Listed below are the best albums of 2021 as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 1 hour ago).
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"We had The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation We had Aquemini, Stankonia, and Speakerbox We had Good Kid Maad City, To Pimp a Butterfly, and Damn And now we have Flower Boy, IGOR, and Call Me If You Get Lost"Reply
"From ALC #19— Sounds like: The sadness which seeps after a night of consuming party drug soup dumplings, yet the memories of the good times persist. Drink of choice: Spiced yuzu lemonade with a twist Look! Persimmons! Ah, persimmons. A jubilee is a jamboree with less amor and more uil, which isn’...""From ALC #19—
Sounds like: The sadness which seeps after a night of consuming party drug soup dumplings, yet the memories of the good times persist.
Drink of choice: Spiced yuzu lemonade with a twist
Look! Persimmons!
Ah, persimmons.
A jubilee is a jamboree with less amor and more uil, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but at least we’ve steeped an album out of it.
I remember when I first heard Everybody Wants To Love You and all going through my head was how I used to hang in studios with so many singer/songwriters who would have loved to create something like that. Felt like she nailed it. That was it. Absolute bullet. Questioned why she wasn’t bigger, why this wasn’t the smash of the summer, track of the year, blasting out of every car whipping down the beach front. Felt like a nugget of gold was tossed into a mall’s wish fountain. An epitome of indie pop fired at us from nowhere and we shrugged it off. We plucked it out of that wish fountain on occasion, but I’m still not quite sure people realized it was an actual gold nugget.
Won’t lie, wasn’t super hot on her follow up record, but at least she gained momentum. Was happy about that. Knew the next release would be make or break time. And then something interesting happened. She was shot out of a canon. That same brain listening to Everybody Wants To Love You for the first time would have never imagined this singer would be topping bestseller lists while also having chart topping hits, but I’m glad Japanese Breakfast squeezed through the crowd. Think she made it with this one.
A warm, glistening, citrus-burst of a record with a summertime fuzz and the sadness which comes along with it, a hug for tears happy or sad. I may be writing to Ms. Breakfast as to why she dedicates the final thirty seconds of her songs to building them, but otherwise, I think this record is everything it wants to be.
Standouts: Posing In Bondage, Kokomo, IN., Sit, Be Sweet"[+]Reply
"(Total masterpiece. Genres to describe this I guess would be post-industrial, Noise, with some kind of gospel spirituality mixed in. Anyway, that doesn’t really describe this album. Not very well, anyway.) What can I possibly say that will do this album justice? I don’t think I am capable. This a...""(Total masterpiece. Genres to describe this I guess would be post-industrial, Noise, with some kind of gospel spirituality mixed in. Anyway, that doesn’t really describe this album. Not very well, anyway.)
What can I possibly say that will do this album justice? I don’t think I am capable. This album is special. When I listen to HEY WHAT, it is an out-of-body experience. The detail contained within the “noise”, the way the sheer volume of the album rolls over me like waves, I feel like I am thrown into a storm in the middle of the ocean, and for a few seconds I fight it and I panic and I start to scream and cry. But then a voice reassures me that these tidal waves won’t cause me harm – not truly and not truly me -, and I am told to breathe and embrace the immensity of this place and this experience. I relax and I breathe and … I am fine, I am calm, I am free. The rest of the album is like a massive, Pacific-sized epic about modern life and spirituality. And unlike so many other unapologetically gloomy, bitter, and hopeless epics that seem to tackle this struggle, with HEY WHAT I feel love and I feel hope and I glimpse a way through this mess I find myself in.
Musically, production-wise, this album makes me laugh lovingly and in awe, because I just can’t understand how humans being of flesh and blood can go and create this. Like, how? This could be called “Noisy” and “Staticy” and “Loud” but I can’t really say that those words fit to describe even the most inhuman and loud and most intense moments in this album. These scratchy, buzzing, sonically overwhelming sounds never sound harsh or hard to listen to. Again, like I said at the beginning, I have no clue how to express what this sounds like to me. The machines present on this album are simply communicating, meshing, corresponding with the human voices and harmonies. When the harmonies and the machine sounds come together, in these artist’s genius hands, what you get is transcendent music of the highest caliber.
