Best Music of 2021

LOL! I donā€™t understand the šŸ˜•šŸ˜” reactions. There isnā€™t much I can do about it now. I didnā€™t realize that there was an upcoming Bandcamp Friday.

So now you guys have be feeling like an asshole. I looked it up and Looks like Bandcamp typically takes 10% of a purchase (which TBH, seems surprisingly reasonable) meaning Ducks Ltd. lost out on $4 from my purchase.

You guys want me to mail the band a fiver or something?
I agree! It's something I saw and thought "damn! I would have waited had I known" but I'm not about to go through the effort of canceling the order to just re-buy it again on Friday. I don't make that effort when I see someone post 20% off codes to Fat Possum or somewhere else after I've already ordered. I'm lazy, the band I'm sure is happy we're buying it regardless.
 
Last edited:
Update

  1. Men I Trust - Untourable Album
  2. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
  3. Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns
  4. Yung - Ongoing Dispute
  5. Molly Burch - Romantic Images
  6. Wednesday - Twin Plagues
  7. Crumb - Ice Melt
  8. Laura Stevenson - Laura Stevenson
  9. Shame - Drunk Tank Pink
  10. Amyl and the Sniffers - Comfort to Me
  11. Lucy Dacus - Home Video
  12. Pledge - Haunted Visions
  13. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams
  14. The Mountain Goats - Dark In Here
  15. Cold Cave - Fate in Seven Lessons
  16. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!
  17. Nils Frahm - Graz
  18. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Invisible Cities
  19. Squid - Bright Green Field
  20. The Weather Station - Ignorance
Good, I've enjoyed it, but I can't really rank it accurately
  • Dinosaur Jr. - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
  • Iceage - Seek Shelter
  • black midi - Cavalcade
  • CIVIC - Future Forecast
  • Julien Baker - Little Oblivions
  • Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights
  • Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember
  • Black Country, New Road - For the Frist Time
  • The Antlers - Green to Gold
  • Steady Holiday - Take The Corners Gently
Decent, but not really my thing/just not enjoying it that much:
  • Faye Webster
  • Fiddlehead
  • Lightning Bug
  • Dry Cleaning
  • Lightning Bug
  • Mogwai
  • Teenage Fanclub
  • Middle Kids
  • Viagra Boys
  • Goat Girl
  • Death From Above 1979
  • Hurry

Still need to listen to more/excited for:
  • Steady Holiday
  • Sufjan
  • Remember Sports
  • Adult Mom
  • Grouper
  • Bedouine
  • Ovlov
  • Ducks Etc.
  • Eluvium
Have you given Smoke Bellows album Open For Business a go? Iā€™ve really enjoyed it. Based off your list here, you perhaps would too.
 
Update

  1. Men I Trust - Untourable Album
  2. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
  3. Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns
  4. Yung - Ongoing Dispute
  5. Molly Burch - Romantic Images
  6. Wednesday - Twin Plagues
  7. Crumb - Ice Melt
  8. Laura Stevenson - Laura Stevenson
  9. Shame - Drunk Tank Pink
  10. Amyl and the Sniffers - Comfort to Me
  11. Lucy Dacus - Home Video
  12. Pledge - Haunted Visions
  13. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams
  14. The Mountain Goats - Dark In Here
  15. Cold Cave - Fate in Seven Lessons
  16. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!
  17. Nils Frahm - Graz
  18. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Invisible Cities
  19. Squid - Bright Green Field
  20. The Weather Station - Ignorance
Good, I've enjoyed it, but I can't really rank it accurately
  • Dinosaur Jr. - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
  • Iceage - Seek Shelter
  • black midi - Cavalcade
  • CIVIC - Future Forecast
  • Julien Baker - Little Oblivions
  • Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights
  • Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember
  • Black Country, New Road - For the Frist Time
  • The Antlers - Green to Gold
  • Steady Holiday - Take The Corners Gently
Decent, but not really my thing/just not enjoying it that much:
  • Faye Webster
  • Fiddlehead
  • Lightning Bug
  • Dry Cleaning
  • Lightning Bug
  • Mogwai
  • Teenage Fanclub
  • Middle Kids
  • Viagra Boys
  • Goat Girl
  • Death From Above 1979
  • Hurry

