With the world (or at least the vaccine-rich United States) finally starting to appear as if it’s pulling out of the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, everything is looking a bit sunnier. Live music is starting to happen with tons of tours just on the horizon, bringing back the livelihood for thousands and of course, bringing back joy to millions of concert-goers. While 2020 felt like a dump of incredible music, with artists rushing to put out anything and everything they had, 2021 feels a bit sparse in comparison. While the returns may not be quite as robust in 2021 as they were in 2020, there were many albums that stood out. Here are our 30 favorite albums of 2021 so far.
30. Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR
After hit singles “drivers license” and “good 4 u”, former Disney star Olivia Rodrigo’s debut studio album SOUR is a concise, emotional, and well-produced record that encompasses the angst of teenage romance and heartbreak. While she may wear her influences on her sleeve on a number of tracks, she is certainly talented. And with both an amazing voice and excellent penmanship, she has all the tools to become one of the biggest names in pop music.
– Bryan Herrera
29. Czarface and MF Doom – Super What?
The first release from MF Doom following his death in 2020 is by no means among the best work in his storied discography, nor does it really feature him all that heavily. However, his second collaboration with Czarface is a final testament of the limitless talent of the idiosyncratic MC, having fun and messing around and dropping bars with 7L & Esoteric and Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck. The album, which was created in 2019, was meant to drop in 2020 but due to the pandemic its release date was moved to 2021. Features by Darryl “DMC” McDaniels on the opening track and Del the Funky Homosapien on “Jason and the Czargonauts” make for highlights on Super What?.
– Matt Matasci
28. Melvins 1983 – Working With God
The Melvins 1983 iteration on Working With God finds the band shuffling their lineup to include original drummer Matt Dillard with Dale Crover sliding onto bass. Upon first listen you’ll probably gravitate towards the slightly-goofy covers of the Beach Boys (“I Fuck Around”) and Harry Nilsson (“Fuck You”) but the real standout tracks on Working With God are the sludgefests that fill out the rest of the track list. With Crover on bass and Dillard beating the skins, the rhythms are a little more straightforward than a typical Melvins release, but the guitars are still dripping with distortion and melody and the songwriting still unforgettable.
– Matt Matasci
27. Pink Siifu and Fly Anakin – $mokebreak EP
Pink Siifu and Fly Anakin’s new EP, $mokebreak, shows once again that the duo was meant to collaborate and can produce a psychedelic rap splendor. The production, lyrics and overall mood that it sets compliments the title and does not stray for a minute with a flow that is spiritual yet authoritative.
– Eve Pierpont
26. DJ Muggs – Dies Occidendum
DJ Muggs’ Dies Occidendum is an eerie, lo-fi masterpiece. This album is the perfect soundtrack for an exploration in a foggy, thick forest full of hanging moss and spider webs that span across the gaps of trees. It is an unforgettable musical experience with discreet but effective buildups and drops.
– Eve Pierpont
25. Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark
Few records capture the desperation and darkness of the modern age like this offering from Arab Strap. Not only are the lyrics devastating and disgusting throughout, the instrumentation is pensive and seething. Despite the propulsive groove of each track there’s always a sinister element lingering, just waiting to catch you by the throat.
– Drew Pitt
24. Eyehategod – A History of Nomadic Behavior
While Eyehategod are progenitors of the sludge metal genre, they’ve always stood out a bit from the rest of the genre. Perhaps it’s their punk roots, or their more raw production values, but whatever it is the band has always sounded a bit different than other likeminded groups. On A History of Nomadic Behavior, the band’s first new album in seven years since their 2014 comeback, the band show all the intensity and emotion that colored their landmark releases in the ’90s.
23. Garbage – No Gods No Masters
’90s hit-makers Garbage returns with their seventh record No Gods No Master. Like much of the band’s music, this record is genre-bending, catchy, infectious, and lyrically impactful. The group taps into a variety of music styles including trip-hop, grunge, synth-rock, and synth-pop to create a gorgeous sounding project from start to finish. The tracklist also includes a refreshing balance of personal tracks, narrative ones, and socio-political commentary.
– Bryan Herrera
22. For Those I Love – For Those I Love
It’s often accepted that we are supposed to see the artist in their work. Today, if something isn’t genuine then it isn’t valuable. For Those I Love takes this to a degree that borders on voyeuristic. Delightful beats and spoken word lyrics couple with field recordings of conversations with friends. An often uncomfortable work, it wraps around you with an undeniable warmth and positivity in the face of an uncaring world.
– Drew Pitt
21. Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus – These 13
On These 13 Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus find a middle ground between Bird’s busy violin folk and Mathus’ slow bluegrass country to create a warm and simplified blend of americana music. These 13 sounds like an old beat up classic country gem you might find in the dollar bin at the record shop. It is a comforting and beautifully written collection of songs.
