Favorite music 2021
Every year’s music is great. It’s easy to whine about everything and bemoan streaming just go back to listening to Laurel Canyon stuff. But we can get waaaay more music now than ever before and it’s freaking great. 2021 playlist could’ve easily been 150 tracks long but cutting it made it ‘just’ 135 or so. Playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3XqKRMgBEo02QTXsiJK6rF?si=5503d15402844035
2021 Albums of the Year
Aaron Lee Tasjin “Tasjin! Tasjin! Tasjin!” Had never heard of him before this record but hot damn I loved this even though it’s not my style.
The Goon Sax “Mirror II”. I loved their last album and this is even better. “In the Stone” maybe my favorite track of the year
Wet Leg “Too Late Now” (EP but who cares). So good live, so rocking. All catchy hooks, no filler. “Chaise Lounge” is the rocker of the year and the least pandemic friendly vibe.
William Parker: “Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World.” 10 album box set may be a little much for some in which case try Trencadis (the selections from there). Definitely listen to the first track “The Golden Light (Hymn)”. It’ll heal what ails you.
Gustaf “Audio Drag for Ego Slobs”. No Wave renaissance continues
Madlib “Sound Ancestors”. Twas the year of Madlib
Nasimiyu “Potions”. Not generally the sound I go for but holy crap is it good
Snapped Ankles “Forest of your problems” Cannot wait to see them live when that is a thing you can do again without wondering what the moral cost of it is
Audiobooks “Astro Tough” How is each album of theirs weirder and better ?
Lael Neale “Acquainted with Night”. Vibbiest album of the year
Sarah Neufeld “Detritus”. Well maybe this one is if the vibe is post-apocalyptic classical doom
Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders “Promises”. Peak bath music. (Grouper’s album “Shade” gets second prize for it, but first prize if you’re bathing in the fog or walking through a redwood forest)
Nala Sinephro “Space 1.8” Space bath.
Vikingur Olafsson “Reflections”. I know nothing about classical music but loved this.
Mach Homey: “Pray for Haiti”
Lump, Laura Marlin, Mike Lindsey “Animal”
John Vanderslice “John, I can’t believe civilization is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love, DCB”. I miss DCB. So many suicides. I understand the epidemiological reading of why we shouldn’t talk about it but I still think it does more harm than good. The title of this album, and the tracks, are as good as anything else. Lost too many to this recently but if you’re reading this, Congratulations to all of us!
Elizabeth & the Catapult “sincerely, e”. Found it really affecting.
Dry Cleaning “New Long Leg”. No Wave revolution continues. It’s great.
Chris Corsano & Bill Orcut “ Made Out of Sound” All Wallace Stevens and experimental music. Wish I could see it live.
Moontype “Bodies of Water”
Nick Cave “B Sides- & Rarities Part II”--maybe my favorite Nick Cave album (/ducks). No, I am not a huge Nick Cave fan but I liked this a lot!
Arlo Parks “Collapsed in Sunbeams”.
Low “Hey What” Never been a favorite band of mine but this album caught me.
Sharon Van Etten “Epic 10” (cheating as its a rerelease but what an amazing album to start and the covers of the songs by others are kinda cool).
2021 Show of the year:
Wet Leg (at Omeara London). Sold out show right before they became Big. Thanks to the bartender who I chatted up who let me in. I was one of probably 500 people there, and the only one who wore a mask as if it were a blanky, or if I were clinging to a pole in a windstorm. Bonus points for being extra English in having your sold out indie punk show in the middle of the pandemic go on without masks yet still end by 9:30 for some reason. Your move Boston venues.