Best Albums of 2021

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101.

On All Fours 

 Goat Girl

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"60 to 70/100 (This is a very impressive collection of many cool individual ideas and songs of distinct type that somehow never forms into a very cohesive whole. Still, some really cool songs and really interesting mix of styles, just somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts - or howeve...""60 to 70/100 (This is a very impressive collection of many cool individual ideas and songs of distinct type that somehow never forms into a very cohesive whole. Still, some really cool songs and really interesting mix of styles, just somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts - or however that saying goes.) Weird stuff. Why, you ask? Well, I've listened 3 times, and yet I still can't put my finger on why I kind of like this album but mostly am indifferent. After their 2018 debut which wasn't amazing but definitely had a certain fire and certain grit that I quite liked, I was looking forward to this album to more-or-less high degree. And I was hoping for a couple things: That theyd develop more and experiemnt with new sounds and that they would find their own identity or de=istinct somethingness that would be all their own. They acheived the first thing - this album is a massive expansion in sound and muscianship. They tackle so many genres, elements of Baroque pop, electronica kinda stuff, art pop, subtly psychedelic stuff, stronger melodies, and a really beauitiful array of moments and modes. BUT the second thing I was hoping for was not at all achieved to my ears. I don't think they have formed an identity all their own at all. I think they went backward in that regard. Despite this album having many moments of inspired songcraft and beautiful sounds, none of the moments and songs are fully fleshed out or particularly memorable. They seem to have thrown many good ideas out onto one slightly overlong album without taking the time to weave all the elements and sounds together. So, while I think songs like "Badibaba", "Anxiety Feels", "Pest", "Bang" and Where Do We Go?" are all quite good, they are lost in a set of other less good (but still solid) songs that each go in such different directions and none of those directions are followed very far before they turn around and then wander a few feet down another path and then turn around, etc etc, you get the metaphor I hope. The album is good, its fine. Its got the individual elements (the lyrics, the vocals, the harmonies and bass playing and vocals etc) to make a really fucking awesome album. Somehow though none of these parts coalesce with the others and we have here a good but pretty forgettable indie rock/art pop/neo-psychedelia gumbo of fair-to-good."  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

83 charts

Rank Score:

173

Rank in 2021:

101

Rank in 2020s:

501

Overall Rank:

7,318

Average Rating:

 71 (63 votes)

Comments:

4

102.

For Those I Love (2021) 

 For Those I Love

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"(This is an album wrapped up in the death of David Balfe's best friend. It explores beautifully all the angles of that grief, and all the memories David wants to reminiscence about with his friend. It's about dealing with grief, and trying to move on. Musically it's Spoken Word Poetry, House, Art...""(This is an album wrapped up in the death of David Balfe's best friend. It explores beautifully all the angles of that grief, and all the memories David wants to reminiscence about with his friend. It's about dealing with grief, and trying to move on. Musically it's Spoken Word Poetry, House, Art Pop and some other elements. This is a great album.) This music is not usually my style. But its so heartfelt and so powerfully presented here that I fell under its sad and grief-filled and existential spell rather rapidly. It's a good album that can make me reminisce and feel newly the joys of friends now gone. And it is rare that an album makes me recollect the ones I loved and love now and want to call and reach out to them immediately. This album did that for me. The Poetry is good, the messages are harsh and real and relatable and brutal, and the tracks themselves, while nothing revolutionary or overwhelmingly brilliant, are tinged with such a beautiful and deep sadness. The samples and vocal snippets are excellent. The genre tags are spoken word and progressive house with some elements of Hip Hop and Art Pop and sound collage. And that is a good enough description I suppose. It's all those things. But, more than that, this is a cohesive album all about the time the artist spent with his best friend and the feelings of loss from his death and his questions of where to go and what to do after the tragedy. It's about getting old, it's about what it means to be young and carefree. It's about a lot of things and consistently these themes are explored and fleshed out gorgeously. "  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

48 charts

Rank Score:

172

Rank in 2021:

102

Rank in 2020s:

503

Overall Rank:

7,355

Average Rating:

 74 (46 votes)

Comments:

3

103.

The Golden Casket 

 Modest Mouse

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"Ok honestly I wasn't crazy about the singles at first but as a whole I'm really enjoying the album. Surprised me cuz I thought I was just gonna be like meh.. but it's actually pretty cool."  Reply

- ExTeaSea | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

66 charts

Rank Score:

172

Rank in 2021:

103

Rank in 2020s:

506

Overall Rank:

7,370

Average Rating:

 66 (78 votes)

Comments:

3

104.

