Best Albums of 2021

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Explore the best albums of 2021, based on over 2 million album rankings across 60,000 charts. Last updated: 6 hours ago

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2021 year summaryThe best artists of 2021 were Little Simz, Black Country, New Road, Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra, Tyler, The Creator, Japanese Breakfast, Squid (2020s), Black Midi, Low, Weezer and Magdalena Bay.

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11.

I Don't Live Here Anymore

The War On Drugs

"A hypnotic, 80's reboot dreamscape that feels completely innovative for 2021. Like lost in a maze that I don't care about getting out of. Best album for me in 2021." Reply

chisholm.matt | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (3 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

282 charts

Rank Score:

1,405

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,243

Average Rating:

77 (205 votes)

Comments:

12.

By The Time I Get To Phoenix

Injury Reserve

"(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

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

194 charts

Rank Score:

1,330

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,299

Average Rating:

78 (199 votes)

Comments:

13.

An Evening With Silk Sonic

Silk Sonic

"The fact that both this AND "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" came out in the same year automatically makes 2021 a better year than 2020" Reply

- TheNewm | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (8 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

243 charts

Rank Score:

1,308

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,317

Average Rating:

76 (219 votes)

Comments:

14.

Blue Weekend

Wolf Alice

"(Cool alt/indie rock album. Ellie on the vocals is the star, but the band is solid throughout.) I say this a lot but it’s particularly true here: I don’t have much to say about this. It’s a very solid and at times gorgeous indie rock album. It bounces so often from one sound to another, I can’t p..." Reply

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

249 charts

Rank Score:

1,306

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,319

Average Rating:

77 (214 votes)

Comments:

15.

Glow On

Turnstile

"Really dig this one with its hardcore driving Helmet guitars and Janes Addiction vibes however the two slower tracks (“UNDERWATER BOI” / “ALIEN LOVE CALL”) are real downers that pull me out of the high octane buzz" Reply

Brad1770 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

213 charts

Rank Score:

1,233

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,398

Average Rating:

77 (169 votes)

Comments:

16.

Happier Than Ever

Billie Eilish

""Happier Than Ever" is a maturation of Billie Eilish's sound. The writing is much more emotionally vulnerable and nuanced. Much of the record is focused on post break up feelings and reflection, lending a humanity previously not seen in her work. The instrumentals spread into more acoustic and ro..." Reply

- titansaurs28 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

245 charts

Rank Score:

1,180

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,456

Average Rating:

73 (229 votes)

Comments:

17.

Sinner Get Ready

Lingua Ignota

"(Expertly crafted, thematically deep to an extreme degree, neoclassical darkwave. While I can't say its truly become a favorite after these first 3 listens, there is some deeply moving music here and this subject and material and these themes are tackled here about as well as I can imagine them b...""(Expertly crafted, thematically deep to an extreme degree, neoclassical darkwave. While I can't say its truly become a favorite after these first 3 listens, there is some deeply moving music here and this subject and material and these themes are tackled here about as well as I can imagine them being tackled by a modern artist.) Okay, so this is one of those albums that I was kind of intimidated by. The cover, the artist, the name, the Fantano 10, the themes, the musical style, the song titles etc etc... literally every aspect of this album screams "INTELLECTUALLY AND SONICALLY CHALLENGING MASTERPIECE!!!" and, honestly, I just felt out of my depth even saying or writing anything about it. Today I listened to it a couple more times after listening to it once on it's day of release. The listening experience was halfway harrowing musical revelation and halfway sonorous slog. The music itself is generally brilliant especially on the softer and more tender moments. I wasn't, however, as into the loud operatic parts or the part on the first track when she is operatic AND kicks her piano for maximal impact. But that first track basically contains in miniature everything I loved and didn't about this album. There is something incredibly haunting with the way she desperately sings "Hide your children, hide your husband" and that took my breathe away. There is also something a bit jarring in a bad way about the sudden loud explosions of noise. The spoken word/found sound that closes the track is also quite fitting and beautiful here. At points later when you hear that christian talking about going to walmart, not so good, kinda takes me out of the almost ancient and timeless atmosphere of the album. Other songs and parts that blow my mind are large portions of the insane screaming on track 2 (one of the rare over-the-top parts that didn't turn me off, although the way she drops the the word "fucking" into the track is another example of this almost old testament atmosphere being ruined by something that sounds like a very angry woman in 2021.). Also love the almost Tom Waits, junkyard orchestra sounding track 3 "Many Hands" - the track is dope but I am kinda mixed on her vocals. "Pennsylvania Furnace" is an unabashed masterpiece. Its a soft and sad and overwhelmingly emotional song and Kristin Hayter sounds sooo damn great here. I never question how insanely talented and technically brilliant she is as a vocalist and musician just sometimes I don't vibe with how she uses her voice, but here it is perfect, and this is probably my favorite song on this record and one of my favorite of the whole year. Other standouts: I feel like I am going in a time machine when I hear track 5 "Repent Now Confess Now" and there is no oddball line or spoken bit to take me out of this other time and place and although I don't adore the song as much as the previous track, just the sensation of being transported via music to such a different place is incredible. "Perpetual Flame of Centralia" is another track like "Pennsylvania Furnace" that is so beautiful it almost makes me weep. "Man Is Like A Spring Flower" starts out a bit too damn repetitive, and just as I'm like "Nah, not my thing" the layers of beautiful melody and harmony and percussion come in and make this one of the best songs here, truly a brilliant song. Then after the stupid found sound/spoken word with the walmart and home depot name drops, "The Solitary Brethren of Ephrata" is beautiful and another truly transcendent neoclassical arrangement and song. Overall, as I wrote this, I started to realize that outside of a few songs and halves of songs and some tracks that are too ponderous and sloggish, I actually love this album. Maybe 20-30% I am mostly unmoved by. Maybe 5% I think is lame or too much. This leaves a solid majority of the album that evokes feelings and thoughts and concepts in me and in my mind that no other album has this year or in recent memory. I placed this album pretty low on my 2021 top 100 as I started writing this comment and now I've moved it up quite a bit. My opinion ripened and my liking deepened the more I listened and revisit tracks to write this snippet of thoughts. Still not an absolute fave of mine nor one that I see going back to that often as it is an NCREDIBLY blackened and deep album with daunting subject matters. But this album is one that I consider very special, as well as a triumph in modern music and an album that holds a unique place in modern music." Reply