Still need to listen to more/excited for:
  • Steady Holiday
  • Sufjan
  • Remember Sports
  • Adult Mom
  • Grouper
  • Bedouine
  • Ovlov
  • Ducks Etc.
  • Eluvium
How the heck did I forget Nation of Language. It's not out yet (11/3/21) but the singles have been incredible.

"Across That Fine Line" is a SOTY contender

 
How the heck did I forget Nation of Language. It's not out yet (11/3/21) but the singles have been incredible.

"Across That Fine Line" is a SOTY contender


Yeah šŸ’Æ agreed šŸ‘ This is one of my most anticipated albums of the Fall. The 3 singles are bangers and their debut LP made my 2020 AOTY list!
 
Last edited:
This new Shad album is really rocking my socks!




How come he kilt it for no reason?
How come its always like cold season?
He just so sick
He got 2 degreesā€”
how come his flow is below freezing?
How come the lyrics approach genius
Still though he had to approach genius.com
Saying yall making dough off my lyrics
But wonā€™t pay the broke genius that wrote em?
Parasites
How come you dont pay to clear the rights?
Or at least get the lyrics right
Youā€™re a lyric site ā€”
I said have me unverified
They said how come?
How can you not see the outcome?
Of a track record
You canā€™t outrun
All of these vultures
Thinking theyā€™re fly
ā€˜Cause the cloudā€™s
Where they get their clout from?
 
Yeah this Ducks šŸ¦† Ltd. album is pretty solid šŸ‘ Too bad I don't see any vinyl on their Bandcamp šŸ˜•
It is still showing on their Bandcamp for me. Maybe theyā€™re not shipping to Canada (since they are technically on a different label north of the border?) Anyways If you to pick it up on wax in Canadaā€¦
 
It is still showing on their Bandcamp for me. Maybe theyā€™re not shipping to Canada (since they are technically on a different label north of the border?) Anyways If you to pick it up on wax in Canadaā€¦
But but they're Canadian šŸ˜„
 
Q3 Update

Total 2021 releases (albums/EPs/mixtapes) listened to as of June 28th: 149 318 422

I've slowed down with digesting new music releases considerably, to the point that I will be surprised if the number above surpasses 500 by year's end. My Q3 favorites collage shrunk to a 5x5. The overall chart expanded to a top50 (as I don't use Topsters2 any longer, and I associate the term "top40" with mainstream radio play). Moving from 4 -> 3 tiers to simplify tiering; four seemed a bit obnoxious to me from the original Topsters2 format. No EP chart for Q3 as I haven't listened to enough of them.

I used the Album Art Collage Creator and juxtaposed three chart matrices, resized them, and used Snipping Tool to get the desired .PNG files. A bit annoying, but I got them done.

Ordering is in alphabetical band name/artist last name.


Q3 favorites:
Q3Collage.PNG
Fatima Al Qadiri - Medieval Femme
Boldy James, The Alchemist - Bo Jackson
Gemma Cullingford - Let Me Speak
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
Orla Gartland - Woman on the Internet

Half Waif - Mythopoetics
Ka - A Martyr's Reward
Hollie Kenniff - The Quiet Drift
L'Rain - Fatigue
Les Files de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works

Lingua Ignota - SINNER GET READY
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might be Introvert
Low - HEY WHAT
Mono - Pilgrimage of the Soul
Musk Ox - Inheritance

Perila - How Much Time it is Between You and Me?
Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8
Spellling - The Turning Wheel
Laura Stevenson - Laura Stevenson
Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow

Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Web Web - WEB MAX
Year of No Light - Consolamentum
Yola - Stand for Myself
Brandee Younger - Somewhere Different