Frailty 

 Dltzk

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Share your opinion and help others discover this album. The top-voted comments are showcased in our aggregate charts!

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

31 charts

Rank Score:

172

Rank in 2021:

104

Rank in 2020s:

507

Overall Rank:

7,372

Average Rating:

 73 (27 votes)

Comments:

0

105.

Entertainment, Death 

 Spirit Of The Beehive

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"(A bit of an odd album. When I hear it, it's as real and tangible as that pond on the desert's horizon. And when the album ends, its as gone as ... well, that damn pond. Anyway, shitty attempts at poetic metaphor aside, this is a strangely gauzy, smoky, ethereal album that flows effortlessly and ...""(A bit of an odd album. When I hear it, it's as real and tangible as that pond on the desert's horizon. And when the album ends, its as gone as ... well, that damn pond. Anyway, shitty attempts at poetic metaphor aside, this is a strangely gauzy, smoky, ethereal album that flows effortlessly and then ends and leaves me feeling like I just had a beautiful dream but can't remember for the life of me what that dream entailed.) This album is all over the fucking place. In a good way. The mix of dreamy pop soundscapes and experimental and jarring explosions just keeps me on my toes. The melodies and pop parts are pretty sick, the psychedelic bits are also consistently out of this world. As happens with a lot of these types of surreal noise pop/neo-psychedelic albums, when ever I finish hearing this album I forget almost entirely every aspect of the album. Instead of clear ideas on what I justheard I tend to have a gauzy idea or conception of what the album was and how it flowed and what it was communicating. This is usually a bit of a downer, but in this case its mostly impressive. The way this albums sort of weaves these sounds in and out of each other and bridges disrelated elements with a sort of hazy smoke, the way the melodies are so sweet and bitter in the moment of listening and yet disappear as quickly as they go, its all quite impressive. There are standout tracks and moments here, but I can't remember which even after 3 listens. The album flows so effortlessly track to track, each time I hear it I'm surprised when it ends, like "Wait, we just started! How can this be?!" Overall, while this isn't on my Album of the Year shortlist personally, it does do things that no other album I've heard this year does better. "  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

65 charts

Rank Score:

169

Rank in 2021:

105

Rank in 2020s:

521

Overall Rank:

7,475

Average Rating:

 68 (76 votes)

Comments:

3

106.

Tyron 

 Slowthai

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"(I am far faaaar from a fan or connoisseur of Hip Hop and especially not UK Hip Hop, but I really really enjoyed this brisk album.) I have to say I loved the production here and I thought it was consistently vibrant and there was always something cool happening to keep my ears engaged. The rappin...""(I am far faaaar from a fan or connoisseur of Hip Hop and especially not UK Hip Hop, but I really really enjoyed this brisk album.) I have to say I loved the production here and I thought it was consistently vibrant and there was always something cool happening to keep my ears engaged. The rapping was solid as well, and while I don't pay attention to recent events with artists at all, I could hear that he was delicately working out his shortcomings and mistakes and thoughts on recent events in his career. Again, I don't give a fuck about that aspect, but as far as the lyrics and themes dealing with it he seemed to do well. This is a genre that I have so little insight or background on I tend to just grade or rate based off my oblivious enjoyment. That is kinda how I initially look at all music, but with a genre I am a bit more familiar with I can connect the dots and critique things based off other listening experiences. Not so with UK Hip Hop. So, all I can say is I really liked this, I liked that all the songs are good and pretty rapid fire, I like the shortness of the album, the production and the flow. Really solid stuff."  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

86 charts

Rank Score:

168

Rank in 2021:

106

Rank in 2020s:

528

Overall Rank:

7,516

Average Rating:

 71 (114 votes)

Comments:

4

107.

Space 1​.​8 

 Nala Sinephro

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Share your opinion and help others discover this album. The top-voted comments are showcased in our aggregate charts!

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

52 charts

Rank Score:

168

Rank in 2021:

107

Rank in 2020s:

529

Overall Rank:

7,545

Average Rating:

 74 (38 votes)

Comments:

0

108.

Red (Taylor’s Version) 

 Taylor Swift

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"It’s like Red (Record Company’s Version) but even more excessively long and bloated with filler! Yay!"  Reply

- spigelwii | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

54 charts

Rank Score:

166

Rank in 2021:

108

Rank in 2020s:

533

Overall Rank:

7,619

Average Rating:

 74 (67 votes)

Comments:

3

109.