Just yesterday I was trading comments with the excellent fellow-BEA user buzzdainer. Buzzdainer mentioned about Chris Stapleton’s 2020 album Starting Over: “…for me it's the quintessential album for coping with the cruel realities of our current decade.” This description was excellent and I can see how Starting Over would have that effect. However, when I took a look and thought about what album for ME truly had such a significance in this current decade… I couldn’t think of one. The music I have loved from this decade thus far has been mostly powerful and cathartic in very different ways or, in some cases, very escapist. But no album as of yesterday had I heard that really uplifted me and helped me cope and find meaning and stabilized me in this current crazy world we live in.
Then just a couple hours later I pushed play on Low’s latest. By the time I finished listening the very first time I felt emotionally satiated, understood, fulfilled. And I felt spiritually uplifted and enlightened. This is probably the most uplifting piece of music I have heard this decade so far. It for sure is.
To list the specific tracks on here that I love or want to shout out seems like a silly activity. It is only silly for me because the whole album, start to finish, is the perfect example of a cohesive album experience. For example, I can point out (and – lol - I am about to) that the back-to-back majesty of the track “Hey” followed by “Days Like These” makes me legitimately weep with joy and some emotional mixing I still don’t understand. And that is true, I think Hey/Days Like These is some of the greatest music I have ever heard full stop. BUT I had heard “Days Like These” as a single and when I heard it in that out-of-context way, I thought it was a pretty song and it made me excited for the new album… and that is all I thought of it. But when I hear it now on the heals of “Hey” and also after the absolutely stunning build up to this middle portion of the album, it is cathartic, life-changing, inspiring and perfect. Every song here is special on its own but transcendent as part of the entire sweep of the album.
This album expresses to me; Humanity, Human Goodness, True Affection and Love and Unity winning and triumphing in the face of inhumanity, materialism, and the bleak ubiquity of the utterly unfeeling. This album is a treasure. I actually feel a deep appreciation and an immeasurable respect for and to Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk and BJ Burton for creating this album. It’s just what I needed to hear in days like these.
Now I know I have not really said much of anything in this “review”/rambling comment – I haven’t touched much upon the songs and the lyrics and the harmonies and the industrial manipulations and genres and all that. Well, sorry. But this album, more than any other this year (outside of perhaps By the Time I Get To Phoenix), really transcends words and clear description.
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"You love to see it. An album that I enjoyed enough to write two pages of the track by track breakdowns on. All my favorite songs: This song could’ve flown under the radar in the grander scheme of Weezer tracks but the orchestration is really what pulls everything together. The complex chords are ...""You love to see it. An album that I enjoyed enough to write two pages of the track by track breakdowns on.
All my favorite songs: This song could’ve flown under the radar in the grander scheme of Weezer tracks but the orchestration is really what pulls everything together. The complex chords are so emotional and gosh dang those horns in that last section of the song are amazing. Lyrically it also does a really good job of just prepping you for the theme of the album. This is the only song that examines the idea of people being draining so you look for a way to escape them which is actually really interesting in the larger scheme of the album.
Aloo Gobi: This song sort of takes a look at the monotony of daily life and the anger that comes from wanting your life to be something greater than it is. The song starts with the bombastic orchestra but throughout the songs, the strings pop in and out. Notably on the second verse you really just have piano and vocals to sort of capitalize on the minimalism of daily life. And that refrain of “What is happening to me” speaks volumes from the delivery to the way the instruments accompany it. SMOOTH TRANSITION INTO
Grapes Of Wrath: Now knowing that Rivers is tired of the monotony of his life it makes perfect sense that he would like to take a route of escapism. In this case, that’s through listening to audiobooks. You think he cares? He just don’t care.