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

172 charts

Rank Score:

1,178

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,458

Average Rating:

77 (172 votes)

Comments:

18.

The Turning Wheel

Spellling

"No one would have ever cared about this album if it wasn't for Fantano, at least it got the recognition it deserved." Reply

- DJLogs95 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

194 charts

Rank Score:

1,171

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,462

Average Rating:

79 (223 votes)

Comments:

19.

G_d's Pee At State's End!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

"Top 5 in best albuns of 2021 for sure" Reply

- StreakyNuno | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

215 charts

Rank Score:

1,121

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,519

Average Rating:

77 (209 votes)

Comments:

20.

Safe Mode: On

A Beginner's Mind

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine

"Holy fucking shit.... My eyes are dried, my mind is blown. Sufjan's best record in years. Utterly and profoundly beautiful." Reply

ledaero | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

210 charts

Rank Score:

1,087

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,579

Average Rating:

79 (193 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 2 of 100

Best Albums of 2021 composition

Artist	Albums	%

Various Artists	6	1%
Arca	4	0%
Neil Young	4	0%
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	3	0%
Jane Remover	3	0%
Summrs	2	0%
Can	2	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	443	44%
	196	20%
	52	5%
	46	5%
	33	3%
	24	2%
	21	2%
Show all

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

Live?	Albums	%
No	977	98%
Yes	23	2%

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

Best Albums of 2021 chart changes

Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month
Up 3 from 81st to 78th Fatigue by L'Rain
Up 3 from 67th to 64th Pray For Haiti by Mach-Hommy
Up 3 from 55th to 52nd Death By Rock And Roll by The Pretty Reckless

Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month
Down 8 from 60th to 68th Sympathy For Life by Parquet Courts
Down 2 from 51st to 53rd Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender
Down 2 from 80th to 82nd Heaux Tales by Jazmine Sullivan

New entries New entries in top 100 since last month
Up 1 from 101st to 100th For Those I Love (2021) by For Those I Love

Leavers Leavers from top 100 since last month
Down 4 from 98th to 102nd On All Fours by Goat Girl

« View best albums of 2020View best albums of 2022 »

Popular Charts

1. The Top 100 Albums by VH1 (2001)

2. The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone (2020)

3. The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time by New Music Express (2013)

4. 100 Best Albums - 2024 Edition by Apple Music (2024)

5. Top 100 Albums by ABC (2006)

6. The Definitive 200 by National Association of Recording Merchandisers (2007)

7. 200 Greatest Albums of All Time by Uncut (2016)

8. Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums by Virgin (2000)

9. The 100 Greatest Albums Of All Time by Absolute Radio (2012)

10. The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time (1-100) by Paste (2024)