Listed below are the best albums of 2021 as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 4 hours ago).
"(One of the best albums of this year. Easily. From one of the greatest and most consistent musicians of this millennium so far. Again, that is easily the case. This woman doesn't miss. If you love heartfelt singer/songwriter albums and songs and if you love albums that are rooted in American folk...""(One of the best albums of this year. Easily. From one of the greatest and most consistent musicians of this millennium so far. Again, that is easily the case. This woman doesn't miss. If you love heartfelt singer/songwriter albums and songs and if you love albums that are rooted in American folk, country, country rock and all that stuff, then I highly recommend this to you.)
This album took a little while to worm its way into my heart. At first I thought it was just another solid album from Carlile - one of the best and most consistent singer/songwriters of the last decade and a half - and that was it. I thought maybe some of the songs were too sacharrine and sentimental and I thought this album had some special something missing. But after several listens it feels like this album is much better than I was giving it credit for. It has a certain depth of feeling and of course some incredible production that now strike me as exceptional.
The opener "Right On Time" is perhaps the source of my feeling of over-sentimentality earlier on. Now that track feels heartfelt and wise. On first listen it felt too much, too direct, too much like a pick-me-up type song. But now I just think its a beautiful song that is, truthfully, pretty damn direct in its advice-like messaging, but also gorgeous with some solid piano melodies and its a solid opener.
Aftyer that opener is when this album opens up and sonically is just a damn feast. Whether Brandi is rocking out with some cosmic american badassery, or is bringing the songs down to the earthy ground with a folk ballad, or if she is doing a somewhat old American standards sounding song, or really whatever avenue she chooses to sue, the songs here are consistently warm and full and the production is just so gorgeously fleshed out! The singing is solid throughout, the only complaint I have for the vocals is that Brandi does that big vibrato trick. I love it sometimes when she does that, but sometimes it feels a bit much. Still, overall, she is a great singer, she knows when to imbue a line with a certain croak or strain to get across a feeling, and she knows when to really belt out these big notes and when to take it down to a quieter and more intimate affair.
The band here and the way the instruments interact are incredible. The guitar playing here is earthy and powerful and gorgeous, the drums and percussion are consistently beautiful and hard hitting, and when the songs are layered with strings or horns or back up singers, they are produced and performed excellently and work to add a certain drama and largeness to the tracks.
Standout tracks include: the heavy as hell and epic "Sinners, Saint and Fools" - the way that song builds and then crescendos at its close is...HOLY SHIT! Amazing stuff. The touching and lullaby-soft closer "Throwing Good After Bad" is a standout - her vocals here are stunning and soulful and brilliant. Also, track 2 "You and Me on the Rock (Feat. Lucius)" is a buoyant and loving and exuberant Americana jam that puts a smile on my face, and its a sweet love song... I think... and I love a good love song. "This Time Tomorrow", oh boy, I love that acoustic melody that comes in and those 2 part harmonies, and those lyrics, and the whole vibe of this track is just what I want injected straight into my folk-loving veins. Fuck me, I love this sound and song. Of course there is MASSIVE country rocking masterpiece that is "Broken Horses" - this song has everything going for it, incredible lyrics and a chorus that is so inspiring it should be illegal and a massive rocking stomp and riff that can make me feel renewed in these demoralizing times, and it has some of the most intense vocals of her career, and the way the song - which is already epic as hell - opens up toward the end with a face melting passionate guitar solo after a slow, sensual build, holy shit when those last 90 seconds of music come in, I am on cloud nine! Oh and the piano chords are so strident and powerful. anyway, you get the idea this track is a badass one and you should check it out. "Letter to the Past" melts my heart and somehow this songs makes me love Brandi more than I already did, this feels like a message from a dear friend. "Mama Werewolf" has a vein of sadness and grief running through it that it is excellent and at times overwhelming, then there is also the drama and power of the singing and the rhythm and the piano and the way this song builds up stronger and stronger - it feels larger than life and I love it. "When You're Wrong" is pained and beautiful and has a very soft sound and Brandi's vocals are excellent and touching. "Stay Gentle" sounds like an old timey American standard, and it works as a track to rock away your worries and woes. And it seems weird to leave one single solitary song out of this massive paragraph of standout tracks, especially when the one song left off is the opener and so, I'll say that now that I have heard it a dozen times, the opening track "Right On Time" is a standout and is a beautiful and reassuring little song. Of course now that I have listed here every song as a standout that means none are stabndouts or it means each of these songs is a standout in comparison to most music I hear in general. I will say that latter option is true. I think this album is just fabulous, its uplifting and its emotional and gritty and real and sad and hopeful... this is a great album in my opinion and I recommend it. "[+]Reply
