The 2021 End Of Year music lists thread

ROUGH TRADE

https://blog.roughtrade.com/us-albums-of-the-year-2021/

Do not like how they enclose each cover within those ugly RT graphics

We do have cooler images in our eoy poll ;)

But yeah agree that scribbled font is ugly and using it as a background is too much.

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1725-mojos-75-best-albums-of-2021/

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1725-mojos-75-best-albums-of-2021/

1. The Weather Station- Ignorance

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2021/11/18/spoiler-here-are-decibels-top-40-albums-of-2021/

I've only heard nine of these, and liked about six of those.

Mdou Moctar's guitar playing is reaching the lists with lots of indie rock but not yet the Decibel one...

https://bleep.com/top-10-albums-of-the-year-2021

Cool list imho

maxwell sterling album from a couple of years ago was spectacular, haven't heard that one yet though

quite a few interesting things to check out on that bleep list

Arca's Kick ii not being out yet makes all these lists feel very presumptuous imho

that koreless record is great

Bleep's list is interesting, Koreless - Agor is easily in my favs of the year, a record that really stood out from a lot of releases that were merely "good". Few electronic albums hit this year like that one.

I couldn't get into that Koreless at all - great sound design but it all felt a bit cheesy and dramatic in a way that was the wrong side of earnestness.

I don't think I've ever been so disconnected from music as in 2021...but still idk how I missed Paul Weller and The Coral releasing two of the year's best albums.

Well that’s what this list season is for!

I still don't know what seandalai does exactly when he's not crunching numbers for ilm polls, but I can now rule out writing for Mojo.

This Koreless is sick, thank u Bleep

Arca's Kick ii not being out yet makes all these lists feel very presumptuous imho

― octobeard Likewise Jlin's Embryo EP, out Dec.10! (Hold all calls until then, Ms. Fairweather.)

There's certainly a few things I'm still anticipating, some of which are by people who can actually write songs instead of sound-design vibes

~_~

Loving this John Glacier one from bleep, had no idea this existed and has Vegyn as a producer which is a great surprise.

koreless album is really nice, like a lusher r plus seven.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-anchoresss-the-art-of-losing-voted-prog-magazine-writers-album-of-the-year

https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/6-music-albums-of-the-year-2021/

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2021-in-review/the-best-music-of-2021

I often joke that indie-minded people like music that won't wake the baby - Mdou Moctar aside, that list literalizes it.

Well yeah, I would expect from the New Yorker the aural equivalent of soft hand-woven free trade wool and meticulously whisked matcha tea, and that's exactly what you get. Nothing wrong with that!

Dry Cleaning and Snail Mail are names that really put me off, but I'm sure that quotidian naming strategy has been used by good bands so this is irrational prejudice. "Bog Roll" is still waiting for any up and coming indie sensations to claim though.

tbf the Low album is p noisy and gross

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-albums/best-albums-of-2021/

PASTE ^

GLIDE:

https://glidemagazine.com/267653/the-glide-20-glides-20-best-album-of-2021-honorable-mentions/

UPROXX

https://uproxx.com/music/best-albums-2021-list/

IT ISN'T DECEMBER YET

My top 10 will likely be quieter than the New Yorker's.

lol yeah the inclusion of both evermore and whole lotta red on this list makes it even clearer that it's silly to put out lists so early

All lists now must follow the official Grammy™ cadence.

Early lists are trying to help the artists sell album in the peak retail season. No objection to that.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/29/the-20-best-songs-of-2021

Do ppl still "gift" albums (based on Year End lists, to boot?). If so, that's admirable...

Dry Cleaning and Snail Mail are names that really put me off, but I'm sure that quotidian naming strategy has been used by good bands so this is irrational prejudice. "Bog Roll" is still waiting for any up and coming indie sensations to claim though.

― feed me with your clicks (Noel Emits), Saturday, November 27, 2021 9:30 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's already the very good Mega Bog: https://megabog.bandcamp.com/

I don't know if it's me but I find these lists have a lot of consensus and are a little interchangeable, as if they were all drawing from the same source (or stream).

the continental European perspective (Oor is like the Dutch Rolling Stone/Mojo): https://oor.nl/news/oors-eindlijst-dit-zijn-de-20-beste-albums-van-2021/

Dry Cleaning and Snail Mail are names that really put me off, but I'm sure that quotidian naming strategy has been used by good bands so this is irrational prejudice. "Bog Roll" is still waiting for any up and coming indie sensations to claim though.

And don't forget Soccer Mommy.

x-post Didn't know The Notwist had released a new album!

consensus picks so far are Floating Points/Pharoh Sanders, Little Simz and Weather Station

Also seeing Mdou Moctar, Dry Cleaning, Black Country New Road, Squid, Arlo Parks, LDR, The War on Drugs, Japanese Breakfast a lot

deadline for submitting to that Uproxx critics poll was last night (but seems to be extended a bit). Behind in my listening this year, so not gonna submit. Others are skipping it because its major label owned or weren't invited.

consensus picks so far are Floating Points/Pharoh Sanders, Little Simz and Weather Station

Also seeing Mdou Moctar, Dry Cleaning, Black Country New Road, Squid, Arlo Parks, LDR, The War on Drugs, Japanese Breakfast a lot

yeah ... not a great year for new albums, imo.

none of these would make my list (except Moctar, maybe), which isn't the point ... what bums me out is that i'm not exactly head over heels over my top 5-10, either, and i tend to be a glass-half-full person about this particular topic.

AOTY summary is helpful. Consensus so far is Floating Points by some margin.

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2021/

Tbh I’m always more excited for the “best tracks” rather than “best albums” at this time of year. That’s where most of the real discoveries are for me.

really liked the Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders album

the arlo parks album seems like it should be right up my alley but the end result is pretty bland

Discoveries for me from the Paste list - Pink Siifu, Katy Kirby, L’Rain

Gorilla vs Bear

https://www.gorillavsbear.net/gorilla-vs-bears-albums-of-2021/

^ might be the list that most approximates my own music taste so far. Plenty of great albums in there which I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere.

gvb's lists are always a highlight

Excellent number one pick from Gorilla Vs Bear.

First time he picks something from his label but it’s well deserved. It’s a great album.

https://thequietus.com/articles/30903-the-quietus-top-100-albums-of-2021-norman-records

That write-up was funny, from casual conversation with the girlfriend to manifesto for nuance.
Doing 100 shows dedication. Lots of things I haven't even heard about.

I’m sorry but the suggestion that there were 97 albums this year better than HEY WHAT is absurd.

Yeah, there were at least 150

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1054333297/the-50-best-albums-of-2021-page-5

(Went down to 20)

whoa, Jazmine Sullivan at #1

I didn't expect her to make too many lists since HT was called an EP

All of today's lists very on-brand

CBC's top Canadian classical albums:
https://www.cbc.ca/music/canada-s-top-21-classical-albums-of-2021-1.6261267

yeah ... not a great year for new albums, imo.

none of these would make my list (except Moctar, maybe), which isn't the point ... what bums me out is that i'm not exactly head over heels over my top 5-10, either, and i tend to be a glass-half-full person about this particular topic.

― alpine static, Tuesday, November 30, 2021 3:08 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

it was a great year for albums tho?

GVB list proves that it actually was a great year for new albums imho.

it was a great year for albums, i am not making a list until ilx requires it bc there were so many good albums

it was a great year for movies but... idk about that one

I can name ten albums off the top of my head that were excellent and easy contenders for aoty.

probably twenty even.

p4k only gave 30 albums BNM in 2021 instead of the usual 45 or so. make of that what you will.

We can scramble posts and posters and say the same about 2015, 2011, or even 2025.

I would agree that it feels like a down year, especially after last year with the two Sault albums, two Taylor albums, Punisher, Fetch the Bolt Cutters...

lmao

very much lmao

I'd rather have someone punch me in my colostomy than listen to Sault or Taylor Swift.

If you can't think of great albums that were released this year, that's on YOU, compadres.

I can’t wait for the EOY ILM TRACKS POLL where 10% of the poll will be songs from Red Taylor’s version, also the #1 album of 2021

I would agree that it feels like a down year, especially after last year with the two Sault albums, two Taylor albums, Punisher, Fetch the Bolt Cutters...

― Indexed, Wednesday, December 1, 2021 11:10 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

snail mail record from this year is better than punisher imo

Actively hating Sault is a pretty spicy opinion

let's see just from what i've bought this year

tinashe
arooj aftab
thy catafalque
snail mail
men i trust
carcass
vijay ayer
dawn richard
chvrches
every time i die
young thug
rochelle jordan
deafheaven
halsey
low
manchester orchestra
the world is a beautiful place & etc.
turnstile
godspeed
poppy
darkthrone
jane weaver
foxing
king woman
converge
wolf alice
mr twin sister
fiddlehead

all released excellent career-best records this year

I love two Inflo produced albums this year - Cleo Sol and Little Simz. It’s a good recompense for a bit of a down year from Sault.

i desperately need to hear that cleo sol record

I can’t wait for the EOY ILM TRACKS POLL where 10% of the poll will be songs from Red Taylor’s version, also the #1 album of 2021

The first part only happened last year due to a troll. Red won't be the #1 album. Yes, Taylor generates discussion here, many of us are fans, but (respectfully) I don't see the point in overstating her reception for the sake of complaint.

There is a ton of stuff that came out this year that I love. But if I had to predict, I am skeptical that 2021 will be well represented toward the top of the end of decade lists. Some years just feel like down years.

Very skeptical that Valentine will be as revered as Punisher in a few years' time. (I'm one of the 5 people who like both debuts better anyhow so trying to parse the zeitgeist is dumb, I know).

