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).
"I’ve been a huge Deafheaven guy since they blew me away with ‘Sunbather’ some 8 years post & through ‘New Bermuda’ and ‘Ordinary Corrupt..” they have been a staple of my regular musical diet. As such I have been tracking this 2021 release for the past 18 months and from the get go the word has co...""I’ve been a huge Deafheaven guy since they blew me away with ‘Sunbather’ some 8 years post & through ‘New Bermuda’ and ‘Ordinary Corrupt..” they have been a staple of my regular musical diet. As such I have been tracking this 2021 release for the past 18 months and from the get go the word has consistently been it’s different , fans be warned
So here it is ‘ Infinite Granite’ and yes different it is , I was expecting as much but to actually finally hear the 180 degree turn is simply jarring. Gone completely are the deep Black Metal vocals and heavy heavy guitars instead replaced with swirling dream pop that harkens back to 1990’s bands such as Swervdriver, Ride, Lush and Slowdive
To fully appreciate this album you need to play a trick of the mind and the trick is DONT think about Deafheaven when you listen to this album simply think as if its a band you’re hearing for the very first time. Music wise I quite like it being partial to the Dream Pop gene since funny enough the 90’s
If you want to listen to some hardcore Black Metal DONT even think about this album
If you are in the mood for some Dream Pop look no future than ‘Infinite Granite’
It’s as simple as that "[+]Reply
"(A formidable, beautiful alt-country/chamber folk-type album that, while quite pretty can leave me feeling like its a bit empty of real grit and meaning.) My relationship with this album has developed and shifted several times over the last couple months. When I first heard it, I admit I was kind...""(A formidable, beautiful alt-country/chamber folk-type album that, while quite pretty can leave me feeling like its a bit empty of real grit and meaning.)
My relationship with this album has developed and shifted several times over the last couple months. When I first heard it, I admit I was kind of in love. On second and third and now fourth listen, there is a diminishing return. Each time I hear it I am always impressed by the scale and beauty of the album. There is clearly a person who has a good familiarity and understanding of country and folk making this. The strings, while sometimes overbearing and sappy, generally create a larger-than-life romantic atmosphere especially when paired with the somewhat gritty tales of woe and loss and the twangy vocal and guitar parts. The production is pretty solid, pristine and generally un-ear-catching. And really the indicidual parts seem to be pretty well placed and well done. But... there is something missing that would make this a true gem. I like it but that ain't much of a benchmark considering my general love of this genre and aesthetic.
There is a cleanness and detached lack of passion here that can be a bit irksome. The vocals sound like someone playing the part of a sad, wandering country troubadour but it also does feel like an act or veneer. The calculated placement of strings to induce swoons and feeling sound, well, just like that - calculated plays for that lonesome lostness that is so incredible when truly pulled off.
The little snippets of old TV shows wear out their welcome almost instantly and when ythey come in, it does 2 things: 1. makes me roll my eyes and 2. kind of breaks immersion and makes the whole flow of the record experience some turbulence. Not a fan of that schtick and choice. Also I feel this album isn't varied enough or doesn't have enough of an arc or a cohesive stitching to justify an hour run time.
Okay, so, yeah I don't love this album. I do like it. I may sound like I really dislike it, but I assure you that is not the case. It should also be noted that today I am in a bit of a sour and cantankerous mood and this album's pitch for my heart strings is being faced with cold, unsympathetic, grouchy old me and so yeah, tough crowd. But the truth is somewhere between my initial lovey-dovey response and today's grouchy curmudgeon response.
Even now I can say some of the songs here are quite great and if the tracks "Not Dead Yet" with its old rock and roll swagger and its hand claps, "Mine Forever" which plays as a near-perfect introduction to the swooning, string-laden lost troubadour vibe this album is trying to pull off, "I Lied" with its truly moving and mournful duet and soulful sadness and regret and self-loathing/disappointment, "Long Lost" with its melodramatic production and that early 60s girl group rhythm and that weak piano adding that sweet touch, made up half of this album instead of 1/4th this album i'd say this was a triumph. But the album is weighed down by filler skits and TV bits and songs that are generally not memorable for me.
Overall, I like this style and some of the songs hereare stellar. And I like the record but don't, like, REALLY like it and certainly don't love it. It's a solid and pretty little Americana/Country/Indie Folk album with lots of Chamber folk and some alt-country thrown in for some variety. If you are into that, check it out."[+]Reply
"The obvious complaint about this album would be the skits/interludes/call them any way you like. Rashida's Tale was the one that I felt added something, but in general they broke the flow of the album. You can tell how detrimental they are by checking how their absence immediately elevates the al...""The obvious complaint about this album would be the skits/interludes/call them any way you like. Rashida's Tale was the one that I felt added something, but in general they broke the flow of the album. You can tell how detrimental they are by checking how their absence immediately elevates the album, for example the combination of Put It Down and On It - even though their are so different in terms of style - is so very powerful, because there is no interruption between them."[+]Reply
"A change of pace both in terms of attitude - this is The Antlers at their most relaxed/uplifting/optimistic - and style - not as adventurous as usual, but minimal doesn't equal simplistic, it's still not as straightforward as you may initially think. Also, their most vocals focused album - and wh...""A change of pace both in terms of attitude - this is The Antlers at their most relaxed/uplifting/optimistic - and style - not as adventurous as usual, but minimal doesn't equal simplistic, it's still not as straightforward as you may initially think.
