Best Albums of 2021

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61.

L.W. 

 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

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"(On one hand this is just another King Gizzard album and the third in their series of albums exploring their brilliant microtonal experimentations, on the other hand more of a good to great thing is, well, good to great!) I remember a few years back when Flying Microtonal Banana dropped King Gizz...""(On one hand this is just another King Gizzard album and the third in their series of albums exploring their brilliant microtonal experimentations, on the other hand more of a good to great thing is, well, good to great!) I remember a few years back when Flying Microtonal Banana dropped King Gizzard had finally arrived on my radar. I listened to that album a lot and I really liked it. Almost before I could gather my thoughts on that album and well before I could start thinking "I wonder when KGLW will release another album" they had released another album and then another and then another and they just kept coming. And, ashamed to say, at some point along the line I lost interest. I had felt like they were releasing so much stuff that I just couldn't keep up. Then earlier this year when L.W. dropped I kinda rolled my eyes and had zero interest in checking it out. Somehow I had completely forgotten what exactly I had loved about Flying Microtonal Banana. But this year is sort of a crazy music-listening year for me. I am listening to a lot of music from this year and why not include this album which many people are loving. So finally I listened and I am not disappointed. I am maybe a little disappointed by myself due to how I kinda wrote them off, but I digress. This album is equal parts the most "classic" rock album I've dug this year and also is quite uniquely King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. As much as I feel at home listening to the killer grooves and solos and riffs and dope ass rock drumming etc, there is also the added excellent fact that this music is never fully classic rock. It has those weird psychedelic warps that make it unique but also those riffs and solos have that excellent and addictive tone and tuning that makes it feel almost middle eastern. It fucking rocks, this album, but also it is off kilter enough to keep me guessing and smiling. I think KGLW may be the best rock band around at this moment. They have a sound all their own and an ability and willingness to experiement and try copious new things, they are fun and don't take themselves too seriously while also obviously having big ideas and brilliant minds musically. Also, this album is great yet almost feels effortless. Like they can just churn these baller rock albums out full of inspired hooks and songs and solos and mind melting psych parts without breaking a sweat. Kind of wild. Anyway, this album is really cool and has gotten me back on the King Giz hype train after years away."  [+]  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:

97 charts

Rank Score:

273

Rank in 2021:

61

Rank in 2020s:

312

Overall Rank:

5,042

Average Rating:

 74 (139 votes)

Comments:

7

62.

30 

 Adele

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"Her best record by far in my opinion, Adele takes a few risks that really pay off, especially with the more jazz influenced sounds. Her songwriting skills have really sharpened on here too, with an album that sounds a lot less formulaic than perhaps what I was expecting. Definitely an improvement...""Her best record by far in my opinion, Adele takes a few risks that really pay off, especially with the more jazz influenced sounds. Her songwriting skills have really sharpened on here too, with an album that sounds a lot less formulaic than perhaps what I was expecting. Definitely an improvement on 25 and a possible contender for AOTY"  [+]  Reply

- SD100852 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 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:

113 charts

Rank Score:

267

Rank in 2021:

62

Rank in 2020s:

316

Overall Rank:

5,145

Average Rating:

 67 (114 votes)

Comments:

9

63.

Seek Shelter 

 Iceage

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"(A new, slower, more world-weary and soulful Iceage has immerged with this one. And...its stunning and brilliant. Some of the best rock music of the year of any style or sub-genre. Faint hints of that youthful Iceage post-punk-y-ness that we have come to know so well melds with a blues punk, root...""(A new, slower, more world-weary and soulful Iceage has immerged with this one. And...its stunning and brilliant. Some of the best rock music of the year of any style or sub-genre. Faint hints of that youthful Iceage post-punk-y-ness that we have come to know so well melds with a blues punk, rootsy, gruff side of them that I didn't know they had in them.) No need to put it off, I love this album. Almost everything about it is just the right thing for me. Its a slowed down, soulful, worn-out sounding rock album at its core. It manages to combine some of the more old-school Iceage post-punk anger and aggression with a world-weary blues earthiness. The band evolves and re-invents their sound to a majior degree but sticks the landing first try. From the first stunning track to the last, this album feels mature, gritty, thematically heavy, and just great. The production is dirty and the sounds consistently edge each other out and make for a muddy sound. The bits that come in to hit the heavy end of punk blues are so gnarly and convey a certain gruffness that I love. The more soft and tuneful tracks and parts are so sad and weighed down. When this album dropped it dropped at the same time as Squid's debut, and so this gem was overshadowed. I listened to both albums back to back and while Squid's record was more brainy, angular and complex, this album was the one that really hit me on an emotional level. Its great to hear that this band which blew up 10 years ago continues to release new and fully-realized albums without getting stuck in any kind of stylistic rut at all. This may be my favorite Iceage album yet, which is saying something because they are all very good to great."  [+]  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:

91 charts

Rank Score:

262

Rank in 2021:

63

Rank in 2020s:

320

Overall Rank:

5,195

Average Rating:

 73 (101 votes)

Comments:

4

64.