Vulture Prince 

 Arooj Aftab

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"(Sublime set of Chamber Folk from Pakistan - I mean she is in the states ((I think)) now and has been for awhile but the sounds are a mix of Middle Eastern music and balladry with Chamber Folk and Classical - that is absolutely mesmerizing and brilliant.) Been trying to find the words to express ...""(Sublime set of Chamber Folk from Pakistan - I mean she is in the states ((I think)) now and has been for awhile but the sounds are a mix of Middle Eastern music and balladry with Chamber Folk and Classical - that is absolutely mesmerizing and brilliant.) Been trying to find the words to express my feelings for this album for a few days now. After several listens I feel I am just as ill-equipped as I was when I first heard it (and fell under its spell) on the night it dropped. As a chamber folk album its quite gorgeous and sublimely tender. As a showcase for Arooj Aftab's calm and ethereal voice, it doesn't get much better - or, at least, I can't imagine much better showcase of her vocal excellence. Vulture Prince is both something familiar to me as a fan of Chamber Folk and Ambient Pop and other forms of music that are within this set. Its also new to me as someone who has not heard much middle eastern music or arabic forms of singing. When I hear terms like "Ghazal" and "Qawwali" used to describe this music, it is very very un-communicative to me. I plan on learning much more about these forms now that I love this album so much. But within my zone of familiarity these words don't yet sit. When I hear this album I hear folk with some classical elements and a very mesmerizing and sad and forlorn vocalist weaving tales in a language I don't speak, taking me away from my time and place for a little while. It's a stirring, calming, and gorgeous experience. The album as a whole cohesive thing is stunning, with the only track that somewhat takes me out of it being the somewhat dub and trip hop sounding english-language track right in the middle called "Last Night". "Last Night" isn't bad by any means but its my least fave of these 7 songs and it doesn't fit for me in this otherwise almost faultless album. Otherwise, songs like the opener "Baghon Main", "Diya Hai", "Inayaat", "Saans Lo" and especially the absolutely transcendent "Mohabbat" transport me to another world as I listen."  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

63 charts

Rank Score:

164

Rank in 2021:

109

Rank in 2020s:

539

Overall Rank:

7,685

Average Rating:

 73 (56 votes)

Comments:

2

110.

Forever In Your Heart 

 Black Dresses

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"(Quite heavy in several senses of that word, and generally pretty intense and loud and ugly. I respect it, but don't quite love it in all its brutal, abrasive charms.) Right from the jump with the opening slab of industrial metal insanity I knew I was in for some intense and sharp and abrasive an...""(Quite heavy in several senses of that word, and generally pretty intense and loud and ugly. I respect it, but don't quite love it in all its brutal, abrasive charms.) Right from the jump with the opening slab of industrial metal insanity I knew I was in for some intense and sharp and abrasive and harsh industrial rock/metal stuff. And that first prediction of sorts was played out. This is indeed a very intense album with some seriously whiplash-inducing changes from some harsh industrial metal to a quirky pop tune and some fun banter back to some filthy wave of discordant intense blowtorch and so on and so forth. And I really respect it. Its cool. I love this type of stuff usually or at least enough to think that this may be a new favorite of mine. However...sadly I didn't totally buy in and dig it as much as I thought I would. Not sure exactly why that is as of yet. Maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace for this wild and LOUD of an album. I'm thinking even Streetcleaner would be a chore to listen to right now cuz, well, I am just not in the exact right mood for having my face absolutely caved in and my essence shattered by these sounds and these lyrics. On a technical level, this was impressive. Like, I think some of the music and sounds here were borderline awe-inspiring. The vocals are so wild and all over the place and when they scream and let lose it sounds like the end times. So, props. I do think I will revisit this throughout the coming months. Cuz my head is saying this is sick and should be in top 10 of the year so far territory, but my heart ain't in it. If you love their other albums and if you like abrasive and super loud and noisy blasts of sound, I highly HIGHLY recommend this. I mean, I liked it. I just need to take a breather and return later."  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

26 charts

Rank Score:

164

Rank in 2021:

110

Rank in 2020s:

541

Overall Rank:

7,698

Average Rating:

 67 (47 votes)

Comments:

1

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 11 of 100

Best Albums of 2021 composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Artist	Albums	%
Various Artists	6	1%
Arca	4	0%
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	3	0%
Fred Again..	2	0%
Lana Del Rey	2	0%
Hawkwind	2	0%
Weezer	2	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	456	46%
	198	20%
	51	5%
	45	5%
	32	3%
	22	2%
	20	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	987	99%
Yes	13	1%

Live?	Albums	%
No	973	97%
Yes	27	3%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	986	99%
Yes	14	1%