– Charlie Finnerty
20. The Weather Station – Ignorance
Ignorance’s opening track, the jazzy and softly driven “Robber,” sets the stage for a charming and lush album from The Weather Station. While the group maintains and continues to expand their indie pop rock sound, the writing on Ignorance seems to have a much larger picture in mind. Many of the ten songs build beautifully into powerful crescendos and the album has a distinct and cohesive elegant sound.
– Charlie Finnerty
19. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_d’s Pee AT STATES END!
In a rather un-shocking turn of events, one of the world’s most consistently great bands continues their streak of being consistently great. Godspeed You! Black Emperor pulls the curtain back even further on their beliefs and core ethos. While they’ve never hidden their politics, G_d’s Pee AT STATES END! seems steeped in the worldwide chaos of fascism and do-nothing liberalism. It is a molotov hurled at a cop car, an atom bomb strapped to a speeding vehicle. It is violent and joyous and fearful in every breath, and it refuses to let you rest until you have joined them in rebirthing the world from ash.
– Drew Pitt
18. Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend
As inspiring new rock releases become increasingly rare each year, an album like Blue Weekend is appreciated. Across the eleven tracks, Wolf Alice show an ability to adopt and carry out a wide variety of sounds within rock. From the soulful ballads to distorted glitchy Nine Inch Nails inspired riffage to catchy folk to thundering punk to powerful dream pop, Blue Weekend delivers something for every kind of rock fan.
– Charlie Finnerty
17. Evanescence – the bitter truth
The Bitter Truth exhibits that heavy emotional metal is still alive and well. The album is full of magnetizing riffs with an angst filled tone, but is also more than just hard hitting bangers that slam you around. Evanescence proves that expanding their horizon with a piano, electronics and a keyboard can mix just as well with Amy Lee’s powerful but controlled voice as the rooted sounds of the band’s genre can.
– Eve Pierpont
16. Fucked Up – Year of the Horse (I-IV)
Fucked Up deserves more time than can be given on this list, but the gargantuan Year of the Horse earns every second of its 94-minute runtime. Blasting through punk, indie, piano, ballads and more, the album encompasses the full range of Fucked Up’s skill set and may just be their magnum opus. But the eclectic nature of this record is not its key strength. Rather, it is the forcefulness and success with which they pull it off. No one should be able to make an album this long work, and particularly not the way that Fucked Up did it (over 70+ tracks). But they do, and they make it one of the year’s best in the same breath.
– Drew Pitt
15. black midi – Cavalcade
With the release of Cavalcade, black midi finally reaches the potential of their live shows. Anyone who has had the good fortune of seeing the maniacally loud Primus-worshippers live knows that the band, while excellent on wax, is truly destined to be heard in-person. While Schlagenheim came close to capturing this mania, it lacked the lulls and calm that often punctuates the chaos of a live show. By refining their musical approach to include more valleys, they make the peaks all the higher. But even in the valleys they are never truly at peace. Listen closely and you’re destined to hear some sort of madness lurking within the soft quiet. By harnessing their panic-stricken style into a more approachable form, they realize the fullness of their potential. There’s no telling how much better they may yet become.
– Drew Pitt
14. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
The title of Japanese Breakfast’s, Jubilee, is no mistake. The album opens and carries out euphoric melodies complemented by Michelle Zauner’s enchanting croon. The electro-pop singer explores loss, capitalism, the effects of fame and just wanting to feel. The juxtaposition of upbeat strings and horns with melancholy lyrics reflects what goes on in the inner workings of her own mind. Trying to understand sorrow and heal from it is something that majority of people can relate to and the band adds hypnotic instrumentals that reflects not only her personal growth, but the bands as well in their most creative work yet.
– Eve Pierpont
13. Various Artist – Cyberpunk 2077 Soundtrack
While the game itself failed to live up to expectaions, the soundtrack for Cyberpunk 2077 lived up to the anticipation and then some. The album’s expansive track list features contributions from Refused, A$AP Rocky, HEALTH, Metz, Rhys Fulber, Man Man, The Unfit, Pissed Jeans, The Armed and more. All of the artist involved took on an alternative persona/band name for the soundtrack, with Refused in particular serving a prominent role on the release with several songs released as the fictitious house band SAMURAI.
– Matt Matasci
12. Genesis Owusu – Smiling With No Teeth
Genesis Owusu’s debut Smiling With No Teeth is creative, authentic and unforgiving in its excellent genre-blending nature. Genesis showcases his abilities in rock, hip-hop, soul, R&B and more over the course of fifteen tracks with no skips. No matter which genre he is operating in, Owusu manages to create groovy choruses and rhythms that you can’t help but dance to. This is even more impressive when you consider the ambitious concept of the album with a cerebral theme and experimental production. Owusu’s debut manages to deftly balance style with substance, providing both infectious melodies and provoking social commentary on a variety of topics including fame, relationships, racism, and more.