Henki 

 Richard Dawson & Circle

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"This might be the most fun album of the year. Prog rock epics, ostensibly about plants, sung by a madman with little regard for tone or pitch. I can't speak for everyone's pandemic experience, but this ridiculousness is just what I needed entering winter of '21."  Reply

- replacementlevel | 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:

68 charts

Rank Score:

252

Rank in 2021:

64

Rank in 2020s:

332

Overall Rank:

5,385

Average Rating:

 76 (42 votes)

Comments:

3

65.

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Haram 

 Armand Hammer & The Alchemist

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"What's immediately obvious is how thick this album is. Clocking in at just below the 40 minutes mark, you get the impression the material would easily justify an extra 10 or so minutes without dragging at all. It's not easy to digest, after two listens I am barely scratching the surface. This has...""What's immediately obvious is how thick this album is. Clocking in at just below the 40 minutes mark, you get the impression the material would easily justify an extra 10 or so minutes without dragging at all. It's not easy to digest, after two listens I am barely scratching the surface. This has to do with more than one aspects of the album. The production follows a distinct and cohesive direction throughout, but the more you listen, the more layers unfold in front of you. In terms of sound and style, it feels closer to Armand Hammer than The Alchemist, for which credit is due to the latter and is arguably the single decisive factor in the success of this collaboration. Billy Woods never feels like the star of the show, their chemistry is as at the very least as good as ever, though I think it could be even higher than usual, which is another achievement of the production. Their rapping may be somewhat inaccesible at first, especially if you are not familiar with their previous work. They have this almost spoken word delivery, but still wouldn't call it conversational, far too emphatic to be classified as such. The lyrics are as usual surrounded by a veil of thick mist, I guess they will slowly reveal their meaning. All of the above mean that this has extremely high replay value, which is another big plus. Too early to call it album of the year, but I wouldn't be shocked if it ended up playing a major role in the ensuing debate during the following months, great stuff."  [+]  Reply

- kokkinos | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 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:

99 charts

Rank Score:

252

Rank in 2021:

65

Rank in 2020s:

333

Overall Rank:

5,389

Average Rating:

 73 (84 votes)

Comments:

5

66.

Sound Ancestors 

 Madlib

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"Maybe it's because I was too excited for this and set the bar too high, but I sadly found it a bit underwhelming, it left something more to be desired. I fail to see how this comes even close to his best work. Still, there were some great moments, like the self-titled track."  Reply

- kokkinos | 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:

111 charts

Rank Score:

250

Rank in 2021:

66

Rank in 2020s:

334

Overall Rank:

5,413

Average Rating:

 71 (98 votes)

Comments:

4

67.

The Future Bites 

 Steven Wilson

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"It's alright. I LIKE some of the choices here, but I feel the album's material is a little lacking on the whole."  Reply

- Deckiller | 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:

71 charts

Rank Score:

249

Rank in 2021:

67

Rank in 2020s:

338

Overall Rank:

5,440

Average Rating:

 70 (97 votes)

Comments:

8

68.

Black To The Future 

 Sons Of Kemet

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"Shabaka Hutchings has done it again. Black to the Future is further proof that the London jazz scene is THE jazz scene right now (2021)."  Reply

- EyeKanFly | 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:

101 charts

Rank Score:

249

Rank in 2021:

68

Rank in 2020s:

339

Overall Rank:

5,448

Average Rating:

 75 (67 votes)

Comments:

2

69.

Pray For Haiti 

 Mach-Hommy

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"Another solid entry into Mach-Hommy's dense and illustrious discography. Westside Gunn puts his impeccable ear for curation on show here once again, even if this does feel a bit cursory and convoluted at times. Mach's oft deeply reflective word-play seems a bit more "on-the-nose" through the enti...""Another solid entry into Mach-Hommy's dense and illustrious discography. Westside Gunn puts his impeccable ear for curation on show here once again, even if this does feel a bit cursory and convoluted at times. Mach's oft deeply reflective word-play seems a bit more "on-the-nose" through the entirety of Pray for Haiti, but a minor complaint for an artist who deserves mainstream recognition. "  [+]  Reply

- MILQmane | 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:

93 charts

Rank Score:

249

Rank in 2021:

69

Rank in 2020s:

340

Overall Rank:

5,450

Average Rating:

 75 (72 votes)

Comments:

2

70.

Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine 

 Brockhampton

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"I never thought that they would top the Saturation Trilogy, but this album is phenomenal. It's incredibly tight and focused, not wasting a single second. It hits you hard and fast, and it's infectiously catchy. It's Brockhampton at their absolute best. Don't sleep on this one."  Reply

- cgriffin060 | 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:

96 charts

Rank Score:

247

Rank in 2021:

70

Rank in 2020s:

343

Overall Rank:

5,489

Average Rating:

 74 (139 votes)

Comments:

7

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 7 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%
The Telescopes	2	0%
Dltzk	2	0%
Lana Del Rey	2	0%
Hawkwind	2	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	456	46%
	198	20%
	51	5%
	45	4%
	33	3%
	22	2%
	20	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	988	99%
Yes	13	1%

Live?	Albums	%
No	974	97%
Yes	27	3%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	987	99%
Yes	14	1%