Numbers: The heaviest hitter on this album for me. Starting off with really somber strings as Rivers sings about being too short for the team and having an IQ too low for poetry. An obvious knock at his critics that as recently as last week when my favorite songs came out, shot at Rivers for rhyming “bad, sad and mad”. As this line is read our man Pat comes in clutch with the drums to give the song some more drive that is really fitting. After the refrain of “numbers are out to get you”, we are greeted to an amazing soaring chorus reflecting the pain of these criticisms but countering them by seeking solace in others and I think that’s the beautiful message of this song. In the end, the critics are just numbers in a machine and they can’t do anything to come between real feelings between real people.
Playing My Piano: Once again returning to the idea of escapism but this time through music. It’s hard to tell if this is a romanticizing of getting lost playing music for days or a criticism of himself for wishing he could spend more time with his family. Honestly, I don’t see why it can’t be both. It’s a great thing to lose yourself in what you love but you can’t lose sight of the other things that are important in your life. However, this song does a great job of showing what that journey of playing music is really like. It starts off with slow, really heartfelt melodic lines but shifts into a more forward and driving direction as the chorus kicks in and the lyrics reflect just how much he’s getting into playing. “Pounding out the bass singing out the tune, never see the sun like I’m living in my room” incredibly relatable lines for anyone who’s gotten lost in music. The second verse is more of a reflection of once you’re already in that groove as opposed to the start of your sessions.
Mirror Image: This one is a pretty straightforward love song but I think placing it after Playing My Piano makes a ton of sense especially with my theory of that song being a criticism of himself. That’s not even taking into consideration the last few seconds of THIS song where Rivers says something to the extent of being shut out of heaven. That’s a pretty heavy statement to make just once for a few seconds on this album and I honestly don’t want to speculate too much as to why he’d say this but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Screens: The opening piano and strings are instantly catchy and help get the ball rolling for this track. I do like what they were trying to do lyrically on this track but I don’t think it lands as much as the other tracks do. Rivers takes more of “my mate is going through this thing” when actually he’s talking about himself and really everyone I guess. I just don’t think the idea of losing yourself to your phone is shown as great as it is on the rest of the album and this track is especially over before you know it. I like it but it doesn’t make as much of an impact as it could’ve with some more length and personal lyrics.
Bird With A Broken Wing: Along the lines of Eulogy For A Rock Band, we’re taken on a retrospective journey through the musical career of Weezer. I believe the broken wing referring the multiple critical failures the band has had behind them. The cat also is a reference to those same critics who put them down. Through all these experiences though, Rivers hasn’t lost his drive to sing what he has for the world, and I’m so grateful for that. The world is a better place because of his drive to create music for us. I think this song also would’ve been stunning as a closer but I don’t mind that they chose a different one.
Dead Roses: I honestly don’t know what to say about this one. It’s a little more abstract lyrically than the other songs or maybe I’m just stupid. I’ve got some ideas about the lyrics but it’s all very speculative. I do really like the line “beat you until you beg to live” but I’m not confident enough about its meaning to say anything other than, it’s a good track but it could’ve been longer.
Everything Happens For a Reason: I don’t know why this had to be its own song especially since it leads straight into here comes the rain but hey…. Everything happens for a reason.
Here Comes The Rain: A really happy go lucky song about how even after a bad day, good things will come your way. Very fun but once again, not as heavy-hitting as other tracks.
La Brea Tar Pits: A really bitter-sweet way to end the album. Sonically it’s got a resolute and accomplished sound to it but the lyrics reflect a recurring fear of fading into obscurity. This is shown the best at the chorus as the lyrics describe himself sinking to his death and desperately asking for help, yet the strings sound as if there’s nothing to be scared of and that everything will be alright in the end (where have I heard that before) As he continues to sink though we return to the idea of getting help from others. Asking to be thrown a rope as he’s sinking and how the skills of someone else can help him get farther. Then as the album closes we are left with just the orchestra slowing down and resolving into a beautiful chord.