I'll have no trouble with albums or movies this year.

it won't be as revered but phoebe bridgers' popularity is also on a different scale

Things I bought this year that might make a year-end list:

Apartment House, John Cage Number Pieces 4CD
Asphyxiate, Altar of Decomposed
Biomorphic Engulfment, Incubation in the Parallel Dimension
BLK OPS, The Heroic Dose
Weedie Braimah, The Hands of Time
The Bug, Fire
Cadaveric Fumes, Dimensions Obscure
Cannibal Corpse, Violence Unimagined
Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few, Cosmic Transitions
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle
Fire, Defeat
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra, Promises
Muriel Grossmann, Union
Irreversible Entanglements, Open the Gates
Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble, Now
Madam Data, The Gospel of the Devourer
Madam Data, For Agnes Martin – Six Architectures in Light and Water
Mastodon, Hushed & Grim
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust
Jason Moran, The Sound Will Tell You
Replicant, Malignant Reality
Scorn, The Only Place
Slant, 1
Sons of Kemet, Black to the Future
Sunn O))), Metta, Benevolence
Cecil Taylor Ensemble, Göttingen
Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Enigma
Herbie Tsoaeli, At This Point in Time: Voices in Volumes

just finished that Sunn O))) this morning, it's fantastic. love the "Troubled Air" performance.

Cool to see the Wau Wau Collectif album at #50 on the GvB list, a personal favorite that I've had a hard time explaining to anyone else. Senegalese folk-dub-jazz-?? but that makes it sound difficult when it's actually super warm and surprisingly catchy

I'm slightly tempted to call this a down year for albums too, but it really depends on what genres you like, and I have a bunch of jazz to catch up on among other things

AOTY summary is helpful. Consensus so far is Floating Points by some margin.

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2021/

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, November 30, 2021 6:13 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Little Simz has overtaken it

Cool to see the Wau Wau Collectif album at #50 on the GvB list, a personal favorite that I've had a hard time explaining to anyone else. Senegalese folk-dub-jazz-?? but that makes it sound difficult when it's actually super warm and surprisingly catchy

this sounds great!

Luke Stewart- Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier Volumes 1 & 2
Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates
Peter Gregson- Patina
Kessler- Ambivalent EP
James Brandon Lewis Quartet- Code of Being
Skylark- Crossing Over
Patrick Shiroishi- Hidemi
Richard Skelton- Sutr
Matthew Liam Nicholson- Nine Movements
Fuubutsushi- Good Sky Day
Fuubutsushi- Natsukashii
Fuubutsushi- Yamawarau
Fuubutsushi- Setsubun
Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die LIVE
Jessica Ackerley and Daniel Carter- Friendship
Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective- Ngủ Ngày Ngay Ngày Tận Thế
Matt Evans- Touchless
Slikback- MELT
LNS & DJ Sotofett- Sputters
Msylma & Ismael- The Tenets of Forgetting
Crazy Doberman- Everyone is rolling down a hill...
Art School Girlfriend- Is It Light Where You Are
Eimar Reidy & Natalia Beylis- Whose Woods are These
Facta- Blush
Scotch Rolex- Tewari
Low- HEY WHAT
James Brandon Lewis- Jesup Wagon
Iglew- Light Armour EP
IOSONOUNCANE- IRA
Skee Mask- Pool
Chris Schlarb & Chad Taylor- Time No Changes
Illuvia- Iridescence of Clouds
Iu Takahashi- Late in Life
Luke Stewart/Patrick Shiroishi- split cass
Moon Reflecting- Non-GMO Rain Dance
Rachika Nayar- Our Hands Against the Dark
xLWBxDRx- prairie spells, a ribbon wove
Colin Webster- vs Amp
Anne Bourne- wave
Enzo Carniel & Filippo Vignato- Aria
Natural Information Society & Evan Parker- descension (Out of Our Constrictions)
Bored Lord- Lavirga EP
PUNKT.VRT.PLASTIK- Somit
Ahmed- Nights on Saturn (Communication)
ZULI- All Caps EP
Hafez Modirzadeh- Facets
Quin Kirchner- Live at Pro Musica

album of the year for me is the absolutely sublime wave, from Anne Bourne. https://annebourne.bandcamp.com/album/wave

so I mean maybe it was a bad year for "pop" music, but jazz, drone, ambient, and *weird stuff* were all really great imho.

I figured some people were holding off on new releases until touring was back in swing

also vinyl manufacturing delays etc.

nice list tables!

Yeah, there are a fair number of things on table's list that are candidates for mine as well, but I got them as promos and didn't have to buy them. Those Luke Stewart solo albums in particular are really cool.

gonna make a playlist for work from that list for sure

haven't had much time this year to look for new stuff myself, but i the three albums i kept coming back to were tirzah, nite jewel and suzanne kraft - all quite understated, off-ish, slightly emotionally drained-sounding pop albums, i guess

Anne Bourne the Toronto cellist? Didn't know she released something.

Cool to see the Wau Wau Collectif album at #50 on the GvB list, a personal favorite that I've had a hard time explaining to anyone else. Senegalese folk-dub-jazz-?? but that makes it sound difficult when it's actually super warm and surprisingly catchy

this sounds great!

Don't know if you mean the description sounds great or the album itself. Listening to it now and it does indeed sound great!

Anne Bourne the Toronto cellist? Didn't know she released something.

― treat the gelignite tenderly for me (Sund4r), Wednesday, December 1, 2021 12:40 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Simply the most sublime drone/deep listening experience I've had in years, I sometimes just leave it playing on a loop for hours at a time. Gorgeous stuff.

xp i meant the description, planning to check out the album when i have a free moment

All of today's lists very on-brand

― Indexed, Wednesday, December 1, 2021 bookmarkflaglink

As I made my way through the Paste list I actually thought there was a higher degree of aggro albums than I'd expect from them.

https://www.complex.com/music/best-albums-of-2021/

Yeah, curious to read that Complex list but I noped the fuck out when no less than five different ads immediately popped up.

same

there's rap on it

also Adele at #3

Yeah, curious to read that Complex list but I noped the fuck out when no less than five different ads immediately popped up.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, December 1, 2021 4:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same except not curious to read

lol

Thanks for the heads up on Wau Wau Collectif. This is super trippy, Loving it so far.

appreciate your list of "career best" albums, Brad, and agree on most, but do you really think the GYBE album is their best??

i like it, but...

UPROXX BEST SONGS

https://uproxx.com/music/best-songs-2021-list/

I like that it’s unranked. Also cool they chose “Michelangelo” as the Cassandra Jenkins track (that’s the one on my Faves playlist).

The Godspeed is very good, it’s not a top ten of the year but will likely be in my top 25.

this feels like a pretty standard year in terms of overall quality

there's only a fairly small number of lists so far, seemingly a lot of those from the uk so there's quite a bias towards acts the uk press loves much more than the us in the minor consensus so far, like little simz

but idk really who's going to end up near the top of the consensus this year except floating points? this year feels relatively light on big critical consensus event albums but that's not the same as it being a weak year

the last year i remember being notably weak was probably 2014?

weather station and tyler will surely be up there too, but idk the weather station album was underwhelming after how good the singles were

Japanese Breakfast will be way up there

strong year, standard year, weak year, however you want to characterize it ... i think when you look across the consensus top 10 or 20 or whatever, you will see a year where many big/great artists are holding on to albums until touring is more certain. i mean, most years we are looking at Beyonce and Fiona Apple and Kendrick Lamar and Kacey Musgraves and Radiohead and on and on, and this year it's Floating Points and Japanese Breakfast and Little Simz? that's a full level or two down from the profile of artists that you usually see dominate these things.

i'm not saying that's a bad thing, btw

there weren't the same number of big event albums as usual to get to the top of these lists, and those that did come out often flopped, relatively (lorde, kacey, etc)

but it was still a very solid year, i found just as much to love as usual

Plenty of big profile artists released albums this year but they got a bit of a lukewarm response, top of my mind:

Drake, Kanye West, Lorde, Billie Eilish, Kacey Musgraves, Adele … I guess Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber too but noone is expecting them to do a decent album at this point

The one I think was the best received “event” albums were Taylor’s Red but that’s a remake and Olivia Rodrigo but she’s a newcomer.

Did people not like Billie Eilish? I think that album is terrific.

Lil Nas X, Silk Sonic also were sort of “event albums”, considering “old town road” was massive and Silk Sonic has Bruno Mars in there. I saw a lot of hype for both albums before they were released.

Xpost: In my view several critics and fans loved the Billie Eilish album but the singles were a hard sell for the general populace to pay attention to it.

I think Lorde and Adele suffered similar fates, they’re not bad albums but at their level of profile and given what they did on their past albums I guess people expect a hit single.

Artists like Olivia Rodrigo or Lil Nas X per example delivered, “driver’s license” and “old town road” were so big that without a second hit single they would’ve faded out of the conversation.

I actually liked the Billie Eilish record better than the debut, but it’s usually a bad omen whenever this happens.

the billie eilish album was great, a big step up from her debut, and id be a lsurprised if it isn't high up on these aggregate lists before too long

Her first EP was also much better than When We…, IMO. It’s kind of a “funny” situation where an artist’s big, Grammy-winning debut album represented a significant dip in quality.

happier than ever didn't spawn a million hits like her debut but i don't think it really flopped, critically or commercially, it's just a little weird for radio i guess?

while the lorde album underwhelmed both fans and critics

I wouldn't be surprised to see consensus on Little Simz, Magdalena Bay, Cleo Sol, Low, Arooj Aftab, Erika de Casier, Richard Dawson, Yola, Tinashe, Eilish, Summer Walker, Jazmine Sullivan, Olivia Rodrigo.
And there are tons of things I'm hearing only now and I definitely plan to have several jazz albums in my year-end list.

haven't had much time this year to look for new stuff myself, but i the three albums i kept coming back to were tirzah, nite jewel and suzanne kraft - all quite understated, off-ish, slightly emotionally drained-sounding pop albums, i guess

― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, December 1, 2021 9:32 PM (yesterday)

No Sun

About You

Colourgrade

lol sorry for shitty formatting

Carmanica's list

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/arts/music/best-pop-albums.html

or

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1750-the-new-york-times-jon-caramanicas-best-albums-of-2021/

more NYT

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1751-the-new-york-times-lindsay-zoladzs-best-albums-of-2021/

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1749-the-new-york-times-jon-pareles-best-albums-of-2021/

I like Mdou Moctar, but the votes do seem a bit "not arsed about exploring music from here usually, but it has a rock component"

"his band plugs North African rhythms and modal vamps into rock amplifiers and drums" - Pareles

"shredding is a universal language" - Zoladz

etc.

I like Mdou Moctar, but the votes do seem a bit "not arsed about exploring music from here usually, but it has a rock component"

Plus, his last album was better so add some "mainstream/generalist critics late to the party" to that equation.

I mean, Mdou Moctar is probably among the best contemporary rock guitarists and there is a whole tradition and genre of guitar rock/blues from that region. I don't think rock fans or critics who are otherwise voting for shit like Adele and Olivia Rodrigo need to be exploring non-rock Tuareg music to recognize Moctar as a great rock artist.

ufo and alpine static otm

NPR 100 best songs
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/02/1054377950/the-100-best-songs-of-2021-page-1

Exclaim top 30 songs

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/best_songs_of_2021

xp Wet Leg #2, lol

NY Times' Best Jazz Albums of 2021

Two of these titles will also appear on the Stereogum list, which will be running next week, I think.

unperson, I'm a little confused by the love for "Son Beans," despite having a deep affection for Wadada Leo Smith. Certainly not one of the best jazz albums of the year. But maybe this is more for the jazz thread.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/019/104/6bf.jpg

I love the Sun Beans album; everybody on it is playing beautifully and the whole thing has a ritual/ceremonial aspect that I love. But I didn't put it on my list. I went with Sacred Ceremonies, the Wadada Leo Smith/Bill Laswell/Milford Graves 3CD set.

Still need to get that!

unperson, I'm a little confused by the love for "Son Beans," despite having a deep affection for Wadada Leo Smith. Certainly not one of the best jazz albums of the year. But maybe this is more for the jazz thread.

you are aware that this is your opinion, yes? your second sentence is not a thing that actually exists.

Just as your inane opinion that this was an "off year" for music is also an opinion? Yes, I'm aware.

It’d be great if the critical community could come up with some sort of centralized annual albums/tracks poll, maybe something with a Patreon. I’d support it.

"I'm confused by the love for this, it's certainly not one of the best of the year" tells me all I need to know

What-his-name does that excel sheet every year which seems like a centralized thing

"I'm confused by the love for this, it's certainly not one of the best of the year" tells me all I need to know

― alpine static, Thursday, December 2, 2021 10:23 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Why don't you go and listen to all the good music you didn't listen to this year instead of being a salty dickhead?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vqbxoXrhL.jpg

On a positive note, our own Reverend Dollars gets a shout in Sasha Geffen's Artforum list:

https://www.artforum.com/print/202110/best-music-of-2021-sasha-geffen-87214

re:Whiney, Rob Mitchum.

I’ve had a few people ask, and yes, I plan to do it, just haven’t had a chance to start it up yet. Will get it together soon! https://t.co/Rxr4RZqB6Z

— Rob Mitchum (@robmitchum) December 2, 2021

that Geffen list looks pretty cool

There's some good stuff on it, yeah!

Revolver Magazine
Fan Poll: 10 Best Albums of 20021

10. Between the Buried and Me - Colors II
9. Archspire - Bleed the Future
8. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
7. Ice Nine Kills - The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood
6. The Pretty Reckless - Death By Rock & Roll
5. Gojira - Fortitude
4. Spiritbox- Eternal Blue
3. Evanescence - The Bitter Truth
2. Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon
1. Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/fan-poll-10-best-albums-2021

ooh sun-el musician made #13 on the npr tracks list

it's quite an interesting list except for the very top

Yeah NPR has some great ones out of the top portion.

Indexed posted this on Rolling Country: Country Music Writers Pollrunner Himes wrote a Paste column about Afro-Americana that was then considered racially insensitive--gotta vet these things before they go up, Paste, and lots of others---so Nashville Scene cancelled (savingcountrymusic.com seizes opp to use wheelhouse term) the venerable Poll: https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/nashville-scene-abruptly-cancels-20-year-country-critics-poll/
The column was "heavily redacted" and now gone altogether.
No such Poll this year nowhere.

That is, Indexed posted the link.

That Himes article is weird as fuck

sounds like Saving Country Music might do the poll in the future, but it's too late this year to set everything up

Here we go...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-2021-list-1260864/

Let's not, shall we?

Olivia Rodrigo #1
Adele #2

Here lies
POPTIMISM
2000-2021

j/k but music journalism is def deceased

except for when you guys do it <3

I think Rodrigo's album's great.

Adele's, not so much.

tbf they're both only so high because bruce, u2, and dylan didn't release this year

the rauw alejandro album at #3 is really good! maybe more like the 20th best album of the year than the 3rd but still, glad to see it

Feeling just about ready to bet my entire bank account that NME will give Song of the Year to Chaise Longue

(That’s not a bad thing it’s a great track)

It's weird that everyone is being sticklers about Red (Taylor's Version) since everyone was absolutely jizzing over it

NME likes played-straight indie rock almost as much as it likes transparent industry pushes so yeah (xp)

One has to be seen to care about Taytay, it's a way you can show you're good at thinking about Popular Music without listening to the mounting thousands of albums that now come out each month

Lol, the R.S. byline for that #1 album is Rob Sheffield, I assume? Vmic.

_Lovingly packaged and designed, “Yes Is the Answer” is a paper treehouse for gentlemen of a certain age, a safe place to embrace a shared teenage fantasy of adult sagacity they can now re-access as an adult fantasy of innocent youth._

Chuck Eddy passed this along:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2223149221324866

Village Voice Pazz & Jop Rip-Off Poll

Any and/or all of you are hereby invited to participate in the below poll. Most votes are being cast on facebook, but you can also email your ballot to pazzandjop at gmail dot com

2021 edition of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Rip-Off poll.
How the poll works:
You have 100 points to assign to 10 albums.
The max number of points to assign to any album is 30.
The minimum points allowed for an album is 5.
You can also assign two (or more) records the same amount of points indicating that you like them equally.
If you can’t come up with 10 records, you can assign a point total equal to an average of 10 (e.g. if you only have 8 records, then you have 80 points to work with.)
Post your ballot in the Facebook group (or send in Messenger to Keith Artin) OR email to pazzandjop at gmail dot com
Posting Tips:
Post as follows: Artist, Album, Points.
When assigning two albums the same number of points, post artists in alphabetical order (using first name if it’s a person, and “The” if a band has it in their name).
The above is especially helpful if you give all acts 10 points.
I've posted a sample ballot posted in the comments below
You can change your ballot after posting but once Keith Artin has liked your post (which means it has been entered), you should contact him directly about changes.
DEADLINE: Sunday, January 2nd at 12pm
As always, feel free to invite others to participate!
Your admins,
Glenn Boothe & Keith Artin

modern rs trying to be poptimist or whatever they're doing feels even weirder than when their top 10 was mostly just classic rock acts way past their prime

Are you implying that Britney's "Toxic" isn't actually better than "Let It Be"?

GVB songs:

https://www.gorillavsbear.net/gorilla-vs-bears-songs-of-2021/

Plenty of overlap with my own music taste again: erika de casier, men i trust, caroline loveglow, doss… love all of those.

Imago, you’re a little cynical, aren’t you?

Beam of sunshine, me

Through a magnifying glass onto the ant of culture!!!

The RS list is, as is increasingly the case, a grab bag of stuff I’ve never heard of (~65%), stuff I’ve heard of but haven’t heard (~20%), and stuff I’ve heard and think has moments (the rest).

But it’s fine. Long ago I realized that culture is going a different way than I am and to read one of these lists is just to peek at what the culture cares about.

That's fair and fine, but the homogeneity is what gets me! Something like that Sasha Geffen list stands out for being defiantly different (and also having some stuff I like on it, lol)

That's mostly an individual vs collective list distinction ofc but even so, we on ILM have generally been able to come up with fairly idiosyncratic collective EOYS, so it is possible so long as there isn't overhead editorial pressure to push what sells I guess

I'd love to hear from someone involved in a zine EOY - how is it, in short, made? Unless you're at the Quietus in which case it's 'scroll through phone numbers of all our mates and randomise' juuuust kidding

I haven’t checked to see what their 2021 has to offer but Vice’s is always pretty unique.

at Pitchfork we check off albums and songs from a Google spreadsheet. If neither appears, write it in.

we do??? i am prob not involved at that level

i opted out this year after two straight years of not getting assigned blurbs which i don’t enjoy writing anyway lol

the NPR and GvB lists have been really enjoyable this year

The RS list is, as is increasingly the case, a grab bag of stuff I’ve never heard of (~65%), stuff I’ve heard of but haven’t heard (~20%), and stuff I’ve heard and think has moments (the rest).

But it’s fine. Long ago I realized that culture is going a different way than I am and to read one of these lists is just to peek at what the culture cares about.

― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, December 4, 2021 11:10 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't think the RS lists presents a coherent representation of any "culture" and more like an attempt to join many siloed popular cultures under one umbrella

read it as “soiled” at first

I don't think the RS lists presents a coherent representation of any "culture" and more like an attempt to join many siloed popular cultures under one umbrella

I don't see any real distinction between that and the ethos of Pfork, teh Graun, etc. I'm a little mystified by R. Cummings perspective tbh, was there some golden age of pop to pine for? Was there a time in recent years when the RS list was noteworthy?

None of the lists posted so far appeal much to me, but then I continue to maintain that the album is an obsolete format, and that social media has largely devastated most niche music scenes with any potential for mass appeal.

I don't think there was any real golden age of pop, but I do suspect a Pitchfork list from 15 years ago would be of considerably higher quality overall than what's on offer now.