– Bryan Herrera
11. Black Country, New Road – For The First Time
After releasing some of the greatest music of the past decade, Black Country, New Road has finally graced us with their full length debut. The record itself lives up to nearly all the hype that was garnered by cult hits “Sunglasses” and “Athens, France” and in some ways surpasses it. Running for only a brief 41-minutes, the album is short by necessity. Each track packs fully realized stories and emotional journeys into their five-to-seven-minute walls. The density and skill of the songwriting is something that must be experienced, but be warned that little else will satisfy the itch that For the First Time scratches so easily.
– Drew Pitt
10. Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
With the opening track, “Hardline,” Julien Baker makes it clear that Oblivion will be different from her past albums. Gone is the stripped down production of vocals and guitar seen on 2018’s boygenius collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus (who both appear on “Favor”) as Baker turns instead to a louder, more filled out full band sound with organs, drums and pumping bass. This new more refined production quality is uncompromising. Baker’s emotional poignancy is not lost with her new sound and her writing has only gotten stronger, both musically and lyrically. Baker continues to deliver a deeply emotional and intimate journey for listeners that is thoroughly depressing and soaked in self-punishing contrition. With each album, more of Baker is revealed in her music and this album presents perhaps the most complete picture listeners have seen yet.
– Charlie Finnerty
9. The Armed – ULTRAPOP
Electronic and metal have only recently become genres that people have dared to smash together. Even then, the majority of these releases hinge on smashing together industrial electronics and chugging, grinding metal. These mix rather easily (as exhibited 30+ years ago by Nine Inch Nails) but The Armed pull something like Porter Robinson into the mixture instead. Beauty has long been the antithesis of metal, but ULTRAPOP sounds like something that was always meant to be in your ears. But don’t think that the record is all flowers and heavy guitars. It hits like a ton of bricks just as readily as it caresses your cheek. That unpredictability is its greatest strength, and what makes this album something that could shift the very direction of its genre.
– Drew Pitt
8. Tyler, The Creator – Call Me If You Get Lost
The most recent release to make our list, Tyler, The Creator is back with yet another opus. While Igor and its neo R&B and indie-pop influences made it a stretch to consider as hip hop, Call Me If You Get Lost is a return to the genre. With DJ Drama dropping in throughout the tracklist, whether adding a pithy line about the song or simply shouting “Gangsta Grizzilz” over the top of a track, the classic mixtape series has fingerprints all over this release. Tyler is still the star of the album, several guest appearances stand out, most notably Lil’ Wayne reclaiming his Da Drought high water mark on “Hot Wind Blows.” The production has all the grandiosity of ’00s hip hop landmark albums and is an early frontrunner for the genre’s album of the decade.
– Matt Matasci
7. Danny Elfman – Big Mess
Danny Elfman is not afraid to be strange, if anything, he’s afraid of being ordinary. But it’s remarkable that he remains so capable of pushing boundaries this deep into his career. At its best, the record is a daring thrillride into a twisted mind, and when it digs its hooks into you through tracks like “Love in the Time of COVID” and “Kick Me” it can feel downright abusive. But any album that refuses to challenge you is a half-baked project and this idiosyncratic work pushes boundaries in ways that one would rarely expect of an artist so late in their career.
– Drew Pitt
6. Jeff Rosenstock – SKA DREAM
What started out as a group of friends re-recording a song on a whim has turned into one of the best albums of the year and proof positive that there’s a fourth wave of ska and it’s a worthy genre that can be explored in an intelligent and fun manner. While the source material, Jeff Rosenstock’s 2020 album NO DREAM, was already excellent, SKA DREAM expands on those tracks by reimagining them with ska, dub, reggae and dancehall influences. The album features guest appearances from Angelo Moore of Fishbone, Mike Park, PUP and even George Clarke adding some intense screams to “S K A D R E A M,” the remake of “N O D R E A M.” Rosenstock didn’t just add some horns and upstrokes to the album, instead completely deconstructing the songs and building them back up. Stark remakes include “Horn Line,” the taking straighforward heartland emo-punk of “State Line” and turning it into horn-laden dub track, and “Old SKrAp,” which allows the heartfelt lyrics to shine through over more dubby reggae and spurts of trashy punk. While Rosenstock has proven again and again he can conquer any genre of music he wants, his roots are in ska and it’s hard to imagine any other musician who understands the genre like the former Bomb The Music Industry! and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches leader does.