"“Your feedback for We Had Good Times Together, Don't Forget That” feels more confident in its storytelling. Previous works by Sewerslvt relied on directed samples and shorter songs to convey the trademark sadness. “Don't Forget That” generates the melancholy through long atmospheric passages. Fad...""“Your feedback for We Had Good Times Together, Don't Forget That” feels more confident in its storytelling. Previous works by Sewerslvt relied on directed samples and shorter songs to convey the trademark sadness. “Don't Forget That” generates the melancholy through long atmospheric passages. Faded synths are placed above driving drums to build a force then suddenly stop leaving the listener in a distorted soundscape. This format is used with impressive variety, no tracks sound the same but do create the same drifting malaise. A stand out track is “All The Joy In Life Was Gone When You Left”. Its melody pairs with the percussion in a bittersweet way that is further enhanced by the tracks ebbs and flows. Percussion unfortunately remains a weakness on the album. The drums tracks feel less unique the other instrumentals and are the only sound that could be mistaken for a different album. Otherwise, the album a little too long for its own good. A grand and emotional finale. "[+]Reply
"Disappointed with this album. Im not sure why they don't use Calebs vocals more dynamically, his voice is unreal. It just sits and stays when I want the explosion. Back round music is as always pretty solid."Reply
"A little rough around the edges, but there are lots of interesting ideas, most of which are well executed. This album is quite the ride and never gets boring. Keem is definentely one of the most interesting and creative young up and coming hip hop artists. I'm very excited to see what he does on ...""A little rough around the edges, but there are lots of interesting ideas, most of which are well executed. This album is quite the ride and never gets boring. Keem is definentely one of the most interesting and creative young up and coming hip hop artists. I'm very excited to see what he does on his next project."[+]Reply
"I like almost everything about this album, love almost nothing. It's a solid throwback pop rock album, sob rock indeed, breakup songs, cool beats and some seriously fabulous Mayer guitar soloing and little licks. If he had expanded on that - those guitar heroics - I may actually love this. For so...""I like almost everything about this album, love almost nothing. It's a solid throwback pop rock album, sob rock indeed, breakup songs, cool beats and some seriously fabulous Mayer guitar soloing and little licks. If he had expanded on that - those guitar heroics - I may actually love this. For some reason he really pulls back. When ever he hits me with some inspired guitar part he doesn't let that breathe and grow. I wish there was at least one or 2 extended 3-6 minute guitar compositions. He is a beast of a guitarist, one of my favorites even. And at times his playing evokes Mark Knopfler and other times Clapton and most other times he showcases that sound which is all his own. And in those moments I am, without fail and every time, in music heaven. Its bliss hearing some sharp, emotional, understated Mayer guitar solo. But... then he stops almost as soon as he starts. On tracks like "Wild Blue", shit, if he had expanded on that tone and that melodic phrase, it would have been a brilliant track.
There are some legitimately catchy, and fabulous little track in here. The opner "Last Train Home" is infectious and just a good friggin pop rock song in every way. The aforementioned "Wild Blue" has something cool about its atmosphere, and is quite solid. "New Light" is a similar rock solid pop rock song to the opnening track. The ridiculous and ridiculously named "Why You No Love Me" is so good, much better than it has any right to be. I also really like "Shot in the dark" and "Till the Right One Comes" and a couple others. The album is just a solid set of tracks. Adore the album cover, it cracks me up and its executed flawlessly - he nails that 1987 pop rock album cover better than anyone outside of the 80s obviously.
The songs are each and every one about breakups and lost love. The consistent topic of the album made me wonder "did John like go through a divorce recently?" and I can't tell if he did. And of course this theme is almost a running joke for John, he is always writing songs about this subject, but here its almost every song and its even more pronounced than usual.
As for the production, its cool. Very much a throwback to heartland rock/80s pop rock. Some cool beats and synth melodies and overall the album sounds nice.
The issue and its a big one, is that I feel like half of these songs had so much potential. Maybe he just wanted to make a set of 3 minute pop tracks and not get too fancy. But damn man! Your guitar playing is brilliant, flex a little, apply your sharp musical mind to making some epic guitar jams to end all modern guitar jams! I mean The War On Drugs are amazing. They can be compared because they are also a band rooted in the same era of music that Sob Rock is. But they amp up the studio creativity and they give us lengthy, breathing, bracing, morphing, transcendent guitar solos. You can do it, John!
Anyway. It's a good album. Listened thrice and enjoyed it each time. Not quite a Top tier 2021 album. But also certainly not bad by any stretch."[+]Reply
"I'm not a ska man in the slightest so I'm not really a fan of this but it's executed pretty well. I think I'd like it if I cared for ska and/or hadn't already been accustomed to the original."Reply
Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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mdbaxter | 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.