I am quite smitten with the Floating Points - Pharoah Sanders collaboration tho.

I'm a little mystified by R. Cummings perspective tbh, was there some golden age of pop to pine for?

when did he imply this?

Viborg, I don’t think there was a golden age of pop during my lifetime. What I meant was that there was a time when I had some familiarity with the majority of artists on the RS list, even if I didn’t like them. Now? Most of this stuff is a total mystery.

I don't see any real distinction between that and the ethos of Pfork

Well, we'll see what they have to cook up this year, but last year's list did have a pretty cohesive identity! 48 of the albums were "millennials aging out of indie rock" + "zoomers aging into the new indie pop/rock/R&B/dance" + "cool kid endorsed poptimism."

The other two were Bad Bunny and "Drakeo the Ruler recorded an album over a prison phone"

A lot of that is down to being a 44 year old man, of course. But if I showed my 15 year old son the list he’d be mystified too, if less mystified.

A lot of that is down to being a 44 year old man, of course. But if I showed my 15 year old son the list he’d be mystified too, if less mystified.

Until today I didn’t know that Tomorrow X Together existed!

None of this is a comment on the quality of these acts, by the way. I have no idea. Just saying that this landscape is vast in a way that is mind-boggling.

I think it all comes down to "music increasingly markets itself to more and more niche communities" and these big tent pubs all have to either A) Establish their own identity (I think P4k, Revolver, maybe Mojo are doing a good job of that, regardless of what you think of their music tastes) or trying to be everything to everyone, which, well, good fucking luck

Agreed.

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone literally said BTS' 'Dynamite' is better than "Heartbreak Hotel." I don't think they're exactly a marker of our "vast musical landscape" and more a marker of 40somethings tripping over their dicks to try and stay relevant

Anyway, the rap choices on all these lists makes me feel 10,000 years old, peace out

I continue to maintain that the album is an obsolete format

Why? It still seems central to me.

yeah that's a headscratcher to me, too

Not like all these album lists are being topped by aging artists in obscure microgenres (although mine surely will be).

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone literally said BTS' 'Dynamite' is better than "Heartbreak Hotel." I don't think they're exactly a marker of our "vast musical landscape" and more a marker of 40somethings tripping over their dicks to try and stay relevant

― licorice in the front, pizza in the rear (Whiney G. Weingarten)

Lol they did what!?

their top 500 songs of all time list had some really goofy stuff

Or are you referencing the fact that “dynamite” scored one place higher than “heartbreak hotel” on their 500 song list?

yeah

Maybe there are earlier examples, I don't know, but for me better-than insanity started with Spin's two '88 lists, both singles and albums. I liked some of their left-field picks a lot at the time, especially their #1 song, but there was also a lot of Depeche Mode's Black Celebration better than The Velvet Underground & Nico, and Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" better than "Heat Wave," "I Can't Explain," and "Anarchy in the U.K."

killing moon is absolutely better than anarchy in the uk!

yeah agreed

Even BTS “dynamite” is better than Anarchy in the UK

Someone's future dream is a shopping spree.

My apologies to the Sex Pistols for making this happen.

I was responding to the Bunnymen fwiw. I know I have consciously sought out and listened to "Dynamite" and some other BTS songs but I have zero memory of what it sounds like.

i wish bts would make another gqom track lol

Dynamite is the one that sounds like Jonas Brothers.

"butter" from this year was much better than "dynamite", not really exciting but very solid for what it is

The title “Butter” grosses me out.

Not no Parkay, not no margarine

STRICTLY BUTTER, BABY

wau wau collectif album is really nice

modern rs trying to be poptimist or whatever they're doing feels even weirder than when their top 10 was mostly just classic rock acts way past their prime

to elaborate on this, it's bc their poptimist taste is weird and bland? like if they were going all in on say billie eilish's album this year that would be a much better poptimist pick than adele & olivia rodrigo (whose album was fine just not like, aoty material lol) or previously that harry styles album

i love reading the music analyses on here and discovering music myself, but i find it funny how people forget music is such a subjective thing. having said that, i always assume by "best album/song", the person is saying this is their "favourite" instead of making a statement that something is intrinsically superior than something else

having said that, i wasn't really feeling any of the stuff on best-of lists this year either. i think the weather station's album was fine. but i do love "parking lot" and i really like tamara lindeman (guinevere jones!)

i wish bts would make another gqom track lol

― ufo, Sunday, 5 December 2021 00:12 (seven hours ago) link

what is the bts gqom song????

"idol"

TIME 10 BEST SONGS

https://time.com/6125601/best-songs-2021/

Farruko - "Pepas"
Wizkid - "Essence"
Taylor Swift - "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)"
Lucy Dacus - "VBS"
YOASOBI - "怪物"
City Girls - "Twerkulator"
Olivia Rodrigo - "good 4 u"
El Alfa, Chael Produciendo, CJ - "La Mamá de la Mamá"
Morgan Wade - "Wilder Days"
Doja Cat - "Woman"

That's one hideous mash-up. Reminds me of those bands doing ridiculous pop pastiche for people to make fun of, except BTS sound serious.

Pretty diverse list

Was the song a near carbon copy of Paramore’s “Misery Business”? Sure.

goddammit, stop with this; It’s been very effectively debunked (retroactive credit not withstanding)

The Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / LSO album is very deserving of all the mentions it’s getting, I don’t care if there’s 500 other “jazz” albums that are better than this one in 2021 or complaints that this is the token jazz album everybody is picking. Both artists are legends on their own and it’s beautiful piece they have created together in here.

eh

that is maybe my favorite album this year

the Dry Cleaning album is nice

have also been enjoying still slipping vol. 1

This is my Top 20 as it stands right now, still subject to change as I hear more stuff

1. Natural Information Society With Evan Parker - Descension (Out Of Our Constrictions)
2. John Zorn - Bagatelles Vol. 1-4
3. Low - Hey What
4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – At State's End
5. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
6. Keith Rowe - Absence
7. Vanessa Rossetto - The Tower (The City) (w/ Lionel Marchetti) / Legends of the American Theater cassette / A Stem of Woodapple with Fruits / What Is Your Middle Class American Problem? 7"
8. Charmaine Lee - KNVF
9. Rhododendron – Protozoan Battle Hymns
10. Clara Ionnotta - Moult
11. Upper Wilds - Venus
12. The Bug - Fire
13. Les Filles de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works
14. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince
15. Koreless - Agor
16. Vijay Iyer/Linda May Han Oh/Tyshawn Sorey – Uneasy
17. Blanck Mass – In Ferneaux
18. Ahmed – Nights on Saturn (Communication)
19. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt– Made Out of Sound
20. Ripatti - Fun Is Not a Straight Line

want to hear a lot of those, esp. Keith Rowe and Vanessa Rossetto

It absolutely rips no longer having to engage with popular music

Uneasy v good. I liked Moult when I listened to it but need to give it some dedicated quiet time. A lot of the the rest are artists that I like but didn't know those albums so I look forward to listening to more.

I’ve got a little overlap with Whitney here

Ha, WHINEY - sorry

https://i.imgur.com/mgMUUSt_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Joy Orbison's "still slipping vol. 1" is really lovely and is comforting, and its title and its final track "born slipping" are definitely references to Underworld's born slippy

Whiney and I have some big crossover

If we go by the same time as last year, these are the lists that will be posted in the following days:

Tomorrow?
P4k
Popmatters
Wire

Next week:
Textura
Vice
Bandcamp
Washingtonpost

The next next week:
Latimes
Vinylfactory
Paste song list
Aquarium drunkard
Said the gramophone
Ravensingstheblues
Kexp Reverend’s list
RA

Oh actually Textura’s is published already:

https://www.textura.org/archives/articles/2021picks.htm

Again I don’t know a single one of these albums.

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-songs-2021/

pretty unexpected #1? it's a good song but kinda low-key, not at all what i would have expected so much consensus around & like, where were they for "door" and "so hot you're hurting my feelings"? those would have been way more obvious picks in 2019

generally super agreeable list though, to the point it's surprising and confusing?

Oh they included the Backxwash title track!! That alone makes me dislike this list less than most of theirs

it feels much closer to the character of the ilm 77 than usual?

Yes, agreed

https://www.stereogum.com/2169206/the-50-best-albums-of-2021/lists/year-in-review/2021-in-review/

eh

lol

Actually a pretty good list and yeah it seems more aligned with ILM than previous years.

That number one is a bit confusing, I like it but it’s not the strongest song she’s made (the singles from her last album were all better imho) and I’ve been seeing in other lists as well and it’s weird because I don’t remember that much excitement over it when it was released? Pitchfork didn’t even review it.

Cassandra Jenkins got BNM for album and track so I’d betted that’s the one that was going to win

That stereogum one might be the worst so far.

giving the war on drugs aoty in 2021 is a deeply hateful act

idk if i've seen the great flock of dimes or men i trust albums on many other lists, but otherwise it's pretty bleh

I have no memory of listening to the Polachek song.

xps yeah "bunny is a rider" didn't really seem to have a ton of excitement around it or anything & she's done a lot better in the past

i also would have bet on "hard drive"

checked last year's list to confirm that usually stereogum is much more agreeable and interesting than whatever they came up with this year

Bunny as a number #1 makes it look like it wasn’t that great of a year for music, since it’s the sort of song they’d place in idk #73 in previous years.

“The door” per example is a way better song imho and it didn’t make it to the top 50 in their 2019 list.

That said I love Caroline Polachek’s solo career so far and wont complain much about it.

Not a big fan of "Bunny" but there's a lot to like in Pitchfork's list imo. A few tracks I'd forgotten about like the OPN/Elizabeth Fraser collab. Surprising not to see "Chaise Longue" which seems to be the indie rock consensus track of the year.

the list seems to reveal there was no consensus rap banger this year

Pitchfork always seem to be a bit snobby about UK indie that gets massively hyped by UK media tho xp

lol I didn't realise P4k even knew about the existence of Bad Boy Chiller Crew

One of the strangest things about the p4k list is that only two artists got more than one track on it: Doja Cat and Doss. In a year with four insta-classic Olivia Rodrigo singles, Doss got more tracks on the list!

