tyler. It seems like he's just matured so much since the OFWGKTA days (did I acronym that right?). But he continues to elevate the form and simultaneously be more relatable and simultaneously be super catchy. I don't know. Others have written about how this is him going more into straight up rap and rapping the hell out of it. I guess that's true but there's more to it than that. The way the beats morph but it makes sense with every zig zag the sound takes. Like a mixtape or scanning different radio stations but every beat hits just right. Does this mean anything?
CHVRCHES - Screen Violence
Like everyone else, I loved the first two CHVRCHES albums, didn't care much for the third. I had very little interest when this one was announced. But it's great, it has the same creative bombastic energy of those first albums with a horror-ish theme. They got a John Carpenter remix, after all. And got Robert Smith to show up on a track. I like it because it's triumphant. The best moments are related to horror films, but those triumphant parts of horror films where you are able to breathe, like when Nancy brought Freddy into the waking world or when Sydney kicked Ghostface's ass. Triumph over the horror.
Amyl and The Sniffers - Comfort To Me
I remember checking out their last album because everyone talked about how great it was, but I just didn't care for it. I'm not sure if I changed or they changed, but this album is perfection. Perfect rock and roll. Or punk or whatever you want to call it. It has that energy that makes it hit harder than anything else. It's simple, but her voice hits just right, the drums, the few guitar chords, it's just what I want. I don't know how to explain it. I've always loved punk, and this hits those nerves in just the right way.
Low - HEY WHAT
I listened to a bit of Low in the early 2000s I think. They were interesting but not so interesting that I'd continue to follow them. Checking back in 20 years later due to all the hype they were getting, I was shocked that this was the same band. A completely unique approach to melody, to song structure, while still being super catchy and feel-good. I love the way the fragments of sounds make beats, kind of like what Fugazi was doing back in the day, but with more vocal harmonies and pure gorgeousness (note: not saying Fugazi isn't gorgeous or not the best band ever) and 2021 energy.
Best of Fall 2021 (Boosted just in time for Omicron!)
Xenia Rubinos - Una Rosa
Honestly this is probably my #1 of the year. There's a lot of great stuff out there that made me feel alive, a lot of unique takes on things, and this one did both in such a great way. I listened to a bit of Xenia Rubinos and even got Black Terry Cat on Bandcamp because she showed up attached to two of my favorite artists: Deerhoof ("Singalong Junk" from Mountain Moves) and Battles ("They Played It Twice" from Juice B Crypts). With this new album, I can certainly detect the similarities (some real Battles energy on "Ay Hombre," some Deerhoof vibes in the playfulness across genres), but she is something totally different. The beats on this album, the soulful vocals, particularly the Spanish sung portions, the Laurie Anderson-esque distortions, this is an album that brings together so many of my favorite things while being something completely different. It's a revelation. I love it so much.
Gustaf - Audio Drag for Ego Slobs
This is what post punk is supposed to sound like. I hear a lot of bands these days that get labeled as post punk, but this gets the feeling just right. It's as immediate as punk, it's got the funky bass lines, it's playful. It's pretty simple. It's just right.
Some More Hearty Endorsements
These were on the cusp of making the above list because they're also great.
- Madlib - Sound Ancestors
- Tune-Yards - Sketchy
- Esther Rose - How Many Times
- For Those I Love - For Those I Love
- Dawn Richard - Second Line
- Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future
- black midi - Cavalcade
- Gary Numan - Intruder
- Laura Mvula - Pink Noise
- Yola - Stand For Myself
- Catbite - Nice One
- Indigo De Souza - Any Shape You Take
- Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air
- Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
- Deerhoof - Actually, You Can
- Maxo Kream - WEIGHT OF THE WORLD
- The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore
