Best Music of 2021

magazine.vinylmeplease.com

The Best Albums of 2021, So Far

At the more-than-probable risk of over-generalizing, if there were ever a year for the collective to experience, and maybe begin to process, the great expanse of human emotion, the front half of 2021 deserves some kind of grand trophy, perhaps? From mass grief to mass hope to mass questioning...
magazine.vinylmeplease.com magazine.vinylmeplease.com
 
Hollywood said:
magazine.vinylmeplease.com

The Best Albums of 2021, So Far

At the more-than-probable risk of over-generalizing, if there were ever a year for the collective to experience, and maybe begin to process, the great expanse of human emotion, the front half of 2021 deserves some kind of grand trophy, perhaps? From mass grief to mass hope to mass questioning...
magazine.vinylmeplease.com magazine.vinylmeplease.com
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Call me shallow, but I really don't like that plum/sepia tone they've run the whole page through.
 
avecigrec said:
Call me shallow, but I really don't like that plum/sepia tone they've run the whole page through.
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holy fuck that's awful. who allowed that to be published? when you write about albums that's free imagery with the album artwork. Let those images shine. Don't sepia tone the whole piece. I could understand that choice, when if you scroll or hover over the album it reveals the color but that's not it. awful user experience.
 
Hollywood said:
magazine.vinylmeplease.com

The Best Albums of 2021, So Far

At the more-than-probable risk of over-generalizing, if there were ever a year for the collective to experience, and maybe begin to process, the great expanse of human emotion, the front half of 2021 deserves some kind of grand trophy, perhaps? From mass grief to mass hope to mass questioning...
magazine.vinylmeplease.com magazine.vinylmeplease.com
Click to expand...

I haven't looked at a VMP page in months (obviously), but this color scheme is a big woof.
They didn't run this color scheme for last year's list. Why this year?
 
Rip_City said:
I haven't looked at a VMP page in months (obviously), but this color scheme is a big woof.
They didn't run this color scheme for last year's list. Why this year?
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This is so lame, putting a filter over every album cover to make it the same color scheme feels somewhat disrespectful (if that's the word?) imo. It just shows a level of disregard for the artwork itself to me
 
gaporter said:
This is so lame, putting a filter over every album cover to make it the same color scheme feels somewhat disrespectful (if that's the word?) imo. It just shows a level of disregard for the artwork itself to me
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If any of those was on a big label, they could complain (if they cared/wanted to) for improper, altering of images, etc.
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
The Quietus has finally put out their top 100 albums of the year so far list. If you don't follow subscribe to TQ, you should consider!

thequietus.com

The Quietus | Features | Quietus Charts | The Quietus Albums Of The Year So Far Chart 2021

At the year's half-way mark, all of tQ's editorial staff, core writers and columnists have voted for their essential 2021 albums released between mid-December 2020 and mid-June
thequietus.com thequietus.com
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I've been very proud of myself for checking out new music this year - I've checked out over 400 full length releases by this point and really made a point to dip out of my comfort zone far more often, and been feeling like I've done a great job... then I look at this list and am astounded by how much of it I haven't even heard of, let alone not checked out!

I guess I've got some work to do.
 
Bennnnn said:
I think my issue with the new Modest Mouse is it just doesn't connect, on a lyrical level, and sometimes the music just doesn't do enough either. But there are some good songs on it. I actually loved Lace Your Shoes. It feels like something to connect to, even though I do not have kids. There's a genuine emotion in it, and it's great musically. I also do like opener Fuck Your Acid Trip. I think it's a weird way to start an album, which is why I like it. The singles that dropped before are still the worst songs here cause they don't...do anything interesting. They just sound blandly anthemic and don't mean anything to me. Some of the songs just sound overstuffed with instruments and the lyrics don't seem to stand out so I don't know what to make of everything just yet. But Fuck Your Acid Trip, Japanese Trees, Lace Your Shoes, Transmitting Receiving...those are good ones.


Mostly though it just makes me realize Good News is better than I ever gave it credit for. As far as MM going "pop," that record is the best version of it.
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
Oddly Lace Your Shoes is one of the few songs that is doing nothing for me. I think it's because some of the guitar focused tracks on the second half of the album feel over processed. Never Fuck a Spider is like that-- I'd put $$$ on it being a banger live but on album it's not clicking. Similarly, I sort of just want Lace Your Shoes to be acoustic.