Updated top50 of 2021:
Q3Tier1.PNG
Q3Tier2.PNG
Q3Tier3.PNG
Tier I (Amazing)

1) Squid - Bright Green Field [art punk, post-punk]​
2) Little Simz - Sometimes I Might be Introvert [UK hip-hop]​
3) Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet [tech house, spoken word, art pop]​
4) Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince [Hindustani classical, chamber folk]​
5) Low - HEY WHAT [post-industrial, dream pop]​
6) Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises [spiritual jazz, minimalism]​
7) Lingua Ignota - SINNER GET READY [avant-folk, neoclassical darkwave]​
8) Genesis Owusu - Smiling With no Teeth [experimental R&B, neo-soul]​
9) Jane Weaver - Flock [psychedelic pop, art pop]​
10) Black Country, New Road - For the First Time [Klezmer, post-rock, post-punk]​
Tier II (Excellent)

11) Celeste - Not Your Muse [neo-soul]​
12) Boldy James, The Alchemist - Bo Jackson [gangsta rap]​
13) BRUIT ā‰¤ - The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again [post-rock]​
14) Half Waif - Mythopoetics [art pop]​
15) Musk Ox - Inheritance [dark folk, chamber folk]​
16) Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8 [ambient jazz, avant-garde jazz]​
17) Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning [blackened death metal]​
18) Les Filles de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works [Tuareg blues, African blues]​
19) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! [post-rock]​
20) Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee [indie pop, chamber pop]​
21) Black Dresses - Forever in Your Heart [electro-industrial, industrial rock]​
22) Greentea Peng - MAN MADE [neo-soul, psychedelic soul]​
23) Tar Hag - Bestial [doom metal]​
24) Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow [jazz fusion, nu-jazz]​
25) L'Rain - Fatigue [neo-psychedelia, sound collage]​
Tier III (Great)

26) Danielle Durack - No Place [indie pop, singer/songwriter]​
27) CHAI - WINK [J-pop, electropop]​
28) McKinley Dixon - For my Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her [jazz rap]​
29) Hayley Williams - FLOWERS for VASES / descansos [singer/songwriter, indie folk]​
30) Gemma Cullingford - Let me Speak [synthpop, post-punk]​
31) Hollie Kenniff - The Quiet Drift [ambient]​
32) Ka - A Martyr's Reward [abstract hip hop, conscious hip hop]​
33) Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever [contemporary R&B, ambient pop]​
34) Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst [black metal]​
35) Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature [singer/songwriter]​
36) Rhiannon Giddens, Francesco Turrisi - They're Calling Me Home [contemporary folk]​
37) Snowpoet - Wait For Me [art pop, ambient pop]​
38) Brandee Younger - Somewhere Different [jazz-fusion]​
39) Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future [nu-jazz, spiritual jazz]​
40) Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - Haram [abstract hip hop]​
41) CHANCE ćƒ‡ćƒ©ć‚½ć‚¦ćƒ« - Afterparty [plunderphonics, future funk]​
42) L'ImpĆ©ratrice - Tako Tsubo [French pop, nu-disco]​
43) Perila - How Much Time it is Between You and Me? [ambient, field recordings]​
44) London Grammar - Californian Soil [art pop]​
45) Demiser - Through the Gate Eternal [black metal, thrash metal]​
46) Slayyyter - Troubled Paradise [electropop, hyperpop]​
47) Sun June - Somewhere [indie pop, dream pop]​
48) Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST [hip hop]​
49) Robohands - Shapes [jazz-fusion, nu-jazz]​
50) Fatima Al Qadiri - Medieval Femme [ambient, new age]​
 
Last edited:
Ok explain to me how it's available to order on BC's website but not the app šŸ˜’
This right here is a thing I think done on purpose. Iā€™ve tried to buy something after streaming via the app and itā€™ll say ā€œsend me a link to my email to purchaseā€. I donā€™t fully know why but itā€™s definitely intentional
 
Back
Top