End of the year music discussion, 2021

[RPS]

Feel free to post your year end lists, your think pieces about 2021, the lists from notable outlets. I'll post the Metacritic round ups, as well as the notable year end lists from Pitchfork, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, etc. 

The Grammys were just announced and this was what the Grammy's panel that decided were the best album and songs of the year:

Spoiler

Album of the Year
Jon Batiste - We Are
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga – Love for Sale
Justin Bieber – Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe)
Doja Cat – Planet Her (Deluxe)
Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
H.E.R. – Back of My Mind
Lil Nas X – Montero
Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
Taylor Swift – Evermore
Kanye West – Donda

Record of the Year
ABBA – I Still Have Faith in You
Jon Batiste – Freedom
Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga – I Get a Kick Out of You
Justin Bieber, Daniel Cesar, Giveon – Peaches
Brandi Carlile – Right on Time
Doja Cat, SZA – Kiss Me More
Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
Lil Nas X – Montero (Call Me by Your Name)
Olivia Rodrigo – Drivers License
Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open

Song of the Year
Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits
Alicia Keys, Brandi Carlile – A Beautiful Noise
Olivia Rodrigo – Drivers License
H.E.R. – Fight for You
Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
Doja Cat, SZA – Kiss Me More
Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open
Lil Nas X – Montero (Call Me by Your Name)
Justin Bieber, Daniel Cesar, Giveon – Peaches
Brandi Carlile – Right on Time

 

[RPS]

The Guardian has released their top 20 singles: 

Spoiler

20. The Weeknd – Take My Breath
19. Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open
18. ABBA - Don't Shut Me Down
17. Pearl Charles – Only for Tonight
16. Wolf Alice – How Can I Make It OK?
15. Parris – Skater’s World ft Eden Samara
14. Cassandra Jenkins – Hard Drive
13. Lil Nas X – Montero (Call Me By Your Name)
12. Japanese Breakfast – Be Sweet
11. BTS - Butter
10. Anz – You Could Be ft George Riley
09. Little Simz – Introvert
08. The Weather Station – Tried to Tell You
07. Billie Eilish – Your Power
06. Olvia Rodrigo - good 4 u
05. Muna – Silk Chiffon ft Phoebe Bridgers
04. Caroline Polachek – Bunny Is a Rider
03. Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To
02. Wet Leg – Chaise Longue
01. Self Esteem – I Do This All the Time

 

[JasonM]

I think I might be out of touch, because i've not heard the top 19.

Also are the ABBA nominations/listings throw-in's, because I suggested buying the LP for my parents and they both are big ABBA fans and were "God, please don't."

[Skummy]

Other than a select few, I've fallen a couple of months behind on listening to new albums.

Some stuff I've especially liked this year, though:

• Beautify Junkyard's album from back in January - I didn't know the band at all prior to this, and they've been a great discovery
• The KLF making their back catalogue available on Spotify and elsewhere
• First Aid Kit's Leonard Cohen covers album, particularly the version of "I Want It Darker"
• Tom Jones' latest - his last two albums went the Johnny Cash route of doing stripped down arrangements of blues and gospel songs among choice modern covers, so to go from that to Krautrock and Radiohead-inspired guitar work as the backing at this point of career, and for it to work, is superb
• Mdou Moctar's Afrique Victim is one of my favourite albums of the year that's likely passed under a lot of people's radar
• Fucked Up and The Hell have both done some really ostentatious, weird multi-part concept albums/rock operas that deserve at least one listen apiece
• The new Mountain Goats is as good as they've ever been
• Mono, The Ruins Of Beverast, Wolves In The Throneroom  and Red Fang are among my favourite metal albums of the year - though I haven't listened to the new Sunn O))) yet
• Peter Capaldi's album was a really pleasant surprise, I enjoyed all of it - clear Lou Reed and Bob Dylan influences, but feels like a considered artistic endeavour, rather than an actor's vanity project.

3 minutes ago, Absolute JasonM said:

Also are the ABBA nominations/listings throw-in's, because I suggested buying the LP for my parents and they both are big ABBA fans and were "God, please don't."

The only reason I can see ABBA making end of year lists is for the novelty of them having come back because the album is terrible.