As to the lyrics-- I think that's part of why Strangers is hitting me so hard right now. Climate change has long been something I'm deeply concerned about and now we are having the summer of all early summers (121 degrees in B.C., Canada yesterday!). And Strangers is full of tracks that poetically look at ways in which western mentality and it's very intentional choice to treat nature as something to be conquered and developed (while detaching us from how dependent we are on its ecosystems) is making the planet uninhabitable for EVERYTHING.

From Ground Walks:
"The world's an inventor with its work
Crawling, running, squirming 'round
Trees drop colorful fruits
Directly into our mouths
The world's an inventor
We're the dirtiest thing it's thought about
And we really don't mind"

From The Tortoise and the Tourist
"Inside our socks we hide traveler checks
We are tourists of the dead
So let's pack up, let's go
So let's pack up, let's go
Let's go
There was this tortoise
Its shell covered with jewels and had been since time began
It knew the world through all its histories and the universe and its mysteries
One day it came across a man
The two were talking
The tortoise offered to tell him about the future and how the universe ran
Oh the man killed the tortoise, took its shell and with a song of his lips walked off again
So let's walk off, let's go
So let's walk off, let's go
Pack a lunch, wander 'round, toss the map on the ground
It is inaccurate anyway
We've been getting away, We've been getting away
We are strangers to ourselves"

From Coyotes:
"Coyotes tiptoe in the snow after dark
At home with the ghosts in the national parks
Mankind's behavin' like some serial killers
Giant ol' monsters afraid of the sharks
And we're in love with all of it
And we say, what can we say?
Walking with ghosts in the national parks
Coyotes tiptoe in the snow after dark
And we're in love with all of it
And we say, what can we say?"

Or even just Ansel's lyrics which have to do with human loss:
"
I took a train down to New Mexico
With my father and brother, Ansel
You can't know, well, you can't ever really know
Was I really supposed to know?
How the hell would I know?
(There it goes!)
I made a mess of myself and the trip on the whole
My father stayed patient with me; why? I don't know
You can't know, you can't ever really know
That's the last time I'd see my brother, Ansel
(There he goes, so)
Troubles on the head winds, troubles on the tail winds
Troubles on the head winds, troubles on the tail winds
Me and my sister we hung on the phone
Watching the news as they looked for Ansel
On top of that mountain, underneath the snow
Their dogs were sniffin', I guess you never know
You can't know, well, you can't ever really know
Would you really want to know?
How the hell would you know?"
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I'm late to the Modest Mouse discussion...but I didn't see "Wooden Soldiers" mentioned in this discussion...and I think that's a damn banger...maybe because it feels like an elevated-production version of a cut that'd fit on Ugly Casanova Sharpen Your Teeth

beyond that...it's a solid effort...no song made me hurriedly fumble for the skip button like"Pistol" on their last effort, so there's that
 
avecigrec said:
I've been very proud of myself for checking out new music this year - I've checked out over 400 full length releases by this point and really made a point to dip out of my comfort zone far more often, and been feeling like I've done a great job... then I look at this list and am astounded by how much of it I haven't even heard of, let alone not checked out!

I guess I've got some work to do.
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That's why I LOVE TQ!
 
avecigrec said:
I've been very proud of myself for checking out new music this year - I've checked out over 400 full length releases by this point and really made a point to dip out of my comfort zone far more often, and been feeling like I've done a great job... then I look at this list and am astounded by how much of it I haven't even heard of, let alone not checked out!

I guess I've got some work to do.
Click to expand...
TQ has introduces me to a few albums each month that I never would have found on my own. I'm combing through the ones I've missed now. They are likely my favorite publication at this time.
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
TQ has introduces me to a few albums each month that I never would have found on my own. I'm combing through the ones I've missed now. They are likely my favorite publication at this time.
Click to expand...

I've been meaning to dig deeper into TQ as I've really appreciated a few articles I've encountered over the past year or two, so this just gives me more impetus to do so! As well as a bunch more music to get through during these lighter weeks.
 
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