Also, their most vocals focused album - and what a great job Peter Silberman does in that regard."[+]Reply
"(Post Hardcore meets Noise rock meets noise pop at points. Some cool electronic bits, some messy hardcore excellence as well as bits of mathy virtuosity, this album is just a really LOUD, at times thrilling, always interesting mix of genres that mostly work really well. Check it out if you like t...""(Post Hardcore meets Noise rock meets noise pop at points. Some cool electronic bits, some messy hardcore excellence as well as bits of mathy virtuosity, this album is just a really LOUD, at times thrilling, always interesting mix of genres that mostly work really well. Check it out if you like these styles or if you want to damage your ears as efficiently as possible.)
This is the 3rd (or is it 4th?) official album by this Detroit hardcore punk/post hardcore band The Armed. In prep for this anticipated release of went back and listened to some of their earlier songs and albums. They were loud, wild, mathcorey, knotty bits of post hardcore and quite good. But, based only on the singles from Ultrapop, it felt like they had drastically changed their sound. This interesting and pretty cool evolution made me even more hyped about this album.
All in all Ultrapop lived up to my hype. The main surprise was that the 3 songs I had heard on repeat before hearing the whole thing - “All Futures”, “An Iteration”, and “Average Death” - are probably 3 of the 5 most divergent songs from their post hardcore sound. Most of the other tracks, while having a ridiculously loud mix and some elements added, were essentially “classic The Armed” - meaning a majority of the songs here are gnarly and nasty and discordant walls of hardcore insanity. The strangely pop-oriented, tuneful experimentation is much less present in the songs that were not released early on streaming services. This wasn’t blatant, like, false advertising and I’m not mad, just surprised.
As for the album as a whole, it’s very good, bordering on GREAT. The production is really ridiculous. By ridiculous I mean LOUD like REALLLLY LOUD. It’s almost Sleigh Bells-level of tinnitus-inducing. And actually it works really well for the music. The music being this maximalist melding of incredibly forthright and aggressive post hardcore with noise pop and subtle electronic and pop elements nestled underneath. The walls of unhinged sound that storm out of my headphones when I hear this record are brilliant and mostly invigorating.
The musicianship is pretty solid. It’s not the most mind-bogglingly complex and the chops aren’t on another plane, but they suffice. (Note: I’m not a musician and for all I fucking know a musician may hear this and think these guys are the second coming of the Mahavishnu Orchestra or something. Just my perception as a neophyte.) But, honestly, the fact that at times the band sounds, well, like a hardcore punk band rather than a Mathcore band, is what makes a lot of the unhinged moments work more. It sounds slightly off time at points, the band isn’t always in perfect lockstep, and it makes for a more classic punk experience in amongst all these distinctly alien-to-punk-and-Hardcore elements.
The critiques I have and the reason this album isn’t quite the AOTY candidate that I thought it may be based off first listen and those excellent pre-release singles, are vague and somewhat two-fold. And, again, both critiques are somewhat vague and incredibly personal no doubt.
For one I feel that the album somehow has a mild personality crisis. When it is going ape shit with the noisy, oppressively loud hardcore it is consistently awesome. When the band is doing a weird quasi-MBV kinda thing where there is clearly some gorgeous melodies underneath thick slabs of noise and muck, it sounds absolutely awesome. EDIT: hey this is me. That MBV comparison was sticking in me craw and I think that is because it’s a bit of a stretch and they aren’t too similar stylistically. But at points there is a certain element of hiding rich and sweet melodies under lots of noise that is somewhat similar). And yet I don’t personally feel these two styles are melded or meshed into a beautiful and brilliant complete cohesive whole. The sum of the parts is somehow less than the 2 individual stylistic achievements.
The other thing is that I feel this album doesn’t quite consistently blow me away. This is much less of a clear-cut, in my mind, problem. And honestly both issues may slowly dissolve into time as I revisit this beast. But for now I feel that the initial momentum of the album which is created by a brilliant and visceral run of tracks to start, is dampened quite a bit in the middle before the album ends with a pretty brilliant run of gems again. Again, with almost any album that I love the core sound of, this critique usually abates over time and many listens.
Overall, this is indeed a creative, blistering, intense and loud (loud in ways I haven’t heard in almost any other album this year) record that, for the most part, sticks the landing on integrating some electronic, noise pop, and other disparate sounds into the post-hardcore central sound/style. Really excellent album and recommended.
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"Teardrinker and Gobblers of Dregs are up there with my favorite Mastodon songs. A lot of other songs on this album I really enjoy listening to, in particular The Crux and More Than I Could Chew. I think this collection falls under that category of double albums that would have benefitted from bei...""Teardrinker and Gobblers of Dregs are up there with my favorite Mastodon songs. A lot of other songs on this album I really enjoy listening to, in particular The Crux and More Than I Could Chew. I think this collection falls under that category of double albums that would have benefitted from being pared down to a lean single album, but once all the music sinks in, it's a solid listen all the way through."[+]Reply
"Not quite as memorable as Raising Sand, but certainly a great album. Amazing musical chemistry and a few really great tracks. Burnett's production is once again impeccable."Reply
Brad1770 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (3 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
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Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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sszwalbenest | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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