Oh wow yeah no Wet Leg on the p4k one. I don’t really get the hype for that song so didn’t mind the exclusion.

Overall I think this is one of the best p4k eoy lists I’ve seen.

Don't know what's up with the first 100 tracks but someone seems to be gradually updating the rest of this playlist w/the P4k tracks list (for those looking for one):

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4jJOtuZt79DeaCZQJrnXkJ

One of the strangest things about the p4k list is that only two artists got more than one track on it: Doja Cat and Doss. In a year with four insta-classic Olivia Rodrigo singles, Doss got more tracks on the list!

― josh az (2011nostalgia)

DOSS EP also has 4 insta-classic songs in there!

Surprised only one of the Big Thief tracks made it

I don’t get the Doja love, but I may be an outlier

Overall I think this is one of the best p4k eoy lists I’ve seen.

Fully anticipated a shitpile but instead it's merely garbage.

Anyone has the wire list? I see their 2021 rewind issue is out already.

Ah no it’s out dec 10 sorry

I did not contribute to the Stereogum main list, but the two jazz titles will also appear on the jazz list I put together for them, which will be running this week sometime.

Sir, this is a Wendy's

Textura jazz list is almost troublingly melanin-deficient

I was going to level that accusation but found two black people in the top 5 and decided not to go there, but it also struck me. Their picture in eveningwear alone gave white musicology stronghold vibes.

It's also just a bad list.

Or, it's not bad, but there are maybe three or four albums on there that I've heard and thought were decent. unperson would know better than me, obviously.

It's also so funny that the ambient world is large enough to include the sub-genres that Textura posts about— it's like a completely different world than the one I inhabit, and I listen to a LOT of ambient music.

lol I swear "Bunny Is a Rider" was in my top 5 singles before the pfork list came out.

Textura has a bit of a taste for warm milk ime but tbh I haven't listened to any of those albums in full. I do want to hear the Hahn.

really it is morbidly funny that pfork have given song of the year to a song whose title is literally an answer-back to an Of Montreal songtitle from 2007, and yet Of Montreal, still releasing great music in 2021, have been completely and utterly ignored by literally everyone

Anyway, the Thumbscrew erasure on all these 'lists' can only be explained by deep state shenanigans. I might have said the same about Jessica Ackerley/Daniel Carter but I see table is fighting the good fight there.

xpost Well look if Of Montreal were wrong about Bunny, what else were they wrong about?

I can't deny it/Bunny is a rider

The Textura list is fairly white, but more than that, it's an extremely conservatory-trained list. It's almost all chamber jazz or stuff that blurs the line between jazz and modern classical. Which is fine, that's their angle on the world. There are about seven albums on the list I liked enough to write about.

Just listened to the Caroline Polachek song that topped the Pfork list. It's... fine?

The production reminds me a little of this track from my own 2021 Faves list (which I like better):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir9ZylmT494

I sort of assume the site is written by one or two music grads residing in Peterborough but I have no actual idea.xp

The past is not a grotesque animal

Really like this version which is one of the other lists linked upthread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIvM2_AzNj4

really it is morbidly funny that pfork have given song of the year to a song whose title is literally an answer-back to an Of Montreal songtitle from 2007, and yet Of Montreal, still releasing great music in 2021, have been completely and utterly ignored by literally everyone

― imago, Monday, December 6, 2021 9:55 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think that with Of Montreal, I've always admired the music, but found the vocals...completely annoying and distracting! For some reason the guy's voice is hideous to me.

And I love Dan Bejar, unreservedly!

First track from Evan Parker/Natural Information Society is very enjoyable.

It's a great record, really too bad he's such an absolute conservative knob.

His thinking does seem experimental and improvised in fields beyond just music.

Some intern at pitchfork is taking the piss:

https://open.spotify.com/user/n44luryxoh2efzfriy52k3ex2/playlist/4jJOtuZt79DeaCZQJrnXkJ

1. Schultz Live - gave up on wishin’
.
.
100. Van Morrison - they own the media

I guess it is the closest it has been to ILM, they even got joke placements.

Yeah I don't get what's going on with that playlist but you can see they were added "6 days ago" whereas the rest of the playlist was constructed "5 hours ago."

FWIW when I first opened that playlist this AM, it was like 10 random albums (including from Schultz Live and Van Morrison) and songs #100-95 from the list. They gradually edited the playlist over the next hour but left those two songs? Weird.

Prog Magazine - Albums Of The Year
https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-anchoresss-the-art-of-losing-voted-prog-magazine-writers-album-of-the-year

20. Steve Hackett - Under A Mediterranean Sky (InsideOut)
19. Public Service Broadcasting - Bright Magic (PIAS)
18. Betwen The Buried And Me - Colors II (Sumerian)
17. Sel Balamir - Swell (Rocksomos)
16. Transatlantic - The Absolute Universe (InsideOut)
15. Caravan - It's None Of Your Business (Madfish)
14. Frost - Day And Age (InsideOut)
13. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu (Parlophone)
12. Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Ding Dong. You're Dead (Rune Grammofon)
11. Dream Theater - A View From The Top of The World (InsideOut)
10. Mogwai - As The Love Continues (Rock Action)
9. Leprous - Aphelion (InsideOut)
8. Gojira - Fortitude (Roadrunner)
7. Mastodon - Hushed & Grimm (Reprise)
6. Isildurs Bane & Peter Hammill - In Disequilibrium (Atarxia)
5. Field Music - Flat White Moon (Memphis Industries)
4. Jane Weaver - Flock (Fire)
3. Big Big Train - Common Ground (English Electric Recordings)
2. Steven Wilson - The Future Bites (Caroline)
1. The Anchoress - The Art Of Losing (Kscope)

The Art of Losing isn't hard to remaster

https://www.billboard.com/lists/best-albums-2021/

https://www.allmusic.com/year-in-review/2021/allmusic-best-of-2021

I completely forgot there was a Vince Staples LP this year

Nice to have some overlap with All Music! (Grouper, Liz Phair)

wow @ Sour (RS, Billboard)

I love the album, but I agree w/ufo it doesn't really feel like AOTY material (in fact, its "let's get this on the shelves" imperfection is part of its charm)

Some of the blurbs on these lists would be absolutely humiliating for some of these publications if anyone actually read them

^ ^ ^ agreed.

Crack Magazine
https://crackmagazine.net/article/list-article/top-50-albums-2021/

50. Lil Nas X - Montero
49. Arca - KICK ii
48. Sega Bodega - Romeo
47. DJ Pitch - It’s Not What You Said, It’s Because You Spoke
46. Young Thug - Punk
45. Car Culture - Dead Rock
44. Mach-Hommy - Pray for Haiti
43. Ayra Starr - 19 & Dangerous
42. Dean Blunt - Black Metal 2
41. Kacey Musgraves - Star-Crossed
40. Theon Cross - Intra-I
39. 박혜진 Park Hye Jin - Before I Die
38. Proc Fiskal - Siren Spine Sysex
37. Dave - We’re All Alone in This Together
36. Pauline Anna Strom - Angel Tears in Sunlight
35. Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters
34. Jana Rush - Painful Enlightenment
33. Klein - Harmattan
32. Koreless - Agor
31. Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost
30. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
29. Salamanda - Sphere
28. Shaybo - Queen of the South
27. PinkPantheress - to hell with it
26. Don Zilla - Ekizikiza Mubwengula
25. Arushi Jain - Under the Lilac Sky
24. Black Country, New Road - For the First Time
23. M1llionz - Provisional Licence
22. Kedr Livanskiy - Liminal Soul
21. Tomu DJ - FEMINISTA
20. L'Rain - Fatigue
19. Summer Walker - Still Over It
18. Eris Drew - Quivering in Time
17. Turnstile - Glow On
16. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
15. Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8
14. Circuit des Yeux - -io
13. Kelman Duran - Night in Tijuana
12. Pink Siifu - GUMBO’!
11. Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air
10. Pharoah Sanders, Floating Points & the London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
09. Squid - Bright Green Field
08. Maxo Kream - Weight of the World
07. claire rousay - a softer focus
06. Banoffee - Tear Tracks
05. Baby Keem - The Melodic Blue
04. Ghetts - Conflict of Interest
03. Space Afrika - Honest Labour
02. aya - im hole
01. John Glacier - SHILOH: Lost for Words

L’Rain!

maybe it's because chal ravens is writing for them now but that kind of reminds me of the sort of list fact magazine used to do. not all gold but definitely some interesting stuff in there

https://consequence.net/2021/12/top-50-songs-2021-list/12/

lol

xp was definitely thinking that was very fact mag. good list

that aya album being so well-praised in the corners it has been covered in is something I do not understand, at all

Yikes at that #1 for consequence.

holy shit that consequence list is violence

that aya album being so well-praised in the corners it has been covered in is something I do not understand, at all

― boxedjoy, Monday, December 6, 2021 5:54 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, it really is some corny shit. idk what it is with critics these days but they ABSOLUTELY LOSE THEIR SHIT any time someone used zoomer internet buzzword language in a song.

I feel like I listened to a lot of 'adventurous guitar music' this year and still don't know anything from guitar moderne's list: https://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/guitar-moderne-top-records-of-2021

xp they understand the assignment

bing bong!

wow @ Sour (RS, Billboard)

I love the album, but I agree w/ufo it doesn't really feel like AOTY material (in fact, its "let's get this on the shelves" imperfection is part of its charm)

― katebishopfan616 (morrisp), Monday, December 6, 2021 1:55 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I can kinda see the appeal of putting Sour at #1. It was an event album by a superstar artist that actually felt *new* and *exciting*. Can't say there were a lot of those this year. It also helps that most of the album is great, but its latter third really does hold it back

consequence and pitchfork currently duelling it out for who can have the most bizarre SOTY choice

sour is a good, solid pop album but not a great or exciting one

& if you want great exciting pop superstar event album the billie eilish album was right there!

bizarrely "bunny is a rider" has already been on more publications' lists than "door" and "so hot you're hurting my feelings" combined were in 2019

the real question about consequence's number one song is "is it better than 'heartbreak hotel'?"

xxp Yeah, Billie's album (which I also love) seems like the more expected sort of choice. I actually think Sour is more "exciting" though!

