Best Music of 2021

I'm planning to take another couple of days to finalize/fine-tune my main year-end list but have a couple of other shorter lists to offer up in the meantime between-time:


Favourite Historic/Reissue Releases

Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band – Egypt Strut [Expanded Edition]
Hasaan Ibn Ali – Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album
Sun Ra – Lanquidity [Definitive Edition]
Leo Nocentelli ‎– Another Side
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (Live In Seattle)


Favourite Compilation Albums

Cameroon Garage Funk
Place: Nairobi
Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2
Habibi Funk 015: An eclectic selection of music from the Arab world, part 2
Indaba Is


Albums I REALLY wanted to like more than I did...*

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra – Promises
Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince
Low – Hey What
Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
The Weather Station – Ignorance

*I didn't dislike any of these albums - in fact, I enjoyed each one. I just had higher hopes and expectations for my enjoyment than what has actually come to be. I've given each of them a few attempts at this point.
 
Originally I was only going to do 21 for '21, but it was such a great year, and 49 makes a nice 7 by 7 grid, so here we go - my 49 favourite albums of 2021:

chart.png


Irreversible Entanglements - Open The Gates
BRUIT ≤ - The machine is burning now and everyone knows it could happen again
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future
Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Told You So

serpentwithfeet - DEACON
Dave - We’re All Alone In This Together
Amythyst Kiah - Wary + Strange
Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood
Web Web x Max Herre - WEB MAX
Musk Ox - Inheritance
Chelsea Carmichael - The River Doesn’t Like Strangers

Emile Mosseri - Minari
Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet
McKinley Dixon - For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her
Cha Wa - My People
Spectacular Diagnostics - Ancient Methods
Adele - 30
Khalab & M´berra Ensemble - M'berra

Celeste - Not Your Muse
Cedric Burnside - I Be Trying
Shad - TAO
Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow
Adia Victoria - A Southern Gothic
Houeida Hedfi - Fleuves de l’Âme
Toumani Diabaté & The London Symphony Orchestra - Kôrôlén

Azmari - Samā’ī
Lord Huron - Long Lost
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - Life After
Moin - Moot!
Theon Cross - Intra I
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!
KMRU - Logue

Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Georgia Blue
Cœur de pirate - Perséides
Dominique Fils-Aimé - Three Little Words
Allison Russell - Outside Child
Brandee Younger - Somewhere Different
Sarah Neufeld - Detritus

The Garrys - Get Thee to a Nunnery
Aesop Rock & Blockhead – Garbology
Betamax Vs Clive Bell - Betamax Vs Clive Bell
Shungudzo - I am not a mother, but I have children
Katy Kirby - Cool Dry Place
Orquesta Akokan - 16 Rayos
Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air
 
Skalap said:
That is how lists should be made, ranking albums you really loved and not what other publications listed. On the other hand, and a reason why I avoid making lists, I always found it hard to say when an album is a good album. I can easily say why I love an album but does it means it is a a good album? The opposite is true too but why would I rank an excellent album if I find it a meh album?

To be or not to be, that is the question.
Click to expand...
Yeah, one of the things I’m doing with a best of list is weighing the difference between music I listen to all the time and music that is more important - either through musical innovation, content or just its ability to touch me. I’ve listened to Aaron Frazer, Durand Jones, and Silk Sonic than just about anything else this year but while they are a nice cozy blanket for me musically, they aren’t really anything else.
 
wokeupnew said:
y'all brought receipts to this conversation

homer-simpson-bush-gif.gif


That TWOD is bang average and I will die on that hill 💁‍♂️
Click to expand...
That was my initial impression but like the new Foo Fighters album it is one I just keep going back too. Unlike the Foos album, WOF keeps getting better and broke into great about a week ago.
 
Alright... going with this for 2021. My rankings should be considered as somewhat fluid. In general, the top and bottom ends reflect some level of disparity in my preferences, but any given record could be considered as +/- 5 from where they end up in the list. I always find it hard to distinguish similar feelings for different records.

But, bottom line, I like all of these.

chart (1).png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top