Conclusion: When this album is acting at its most concise it’s insanely touching. The ideas of taking a step away from your obsessions to spend time with those you love and learning to balance the two is an eternal idea that we need to hear. Sometimes life is boring, sometimes people are difficult, and sometimes you get kicked down, but there’s always something or someone good that will come along. Sometimes it’s the love of your life, and sometimes it’s just a really good book. The flow of this album is also something to commend. Everything feels in its right place and while other tracks shine much brighter than others, that doesn’t make the weaker ones bad at all. Also, orchestra and Weezer were meant to be.
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"(Consistent and cohesive debut LP from Magdalena Bay. Some top-tier synthpop - creative, catchy and quite beautiful.) I am a fan of this album. The things I love about great synthpop are here in droves. Those being a charming childlike wonderousness that is infectious when you listen, lots of cat...""(Consistent and cohesive debut LP from Magdalena Bay. Some top-tier synthpop - creative, catchy and quite beautiful.)
I am a fan of this album. The things I love about great synthpop are here in droves. Those being a charming childlike wonderousness that is infectious when you listen, lots of catchy melodies, vocals that float along over the tracks like some sort of fairy spirit, and of course lots of tracks that can be danced around to like a wild person or can be enjoyed while sitting and dreaming about whatever it is you dream about. Synthpop isn't one of my go-to genres by any means, but this is being an exceptional version of the genre, I can say that I am enough of a fan of what this duo is doing with this style to consider this one of the better albums of the year.
The album is indeed pretty consistent. That said the opening run of tracks from the opener "The End" through track 7 "Chaeri" is a good deal more excellent and catchy to me than the last half. Note: This may be due to the simple fact that I listened to the first half of this 3 times and got interrupted each time, so I only have heard the album in its entirety twice, but that opening half 5 times. Idk, that is probably contributing to my current take that the first half is superior. Still, even now, I can say that the 1-2 punch that ends the album is just as good as anything at the start (except maybe "Secrets (Your Fire)" which is song of the year material to my ears).
The music here is dreamy and somewhat osychedelic, its got moments to inspire dancing and moments to inspire quasi-philosophical contemplation. And each track is stitched to the others in a smooth and seamless way. The album works really well as an album and not just a series of seperate tracks with occasional total standouts.
I don't have much of great intelligence to say about this one (go figure) but I think its really quite beautiful and its recommended to everyone but ESPECIALLY to those of you craving a great pop album. This is perhaps the best and most bubbly and gorgeous pop album of any variety I have heard this year. Stellar debut album as well. This is a super impressive way to start your LP career."[+]Reply
"Heard it 3 times here is my reaction after each listen: 1st- Nice heartland rock (its ok) 2nd- damn some of these tracks are getting me emotional. I think i understand the themes of the albums a bit more. 3rd- Give me War on Drugs music straight in my veins! Try not to get teary eyed! Favorite al...""Heard it 3 times here is my reaction after each listen:
1st- Nice heartland rock (its ok)
2nd- damn some of these tracks are getting me emotional. I think i understand the themes of the albums a bit more.
3rd- Give me War on Drugs music straight in my veins! Try not to get teary eyed! Favorite album of the year so far
Let me just listen to the first track, change and I dont live here anymore for the tenth time"[+]Reply
"(Dense, knotty, complex, scatter-brained, grief-filled, lost, anguished, layered Experimental Hip Hop record with lots of noisy blasts of strange random beats, glitching disorientation, fabulous and varied vocal performances and just generally a frightening and inspired and inspiring new musical ...""(Dense, knotty, complex, scatter-brained, grief-filled, lost, anguished, layered Experimental Hip Hop record with lots of noisy blasts of strange random beats, glitching disorientation, fabulous and varied vocal performances and just generally a frightening and inspired and inspiring new musical realm in album form. Give it 2 or 3 spins before writing it off.)
My prior experience with really experimental or unorthodox hip hop was very limited. I love Atrocity Exhibition, enjoy some Death Grips and clipping and Dalek, never could get into Some Rap Songs or Lil Ugly Main or Coin Locker Kid. And I suppose I did also really like that Moor Mother + Billy Woods album last year…. The point is, I am not familiar with this genre, this sort of amorphous, boundary-pushing, strange, experimental side of hip hop. 90% of my favorites in the genre are from the mid 90s. Needless to say, this doesn’t bear any resemblance to Liquid Swords.
On first listen I was confused. I thought the album was equal parts dense/hard to follow as well as beautiful/intriguing/weirdly addictive. After I heard it once and was sort of dumb struck, I felt a compulsion to push play and try again to unravel what the fuck this is. Now, after 3 full listens and the 4th in progress, I am getting more and more familiar with it without losing that wonder at the density of the noises and elements and soundscapes created.
There are parts of this album that are sad and beautiful (“Knees”, “Top Picks for You, “Postpostpartum”). There are frightening and mentally ravaged moments (“Outside”, “Footwork in a Forest Fire”, “Wild Wild West”). There are glitchy, seemingly random noisy bits (“Superman That”, Ground Zero”) and there are even a couple honest-to-goodness songs that I can follow along with in almost traditional music listening ways (again, “Knees”). And perhaps most importantly, there aren’t clear distinctions between these sounds and emotions. Within one song there is a mixing and melding and an almost infinite variety of potential emotional responses. As a cohesive album, this succeeds in never fully showing or making clear what is the appropriate take-away from the track, whatever track you are hearing at the moment.
By The Time I Get To Phoenix album is a journey, a fucked up, lost, aimless voyage through some grimy and miserable world. I keep hearing in comments from fans of IR that this album is deeply rooted in grief and loss. And that would make sense considering the death of founding member of the group Stepa J. Groggs in June of last year. However, either I just haven’t fully unpacked the lyricism here or perhaps its people projecting the emotions onto the album that aren’t fully or exclusively here. There are no on-the-nose and obvious odes or ballads or laments clearly about the loss of Groggs. There IS a distinct hazy, disorienting, vibe throughout this whole project. It feels like the mental state of the members of Injury Reserve are constantly on the edge of fully splintering and breaking apart. This head space is expressed throughout here masterfully. It feels uncomfortable being in these guys’ heads and they fully flesh out the beats and sonic spaces so that you are thrown fully into this state-of-mind. Fabulous and, yes I’ll say it, genius brilliant amazing production now that I have gotten used to it.
And listening now to the closing track “Bye Storm” and I am getting emotional. It feels like the slight twinkle of light through the oppressive smoky sky, with that weird and exultant guitar sound. This closer along with the pained grief and apathy of the penultimate track “Knees”, make for a perfect and all-time classic closer to this album. Okay, maybe that is a bit hyperbolic. It is just a truly moving way to cap off this experimental and crushing album is what I’ll say.
The production of Parker Corey is going to get most of the ink and praise, understandably. As, despite beats of sounds like this being around in Hip Hop for 15 years, somehow he took the level of detail and wooziness and expansiveness and just expanded it exponentially. Perhaps this isn’t a completely brand new never been remotely heard sound (nothing like that ever drops and comes out of the blue) – but it is, to these admittedly not fully educated ears, a new bar set in terms of detail and expansiveness and layered noisy experimentation.
Moving to the vocal performances here, they are similarly impressive. Schizophrenic, sad and lost, slurred and drunken and in pain, cutting and fully embodying the words and living in the soundscapes. Especially the varied vocal sounds in “SS San Francisco (feat. Zelooperz)”. The deep grumbling vocal and the weird high-pitched singing set the table for some playful, sardonic, griefy bars. But its not just here, wherever the rap verses come in (and that is strangely rare, this seems to be an album where the rapping is somewhat sparse and instead there are long stretches of instrumental table-setting before Ritchie with a T comes in with the perfect vocal intonation and flow to complement the beat and sinic space.