[RPS]

I thought that ABBA only had a single out. I did not realize they did a full album. Wow. I may have to subject myself to that one. 

[Gorka]

3 hours ago, Absolute JasonM said:

I think I might be out of touch, because i've not heard the top 19.

Also are the ABBA nominations/listings throw-in's, because I suggested buying the LP for my parents and they both are big ABBA fans and were "God, please don't."

Tbf quite a lot of that list is a mix of next-gen popstars/household names, up-and-coming indie acts and artists that have been around for a bit but are starting to get critical acclaim. 

Few more lists:

Paste Magazine

Spoiler

1. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra - "Promises"
2. Turnstile - "Glow On"
3. The Weather Station - "Ignorance"
4. Little Simz - "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert"
5. Japanese Breakfast - "Jubilee"
6. Tyler, the Creator - "Call Me If You Get Lost"
7. Dry Cleaning - "New Long Leg"
8. The Armed - "Ultrapop"
9. Spirit of the Beehive - "Entertainment, Death"
10. Snail Mail - "Valentine"

The New Yorker

Spoiler

1. The Weather Station - "Ignorance"
2. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra - "Promises"
3. Julien Baker - "Little Oblivions"
4. Mdou Moctar - "Afrique Victime"
5. Dawn Richard - "Second Line"
6. Wiki - "Half God"
7. Michael Hurley - "Time of the Foxgloves"
8. Low - "Hey What"
9. Snail Mail - "Valentine"
10. Dry Cleaning - "New Leg"

 

[Moses Julep]

https://www.albumoftheyear.org

This is a great resource where you can find all the year end lists and they also aggregate all the album reviews throughout the year to make their own best of list too.

[METALMAN]

9 hours ago, Skummy said:

The KLF making their back catalogue available on Spotify and elsewhere

WHAT? how did I miss this? probably the best music news of 2021.

Also, yes, the new Abba album is dreadful. Perhaps edges out Diana Ross in the long awaited comeback album of 2021 that is utterly terrible competition. 

I'll have a think about my favourites of 2021 and come back to this. In the spirit of making this post entirely about old fogeys, I liked that remix/new versions McCartney III one that came out this year a lot. Might even be my number 1. But probably not...

[GoGo Yubari]

I've been really out of touch with music this year, or at least albums. I think I've listened to an okay amount of 2021 albums but a lot of them either didn't leave an impression beyond "this seems good" (see: Julien Baker), left me disappointed (see: Kacey Musgraves), or were kind of a "dead dove: do not eat" scenario (see: Weezer). Off the top of my head, two albums from this year I liked were I know I'm funny haha by Faye Webster and Silk Sonic's self-titled.

I do like some songs from this year. Wet Leg's first two songs are very much up my alley and the third they put out today seems like it's a welcome change of pace. I imagine like last year I'll end up making a YouTube playlist of 2021 songs I enjoyed and will post it in this thread sometime late next month.

[LittleDaniel]

Oh hell yeah, good for Self Esteem getting number in the Guardian; her album was quite good, I don't know if I'm just not used to pop releases but the album did suffer a little from having already heard like half the songs by the time it came out. That, smol data, and Japanese Breakfast's albums were good. I'm sure there's other stuff that came out but I haven't been super into anything I've heard from this year, though I still need to listen to stuff like the new Mountain Goats and Wiki.

[Jimmy]

20 hours ago, RPS said:

The Guardian has released their top 20 singles: 

  Hide contents

20. The Weeknd – Take My Breath
19. Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open
18. ABBA - Don't Shut Me Down
17. Pearl Charles – Only for Tonight
16. Wolf Alice – How Can I Make It OK?
15. Parris – Skater’s World ft Eden Samara
14. Cassandra Jenkins – Hard Drive
13. Lil Nas X – Montero (Call Me By Your Name)
12. Japanese Breakfast – Be Sweet
11. BTS - Butter
10. Anz – You Could Be ft George Riley
09. Little Simz – Introvert
08. The Weather Station – Tried to Tell You
07. Billie Eilish – Your Power
06. Olvia Rodrigo - good 4 u
05. Muna – Silk Chiffon ft Phoebe Bridgers
04. Caroline Polachek – Bunny Is a Rider
03. Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To
02. Wet Leg – Chaise Longue
01. Self Esteem – I Do This All the Time

 

Yessss, such a well deserved no 1. I said it elsewhere, but Self Esteem's most recent tour was like a religious experience. The way her music is connecting with her (largely female) audience was mesmerising, infectious and it felt like a real moment. I will never get bored of artists having the best time performing their music and I think the album is an incredible achievement. 