Does Caroline Polachek’s publicist pay Pitchfork? She’s in the middle of a tour right now and I bet this’ll sell a few extra tickets. Otherwise it makes no sense that such a pedestrian song makes the top spot on any kind of list.

the real question about consequence's number one song is "is it better than 'heartbreak hotel'?"

"butter" > "dynamite" easily, therefore...

"Bunny" is just OK but it should be disqualified for that craven fucking whistle

Chasing that "Young Folks" $

Didn’t Polachek complain on twitter about her album’s p4k review?

as far as i can tell it was just because they got her name wrong in an editing error

Lol the whistle and the bass sound is what makes me like the song.

2019 there might have been some vote split between people who liked “the door” vs “so hot you’re hurting my feelings”. They’re very different kind of songs so I can see why some people choose one over the other.

Also I think there’s some accumulated goodwill working towards Caroline Polachek that helped “bunny is a rider”.

It could also be payola? I swear it didn’t make much a fuzz when it came out and suddenly it’s making top spots in several eoy lists.

I thought it was a fun song when it came out, but maybe I was expecting another single or an album to eventually follow it and solidify it based on the strength of the rest of the material. As it stands right now, yeah I still think it’s a cool song but somehow too inconsequential to be called a top song of the year? It’s the sort of song that whenever - and if - pitchfork makes a mid-decade or end of decade list they’ll tread back and slowly start ranking it out of their top 20.

SZA elevates the last bit of Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More," as she tends to do--see her James Blake feature for another case--but the production is bland-out p-fork tm yacht rock indie c. 2006 just now with rapping on top - truly revolting imo

The Peter Bjorn and Johnification of rap is to be resisted

i'm not anywhere near conspiracy minded enough to think its payola

i think the new polachek album is on its way next year, she's been playing a bunch of new material live

If p4k’s voting system is anything like this website’s EOY polls are, I wonder if it was a track that everyone voted for (but not many people had near the top) and then snuck up to the #1 spot because there hasn’t really been many consensus SOTY picks?

I’m surprised how poorly Drivers Licence is doing in all these lists… it certainly seemed like a surefire year end list juggernaut for most of the year

"good 4 u" seems to be the consensus pick but p4k was right to go with "deja vu"

"bunny is a rider" does have that sort of "boys"-as-#1 feel to it yeah lol

"Boys" is good tho

I predict “Driver’s License” will win Song of the Year Grammy*

*(I don’t think I’ve ever accurately predicted a Grammy win)

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/50-best-songs-of-2021-list-1260934/

rolling stone's list isn't very rolling stone? not a single classic rocker past their prime in sight

they haven't really been like that in a while now but even then that's a surprisingly good #1 for them

(Many xps) Thank you to Whiney for reminding me about the Filles de Illighadad record; I'm a fan of them but somehow that release got lost in the shuffle this year. Picked it up on Bandcamp and I'm playing it now and it's sweet fire.

NME - Best songs of the year:
https://www.nme.com/features/music-features/nme-best-songs-of-the-year-2021-3112636

50. Yungblud – ‘Fleabag’
49. The Cribs – ‘Swinging At Shadows’
48. Enny – ‘Same Old’
47. Twenty One Pilots – ‘Saturday’
46. Ashnikko – ‘Deal With It’ (feat. Kelis)
45. aespa – ‘Next Level’
44. Coldplay – ‘Higher Power’
43. Tyler, the Creator – ‘WUSYANAME’
42. Willow – ‘Transparent Soul’
41. Pa Salieu ft. Slowthai – ‘Glidin’’
40. Sofia Kourtesis – ‘La Perla’
39. Mabel – ‘Let Them Know’
38. Sigrid – ‘Mirror’
37. Måneskin – ‘I Wanna Be Your Slave’
36. Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar – ‘Family Ties’
35. Bree Runway – ‘Hot Hot’
34. Holly Humberstone – ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’
33. Squid – ‘Narrator’
32. Mitski – ‘The Only Heartbreaker’
31. Yard Act – ‘Dark Days’
30. Japanese Breakfast – ‘Be Sweet’
29. Kanye West & André 3000 – ‘Life Of The Party’
28. Jungle – ‘Keep Moving’
27. Lil Nas X featuring Jack Harlow – ‘Industry Baby’
26. Adele – ‘Easy On Me’
25. St. Vincent – ‘Pay Your Way In Pain’
24. Dave featuring Stormzy – ‘Clash’
23. India Jordan – ‘And Groove’
22. MUNA featuring Phoebe Bridgers – ‘Silk Chiffon’
21. Clairo – ‘Amoeba’
20. Berwyn – ‘I’d Rather Die Than Be Deported’
19. PinkPantheress – ‘Just For Me’
18. Silk Sonic – ‘Smokin Out The Window’
17. Caroline Polacheck – ‘Bunny Is A Rider’
16. Doja Cat featuring SZA – ‘Kiss Me More’
15. Wolf Alice – ‘Smile’
14. Griff – ‘Black Hole’
13. The Weeknd – ‘Take My Breath’
12. Foals – ‘Wake Me Up’
11. Charli XCX – ‘Good Ones’
10. BTS – ‘Butter’
09. Little Simz – ‘Introvert’
08. Billie Eilish – ‘Happier Than Ever’
07. CHVRCHES featuring Robert Smith – ‘How Not To Drown’
06. Lorde – ‘Solar Power’
05. Lil Nas X – ‘MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)’
04. Sam Fender – ‘Seventeen Going Under’
03. Wet Leg – ‘Chaise Longue’
02. Self Esteem – ‘I Do This All The Time’
01. Olivia Rodrigo – ‘Good 4 U’

great

christ that foals song is cack

47. Twenty One Pilots – ‘Saturday’

totally one of the best songs of the year imo

But will you defend the Coldplay inclusion

Sorry to insert my bad attitude into this thread again but I guess I haven’t really paid attention to some of these publications and lists in quite a while, like 10+ years. I’m not saying that Pitchfork and NME were ever at the forefront of cutting edge art, but when did outlets such as these go from promoting kind of your canonical indie rock such as the Smiths and Modest Mouse or whatever to naming complete and utter commodified pop garbage as the best music of the year?

Since indie pop/rock is no longer the dominant commodified pop garbage of the day ? Love Modest Mouse, love the Smiths, love pop.

Cheers to the Pitchfork list for being one of the few to recognize that 'deja vu' is the true standout from sour

That’s an easy one! They stopped promoting The Smiths after learning Morrissey was a bit of a fascist and they stopped promoting Modest Mouse after the rape accusations.

When were the Smiths or Modest Mouse the dominant commodified pop of the day?xp

I was never a big fan of the indie rock days either, to be fair…but I guess back when I was a younger man circa like 2004 these publications felt like alternatives to the Rolling Stone magazines of the world, but now it feels like they’re just about selling a commodity, with that commodity being pop music that to my ears sounds like what you’d hear while shopping in a Forever 21 or whatever.

still a bit of indie rock in the nme list, mostly rubbish stuff though

god knows i've tried to give squid a chance but god i just can't listen to that voice

Tbf I guess they were no less obnoxious when they were climaxing over the Strokes. Xps lol

"Good 4 U" basically an alt-rock power pop tune, though the lyrics limit its appeal imo.

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-albums-2021/

an album on there that i can't stand is spirit of the beehive

all of my favorite albums of the year were records pfork gave sixes to

loraine james! <3

Not a bad list tbh

the arlo parks album seems like it should be right up my alley but the end result is pretty bland
― ufo, Wednesday, December 1, 2021 3:56 AM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I completely dismissed it at first, probably without making it to Caroline. It's soft and personal, good songwriting, very much in style with Sault or Lianne La Havas and with good 90s vibes. Today I'm really appreciating it. It's refreshing to have something less loud.

Xps to self: I listened to "Higher Power" (the Coldplay song that NME put on their top 50 list) and it was actually kind of pleasant? Not sure how it will hold up to repeated listens, but I was surprised not to find anything to hate about it!

as usual pitchfork took all the other lists, threw them up in the air and put the albums in a slightly different order

https://www.theringer.com/music/2021/12/7/22821198/best-albums-2020-tyler-the-creator-jazmine-sullivan

Rob Mitchum's master spreadsheet is live:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IoFuhHS63IJ6L15rLN7FBd6zvK0wOUwLYAZGbDr3wTQ/edit#gid=0

Seems to me that there was a lot of consensus among the ~top 20 albums this year but very little consensus on the #1.

Paste list appears to be the most Hivemindy if you compare each column to the aggregate

Seems to me that there was a lot of consensus among the ~top 20 albums this year but very little consensus on the #1.

― Indexed

Idk… according to the aoty list, little simz has appeared on 5 lists as #1 so far. Tyler, the Creator and Floating Points also have some consensus, the latter has appeared in almost every list so far.

But yeah you’re right… it’s almost the same top 20 just arranged differently.

Little Simz is #29 on the Pitchfork list

as usual pitchfork took all the other lists, threw them up in the air and put the albums in a slightly different order

― Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 8:49 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Don't think this is fair. In their top 20 they have L'Rain, Playboy Carti, Tirzah, Arooj, Faye Webster, MIKE, Grouper, and Dean Blunt. If you just look at the Mitchum spreadsheet, none of these have been on more than a few lists and mostly in the ~30-50 range when they do appear.

Idk… according to the aoty list, little simz has appeared on 5 lists as #1 so far. Tyler, the Creator and Floating Points also have some consensus, the latter has appeared in almost every list so far.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 9:58 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

More consensus in the UK than the US, I guess...