– Matt Matasci
5. St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home
Annie Clark and Jack Antonoff deliver a perfect combination of nostalgia and modern production elements with this 70s rock narrative album. Clark tells the intimate story of her father’s incarceration and her own fear of parenthood. Other tracks also see Clark adopting a character and providing social commentary on womanhood, police brutality, celebrity life, and gender norms. Many of the tracks display a clear David Bowie and Pink Floyd influence in both the vocal performance and production. However, Clark’s lyrics and vocal delivery are unique enough to not come across as derivative. And while the project is extremely cohesive, there is a decent amount of variety between slower, grandiose ballads like “Daddy’s Home” and more upbeat, percussion-driven cuts like “Down”. This record is a great homage to a past era of Rock, while still incorporating present themes, styles, and perspectives in an impressive and stylish manner.
– Bryan Herrera
4. Various Artists – Dark Nights: Death Metal
If we’re honest, compilation albums are usually just an excuse to show off a bunch of bands. This is clearly not the case with Dark Nights: Death Metal. A soundtrack to the comic series of the same name, the compilation succeeds because of its massive scale and thrilling pulls. As many in the metal world are massive comic geeks, DC would have had no problem grabbing recordings from classic metal groups like Anthrax and Metallica. Instead, they shot for the strange and the thrilling. Dotted with features that are both unexpected (HEALTH, Chelsea Wolfe, Denzel Curry) and crowd pleasing (Mastodon, Chino Moreno, Greg Puciato), the album succeeds on a shocking number of levels. Most every song is enjoyable on its own merit, and even the ones that feel like misses are such admirable swings that it’s hard to fault them for their lack of sonic success. For an album that didn’t need to do anything special, it surpassed its competition by leaps and bounds so large that it could forever reset the soundtrack game.
– Drew Pitt
3. Tomahawk – Tonic Immobility
Tomahawk has acted as an outlet for Mike Patton, Duane Denison, Trevor Dunn and John Stanier to push their musical boundaries to new and unusual limits, and you can certainly hear it on this record. After a seven-year hiatus, Tomahawk has returned and delivered one of their most compelling and signature records. Tonic Immobility is their fifth installment of experimental rock, injecting elements of heavy metal, alternative, noise rock and more. The album encompasses everything the group is known for, with its experimental production, energetic delivery and abrasive transitions. The record is chaotic, unpredictable and in your face, but in the best of ways. There is also a decent amount of variety between slower tracks like “Sidewinder” and headbanging tracks like the intro track, “SHHH!”. Even within some of the tracks, there are abrupt musical shifts and turns that leave you guessing what is going to happen next. Just by listening you can tell how much these guys enjoyed collaborating and just letting loose musically, and the result is an album that is just as free-flowing, random and satisfying.
– Bryan Herrera
2. Lost Girls – Menneskekollektivet
Lost Girls’ new album, Mennekekollektivet, creates a comforting yet innovate style with a juxtaposition of straightforward and conceptual lyrics. The otherworldly album showcases Jenny Hval’s writing skills and Håvard Volden’s ability to create a variation of beats that are at the same time interconnected. The two complement each other to create an album full thought-provoking lyrics, both sung and spoken. The vocals articulate the instrumentals that switch from elegant to disco that then throw you into a space vortex. Hval’s vocal range is incredible and her capability to get her point across in such an abstract way is true poetry. She is one of the few artists that can talk in a soft-spoken voice that then fades to intimate singing and still hits high notes with pure excellence. Yet, her voice does not take away from the music that Volden has created and the two are clearly meant to be working together. This album takes you on a journey that makes you contemplate life, but also makes you want to dance and meditate at the same time. The exploration of different genres, from pop to trance to house, creates an ambiance strictly of its own.
– Eve Pierpont
1. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises
Promises is a collaborative masterpiece composed by American spiritual free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and British producer Floating Points, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The composition stretches through nine movements in a little over 45 minutes, ranging from delicate quiet string sections to Sanders’ signature forceful saxophone, all brought together by a recurring theme. Promises draws on the best of the two composers. Floating Points creates an expansive atmosphere of subtle bells, strings, harpsichord, electronic elements and piano that entrances the listener while Sanders’ carefully placed melodies display the artistic mastery of a lifelong commitment to free jazz. The seven-note refrain loops endlessly, reharmonized and placed in different musical contexts with each pass as the rest of the rest of the piece builds around it and in relation to it. In the softer sections, the space itself can be heard with the creaking of piano pedals and wood floors until the air is filled with droning organs, strings and synthesizers as the movements progress. The listener’s focus is repeatedly brought back to the seven-note refrain and Sanders’ interactions with it.
It is impossible to articulate the feelings Promises creates in the listener. The musical repetition immerses you in a Basinski-esque trance as the beautiful strings of the London Symphony Orchestra range from delicate softness to triumphant swells. Without a doubt, however, the spotlight of the piece is on Sanders. This album captures the artistry of one of the founding figures of modern jazz, his piercing overblown style now softer and more deliberate at 80 years old.
– Charlie Finnerty
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