The For Those I Love self-titled album was a huge standout record for me. It's such a unique and emotional record and I find myself thinking about it a lot. 

The latest Snail Mail album probably rounds off my top three albums of the year, but there was a lot of great stuff released this year I thought. Really enjoyed some EP's this year too; Los Campesinos's Whole Damn Body, Yves Tumour's The Asymptotical World and Home Is Where's I Became Birds all really worked for me. 

Actually, I started doing this a few weeks ago - but here's all the albums and EP's that made a made an impact on me this year. 

Spoiler

Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure
Snail Mail - Valentine
For Those I Love - For Those I Love 

Rachika Nayor - Our Hands Against The Dusk
Adult Mom - Driver
Los Campesinos! - Whole Damn Body
Lucy Dacas - Home Video
Home Is Where - I Became Birds
Yves Tumour - The Asymptotical World

Ashnikko - Demidevil
Goat Girl - On All Fours
The Weather Station - Ignorance
Miss Grit - Imposter
Nana Yamato - Before Sunrise
Sun June - Somewhere
Yu Su - Yellow Blue River
Sorry - Twixtustwain EP 
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
girl in red - if i could make it go quiet
Origami Angel - GAMI GANG
Iceage - Seek Shelter
chloe moriondo - Blood Bunny
black midi - Cavalcade
Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend
Tyler, The Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha
Francis of Delirium - Wading 
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Tirzah - Colourgrade
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls

 

[Skummy]

I like that Pharoah Sanders album getting some recognition too - I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but what I've heard was brilliant. I actually didn't know Sanders was still alive until I saw tracks from it popping up.

[DFF]

I've been doing my usual 'rank as I go' lists, so I'll hold off until the turn of the year to post mine. It's been a 'quiet' year for me, only 263 album done so far (did over 500 last year), but I think I've managed to catch quite a few bangers. 

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I think I'm at 107 albums/EPs but have a load still to listen to and haven't tried putting any of it into a list yet.

Limp Bizkit is number one though obv.

[DFF]

1 hour ago, Jereeler YUTA said:

I think I'm at 107 albums/EPs but have a load still to listen to and haven't tried putting any of it into a list yet.

Limp Bizkit is number one though obv.

No word of a lie, I enjoyed the Limp Bizkit album. 

It's not making my list, but I enjoyed it very much. Haha. 

[Gorka]

11 hours ago, Jimmy said:

The For Those I Love self-titled album was a huge standout record for me. It's such a unique and emotional record and I find myself thinking about it a lot. 

Good shout with this one! 'Birthday/The Pain' is one of my favourite tracks of the year.

[tristy]

I'm obsessed with Japanese Breakfast currently, so I think Jubilee (as of right now) is my favorite of the year. I've always liked Fucked Up (David Comes to Life was choice), and I like the new... album? suite of music? whatever. But it's a bit too much. Oddly enough, kind of like one of my other favorites of the year - DONDA by 'Ye. Both of these could use some trimming. Maybe moreso DONDA, since at least Fucked Up is cohesive enough. Ye's album just has a ton of filler and would be quite the fuckin' album if it was more lean and only had like 12 songs instead of 23 or whatever it was.

Much like last year with Dua Lipa, I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm into Sour by Olivia Rodrigo. In that same vein (kind of?), I don't like Bruno Mars at all, but Silk Sonic's album is a fucking banger, man.

So that's probably my five, in no particular order I suppose. I'm disappointed in myself at the lack of hip-hop I've latched onto this year, might need to comb through the rap thread tonight/this week.

[RPS]

What are y'all Spotify unwrapped summaries like?

[Malenko]

PUP's Morbid Stuff is cool. I like that choice. I think I've already briefly discussed Jeff Rosenstock with you here. Wasn't expecting to see him end up first though. ahah

[Gorka]