Random, fly-by thoughts:
-The Yeezus-esque screams on “Footwork in a Forest Fire” is awesome and really the whole track and every phase of it is cool, but for some reason those screams got me.
-Smoke Don’t Clear” is, as of now, one of the few tracks here that I don’t fully like. But I will say it works well in the context of the album more than its own noisy mess of a thing.
-The way “Top Picks for You” with that dramatic melody on that… whatever sound that is… with the whispery singing and the sadness of the verses, its incredible. The whole song is great. One of my faves.
-“Knees” was weird and fabulous in isolation as a single, but it feels so much deeper and more moving and beautiful within the context of the LP. One of the best tracks here, or perhaps the best.
In closing, I am listening a 5th time, and it grows and grows on me. This is a dense and brilliant experimental and emotionally gripping and profound album. I recommend a couple listens or 3 before making final judgement. I had a similar arc with Atrocity Exhibition, where I was very VERY disoriented and kind of unimpressed on first listens and then over time I understood its dense complicated and knotty brilliance with further listens. Recommend the same for this.
Note: This is an album that I am sure I am only scratching the surface with. I hope I listen enough to unravel it more. This comment ain't final. This 5th listen is making me hear other details and that is just really exciting."[+]Reply
"This album is brilliant. It’s harsh like you would expect from her but also incredibly beautiful with elements of folk. Not to mention the incredible journey she takes you through the lens of Christianity that’s just as beautiful as it is horrifying. This is a must listen for sure whether you hav...""This album is brilliant. It’s harsh like you would expect from her but also incredibly beautiful with elements of folk. Not to mention the incredible journey she takes you through the lens of Christianity that’s just as beautiful as it is horrifying. This is a must listen for sure whether you have listened to her before or not.
Covered in the Blood of Jesus/10"[+]Reply
"(Not sure why I am putting in a paranthetical opening statement for this comment considering how short and insubstantial this comment is, boiling down to "Not MY Hardcore! grrrr...". Maybe its just a habit. Anyway, yeah I am not a fan of this uber clean, big, anthemic version of post hardcore and...""(Not sure why I am putting in a paranthetical opening statement for this comment considering how short and insubstantial this comment is, boiling down to "Not MY Hardcore! grrrr...". Maybe its just a habit. Anyway, yeah I am not a fan of this uber clean, big, anthemic version of post hardcore and hardcore.)
Personally, I'm not feeling this. I sure hope this ultra modern production isn't influential on Hardcore and post-hardcore for years to come because, man, I hate it/ a lot. The anthemic shouts are cool but to say they lean on them would be an understatement. The riff work is alright, but just the way they sound is rubbing me the wrong way. After the first 2 or 3 tracks I was thinking "Yep, this is gonna be top 100 of year for me at least." Even at that point there were some production choices which I was a bit ish about. But the power of the performances were getting me hyped up. But as the album progressed there was a steady and consistent decline in affinity for the album and the band and the sound. Don't like the Alternative Metal sounds, synth sounds, pop sounds, me no like any of it lol. Okay, that's not true, I liked maybe 1 in 5 production choices. whatever I'm rambling.
I respect that they are "pushing forward the form" and so forth. That is cool and should be commended. But in this case, to my ears, they are pushing it somewhere but I'm not sure its forward. Not backward either. Maybe they are just kinda nudging it sideways or something. (that analogy died fast upon my fingertips.)
EDIT: coming back to say that "Hate" is the wrong word. I don't hate this. I think if this album was playing I would have a good time hearing it. There have been a few albums this year that I "Hated" and this ain't it. However, I guess I just don't like it, and on a scale of hate to love, this would be almost dead center and slightly leaning over into dislike. Okay, that's all. "[+]Reply
corenfro | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (12 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
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Hayden | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Keatownrodriguez | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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pjohnsongolf | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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