Tbh I’m not sure ILM will stray too far from the hivemind this year.

As for the critical consensus, Little Simz will win every single UK critic poll going

― he ain't perfect but fuck me he's a rheillee (imago), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 15:05 (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

not coz it's any good but because it is surgically engineered to win UK critic polls, right amount of on-the-nose bombast and extant goodwill

ILM's most surgically engineered 77 albums of 2021, go

we can wait until january

i've been really enjoying the series of arca albums that won't make any of these lists bc they came out a few days ago

best album art of the year for sure

The Wire list is out there, if someone has access.

imago gonna lose his mind

is Olivia Rodrigo #1?

more crack mag...

Crack Magazine - Tracks of the Year
https://crackmagazine.net/article/list-article/top-25-tracks-2021/

25. Joy Orbison ft. Léa Sen - better
24. Chloe Bailey - Have Mercy
23. Self Esteem - I Do This All the Time
22. Anthony Naples - Bonk
21. BackRoad Gee ft. BG and TizzTrap - A Yo
20. Tokischa ft. Haraca Kiko and El Cherry Scom - Tukuntazo
19. Turnstile - Underwater Boi
18. WizKid ft. Tems - Essence
17. Sangre Nueva - Sola
16. Amaarae ft. Kali Uchis, Moliy - SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY REMIX
15. Little Simz - Introvert
14. Caroline Polachek - Bunny Is a Rider
13. Snail Mail - Valentine
12. PinkPantheress - Just for me
11. Lana Del Rey - Arcadia
10. Scratcha DVA x :3LON - Flex
09. Anz - Unravel in the Designated Zone
08. Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u
07. Blawan - Under Belly
06. Space Afrika ft. Blackhaine - B£E
05. Parris ft. Eden Samara - Skater’s World
04. Charli XCX - Good Ones
03. UNIIQU3 - Microdosing
02. Baby Keem ft. Kendrick Lamar - Family Ties
01. Yves Tumor - Jackie

good to see Anz in there but come on, should've been 'you could be' all day long

Someone share the wire list! Their tracks list is usually great.

NYT song picks by Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/arts/music/best-songs.html

all of my favorite albums of the year were records pfork gave sixes to]

This is me since at least 5 years ago.

Wire magazine list is here:
https://www.yearendlists.com/2021/12/wire-top-50-releases-of-2021

(L'Rain is #1)

great to see circuit des yeux getting some love this year

I was just wondering if anyone was going to include any Moor Mother this year. Good on the Wire.

moor mother was on the crack mag list too iirc. still haven't heard that one yet!

Surprised to see two Moor Mother projects but not Irreversible Entanglements on that Wire list.

Here lies
POPTIMISM
2000-2021

Rodrigo/Adele placing 1/2 is a pretty good recent example of RS's sad attempt at a poptimist rebrand when they're actually just applying rockism to chart topping pop for the sake of ad revenue and for no other reason.

always some interesting bits here:

Vinyl Factory - Singles and EPs
https://thevinylfactory.com/features/best-singles-and-eps-of-2021/

(Anz is #1 <3<3<3)

p4k list again a little surprising and much closer in feeling to ilm than usual and is generally pretty agreeable

but the top 2 albums, while decent, are ones that felt a little underwhelming and slight compared to their predecessors?

weirdest nu-rolling stone poptimism thing is how much they loved that harry styles album

Are you saying it's... not one of the 500 greatest albums of all time?

Vinyl Factory list is cool cool cool

AllMusic - Best electronic albums:
https://www.allmusic.com/year-in-review/2021/favorite-electronic?1638897555635

^ includes rare cfcf sighting

also i'd forgotten about that Loscil album, lovely record that

what lists haven't dropped yet?

I'm waiting for Aquarium Drunkard's monster list

Does Spin still review albums?

Spin’s lists will come in a week or so.

I completely dismissed it at first, probably without making it to Caroline. It's soft and personal, good songwriting, very much in style with Sault or Lianne La Havas and with good 90s vibes. Today I'm really appreciating it. It's refreshing to have something less loud.

idk i need to give it another listen but it felt like something i should love (sounds like in rainbows-meets-sade!) but the songwriting didn't reach me at all

really delighted to see the dltzk album on p4k's list that really needs more attention

there are still multiple 2021 albums to anticipate

Barn is getting robbed

Surprised to see two Moor Mother projects but not Irreversible Entanglements on that Wire list.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 11:56 AM (one hour ago)

Agreed, though they've got three other International Anthem albums on there so maybe they were worried about looking too worshipful? They were probably relieved the Jeff Parker isn't out for a few more days lol

always enjoy chris richards' eoy lists

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/best-music-albums-2021/2021/12/07/dd7dca2c-4c78-11ec-b0b0-766bbbe79347_story.html

One record that I first heard about on Quietus, and which I really love, is Art School Girlfriend's "Is it Light Where You Are." Synthy, melancholic, sort of doom-y break-up album. It's really good, not usually in my wheelhouse but the write-up in the Quietus was good enough to make me give a listen.

and by "doom-y" I don't mean "doom metal" or "sludge," just a sort of sense of uneasy pervades the record.

This is my single of the year, tbh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZtp7Rh6JG4

Art School Girlfriend album is amazing.

finally, someone else whose heard and liked it! i posted it on social media a while back and a friend messaged me a few days later like "this is exactly what i needed, thank you," but other than that, little to no response from anyone i know here or outside of the board. and it's such a good record!

Yeah first time I hear anyone even mention it. My only gripe is that it’s very frontloaded, it opens with its best songs and then it loses a bit of steam although “good as I wanted” is also one of my favorite ones in here.

I like "Helm," too, but agreed, generally speaking.

It’s first 3 songs are great, then the run colour me to good as I wanted is the second best. Actually have a hard time picking what’s the song I’d say is my favorite from here. “Softer Side” is a good one.

Weird year for me and music but I think my #1 album for the year is Mia Doi Todd, which nobody noticed, I would have thought NPR at least…

i will definitely be voting for the art school girlfriend album come poll time. "in the middle" is a showstopper for sure

Clarissa Connelly's The Voyager from The Wire's list was released in 2020 but I'll forgive them because it's excellent, it's like if Enya tried to make an album that sounds like Stina Nordenstam's Dynamite.

here's my songs over at Said the Gramophone:
https://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/best_songs_of_2021.php

ilx always a huge part of my musical landscape; thank you!

https://www.popmatters.com/75-best-albums-of-2021/8

https://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-21/#albums

Awesome list, Sean. So much stuff I have to check out. Those little simz and sault tracks would be my picks too. Love the writeup for those.

At first scan, the only one I disagree with is Coldplay. Not even Max Martin can make them sound good for me.

yeh great list that

Also very on brand, that Tonstarssbandht is new for me, it’s wonderful and it’s 100% the sort of sound I relate to stg

The Art School Girlfriend track above is nice. Thanks!

Sean - always look forward to your list and your blurbs. Many thanks. Much to discover!

I'm also enjoying Art School Girlfriend, despite the horrible name

I like the name, but I'm listening to the album now, and... what are you guys hearing(?!)

here's my songs over at Said the Gramophone:
https://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/best_songs_of_2021.php

ilx always a huge part of my musical landscape; thank you!

― sean gramophone, Wednesday, December 8, 2021 7:49 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Probably late but hadn't heard Indigo De Souza but "Hold U" grabbed me right away and am loving Any Shape You Take. Plays in the same space as Nilufer Yanya maybe? Don't usually connect with Saddle Creek artists but this is punchier, grungier, and poppier than what I usually think of think of as their sound.

I like the name, but I'm listening to the album now, and... what are you guys hearing(?!)

― katebishopfan616 (morrisp)

Gloomy synthpop

Ok, we're on the same page (lol)

My jazz list went up at Stereogum.

10. Various Artists, Indaba Is
9. Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble, Now
8. Cameron Graves, Seven
7. William Parker, Mayan Space Station
6. Ivo Perelman, Brass & Ivory Tales
5. Wadada Leo Smith/Bill Laswell/Milford Graves, Sacred Ceremonies
4. Henry Threadgill, Poof
3. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra, Promises
2. James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet, Jesup Wagon
1. Sons of Kemet, Black to the Future

V nice

Nice! Re: Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra's "Promises," that seems to be getting plenty of love outside of jazz circles. Probably for obvious reasons, but it pleases me nonetheless.

It's odd, I really didn't find that the new Sons of Kemet grabbed me in the same way as "Your Queen is a Reptile." Going to listen again.

Same for me, though I still think it's a very good album (and YQIAR was exceptional). I usually skip the opening track though; it wore out its welcome quickly

The "jazz" album I loved this year I'm not seeing on any lists so far is Anthony Joseph's The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives

It's much better than I remember, though I like the back half much better than the first half.

the Wau Wau Collectif record is really sweet, just listened for the first time while finishing up work/eating dinner.

enjoying digging through the said the gramophone list, "wonama yo ema" is sounding great right now

Billboard’s 100 Best Songs

(the Taylor Swift blurb made me chuckle)

(thank you all!!)

Seems to me that there was a lot of consensus among the ~top 20 albums this year but very little consensus on the #1.

― Indexed

Idk… according to the aoty list, little simz has appeared on 5 lists as #1 so far. Tyler, the Creator and Floating Points also have some consensus, the latter has appeared in almost every list so far.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 9:58 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw I was curious and looked back through the past Mitchum spreadsheets, and you were right that the consensus on Little Simz this year (currently 4 #1s in his spreadsheet) is equivalent to the last few years -- Fiona Apple led with 4 last year, LDR had only 3 the year before, and Mitski had 4 in 2018. In the years before that there appeared to be more consensus on the #1 album with Kendrick's DAMN in 2017 (8) & TPAB in 2015 (7), Blackstar in 2016 (9), and The War on Drugs in 2014 (6).

yeah, AOTY has Little Simz as #1 on 7 lists. Jazmine Sullivan/Tyler/Promises each #1 on 3 lists.

of course those 7 lists are nearly all UK

Digging that billboard list, feels diverse without being forced.

Plenty of 2020 picks tho but I guess billboard is focused in year of impact.

52. Third Eye Blind - "Box of Bones"
This is my list, I don't need to apologize for anything.

otm!!!!

Digging that billboard list, feels diverse without being forced.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, December 9, 2021 11:04 AM (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agreed. Diverse and relevant. A lot of stuff I haven't heard. Thanks for flagging.

yes great list sean. such fun writing

This is the list that most closely aligns with my own interests:

https://www.ravensingstheblues.com/favorite-albums-of-2021/

It has the decency to provide Bandcamp links. And it is truly unlike the other lists. Once again, the work of an individual trumping that of a collective under editorial pressure

Not even heard of most of this stuff!

lots of good psych, acoustic experimenters and, imo, he nails the jangle-pop selections. The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Telephone Numbers, Reds/Pinks/Purples and Massage will all make my top 25ish. Chime School ain't bad either.

that site always has one of the best lists.

Pitchfork - best electronic music
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-electronic-music-2021/

diverse list and some excellent records on there - will vouch for tristan arp and facta (both on the same label as the k-lone album that made the ilx list last year and inhabiting the same sort of s soundworld i.e. soft, sun-dappled, quasi-ambient techno), loraine james (i sometimes struggle to fully connect with awkward, choppy, bassy music, but there's this swell of human feeling in all of loraine's work that totally grabs me; kelela fans should check out 'running like that' btw, amazing song), lucy gooch (reminds me a lot of early julianna barwick stuff, absolutely beautiful), anz ('you could be' still best pop song of 2021, fuck all these other dumb lists), and it's great see someone remember the yu su album

^ That is a strong list indeed. I loved the whole of the Joy Orbison album and it's nice that they've included the best song and video combination made by anyone in 2021 which of course is the wonderful "I Go" by Peggy Gou

need to hear boffa does

good list!

Picadilly Records -

Comps 2021: https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=1172
Albums 2021: https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=1170
Reissues 2021: https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=1174

every year I always find a few things via their lists.

oh i listened to a good podcast about that hannah peel album, meant to give it a listen. sort of a reinterpretation of a lesser known delia derbyshire work iirc?

also do i need to go back and relisten to space afrika? lowkey popping up in lots of lists

kerrang albums:
https://www.kerrang.com/the-50-best-albums-of-2021

nme albums:
https://www.nme.com/big-reads/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2021-3114833

That Kerrang list is insane. There are some really good albums on it, and then there are Weezer and Foo Fighters albums. I genuinely have no idea who the Kerrang readership is.

That Raven Sings the Blues list is really good, I look forward to that one every year. My only complaint, which is out of their hands, is how many of the entries that sound interesting have Bandcamp links that lead to nothing but red "SOLD OUT" tags for every single physical version they have on offer.

Like I get the need for some of these just starting out bands to start small, but this micro-pressing movement just makes it so hard to support some of these artists. I know I've gone on about it before, and this is just the way things are going, but it's a bummer to learn about a new band or album that only came out months ago, only to see it's already impossible to find stuff. Now I can and do support many of them through Bandcamp digital releases, but I'd much rather throw them more money for an LP or a CD.

/endoldmanwhoprefersphysicalproductrant

Anyway, really happy to see that Gold Dust record getting some love at RSTB, that one was a particularly nice discovery for me this year.

I didn't even know there was a new Bedouine record until I saw the RSTB list. Weird, released Oct. 20 and reviewed nowhere afaict.

Same, although I do see a few places listing it as not being released until February 2022.

Jon, agreed. That happens to me often, and so my support winds up being either just streaming on Bandcamp or streaming on Bandcamp + posting about the band on FB/maybe writing about the record somewhere.

xpost It's on Spotify

The ideal would be some sort of “generate physical product on demand” model, ala what Lulu or Amazon do with books.

i discovered blood command and marmozets through previous kerrang lists iirc. they always balance the baffling with the unique

Wasn't Bandcamp exploring that model at one point? I'd be all for that.

xpost - Yep, looks like the CD is available at her Bandcamp page, vinyl due out in April.

It’s the consequence of living in a world where artists just don’t expect to be able to see music through physical stores.

Sell, not see

Oh I get it, still a disappointment to learn about an album that came out less than two months ago and find it already completely gone.

pfork readers poll: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/2021-readers-poll-results/

Interesting list, K-pop, Lorde and Killers stans turned out.

Well look at that. Even pitchfork readers upped their game after a couple of hideous years.

disagree

Interesting list

tell me more!

K-pop, Lorde and Killers stans turned out.

-_-

lol i didn't promise "interesting" in a good way

Does p4k's number one album usually rank higher than #37 on the reader's poll list?

That said social media brigades suck and they’re always lurking and influencing these polls. Why is it always pop albums though that has these dickheads invading polls. Is it label money behind it? Do popheads have more time in their hands than fans of any other genre? Are they better at organizing brigades? Is the hivemind stronger with them?

All music is just factions of stan brigades at this point.

Looks like a bunch of women under the age of 24, who don't live in the US and are relatively new to Pitchfork, really like that Twice album.

And I personally do find the list interesting because I like looking at the discrepancies between Pitchfork and its reader base.

Pitchfork should just stop doing reader’s polls each year. It’s a waste of everybody’s time and bandwidth.

It's how you get demographic info that you can show potential advertisers

no need to show the rest of us. otoh, no need for us to pay attention

I like the readers polls because they give a good picture of what the most boring middle of the road tastes are.

I legit like that Killers record though, so I am happy to see that place.

Because I've been so out of it in the past few years, I've not had as good of a handle on what the boring consensus picks are.

I like the readers polls because they give a good picture of what the most boring middle of the road tastes are.

― MarkoP, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:12 (forty-six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

and because they completely coincidentally showcase the majority of the ilx 77 other major zine lists

that said, Whiney's 'everything is stan armies' is more accurate than the notion that these are just boring and MOR choices. some may be but others are definitely powered by fanbases

what makes them boring is that they're appearing everywhere and the zine lists - the collaborative ones at least - seem very uniform

the individual blogosphere lists like that ravensingstheblues one earlier aren't even part of the same listing tradition, we should almost have different threads

Some x-ppsts, but I don't get the new Tristan Arp record. It's kind of boring, to my ear!

it's quite a subtle record, i think it sounds gorgeous though

beatport - best tracks:
https://www.beatportal.com/features/best-tracks-2021/

^ good list imo

Donda sticks out to me the most in the P4k readers poll.

lol yeah, i'm not really a fan of "subtle" electronic music, i guess. I listened to the Arp a few times through and it sounds nice but it isn't doing much that grabs me, and also feels really cold? But oh well. the Facta record is great.

That Raven Sings the Blues list is really good, I look forward to that one every year.

Me too, but I couldn't remember what it was called, so I'm glad someone posted it. Many of my favorites in past years have ended up coming from that list.

Are they better at organizing brigades?

this is the reason that twice showed up in the readers poll, yes - kpop stans are the most organised at that sort of thing

Beatport list is exactly what I was in the mood for today.

How can we tell if voters are stans? Personally I get tired of voting for the same damn people every year or two, just because they're proffering yet another good-to-great album or single---BIG HAIRY DEALLL-oh I may hold my nose and vote for them anyway---but not necessarily: in many cases, one or two albums is or are enough for me (this happens with books too).

That is, how can we tell that all voters=factions of stans? I get the thinking re kpop (uh-huh)...

If you vote in the Pitchfork Reader’s Poll you’re either a stan or a lame, take your pick

I didn’t even know they did it this year

XP dow your Garfield ref made me cackle, thanks

What k-pop stans? It’s the Nick Cave stan brigade which concerns me.

Don't mention his name! It'll bring them coming.

That Raven Sings the Blues list is really good, I look forward to that one every year. My only complaint, which is out of their hands, is how many of the entries that sound interesting have Bandcamp links that lead to nothing but red "SOLD OUT" tags for every single physical version they have on offer.

Like I get the need for some of these just starting out bands to start small, but this micro-pressing movement just makes it so hard to support some of these artists. I know I've gone on about it before, and this is just the way things are going, but it's a bummer to learn about a new band or album that only came out months ago, only to see it's already impossible to find stuff. Now I can and do support many of them through Bandcamp digital releases, but I'd much rather throw them more money for an LP or a CD.

A friend had to charge close to $30 for vinyl and still lost money. While artists usually want to fulfill the demand for physical product, they're generally not making more money from it versus digital.

As always, the RSTB list is a thing of beauty. Amazing number of albums that don't get a single mention in any other list. Glad to see Mod Con and Smoke Bellow, which anyone who liked Goat Girl should hear. I think these are worth hearing along similar lines:

Groupie – Ephemeral
Nightshift – Zöe
Mere Women – Romantic Notions
The Narcotix – Mommy Issues EP

This leapfrogged over Chime School in my list for the jangle fix:

Ducks Ltd. – Modern Fiction

re: stan infiltration of readers polls, this has been a thing for ages, well before the internet was mainstream i'd say -- i think i recall seeing backstreet boys albums performing laughably well in the reader poll results for rolling stone back in the day that hardly any critics, even 'poptimist' ones, would rep

despite that it's only really been a thing in the p4k ones in the last few years somehow

And now RS does lists where they say “I Want It That Way” is better than “Purple Haze”

kiss the sky, ain't nothin' but a heartache

"I Want It That Way" was the #5 single in the 1999 Pazz & Jop critics' poll fwiw: https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres99.php

The entire list was basically a towering monument to rockist authenticity:

1. TLC: "No Scrubs" (LaFace) 109
2. Eminem: "My Name Is" (Aftermath/Interscope) 66
3. Len: "Steal My Sunshine" (Epic) 54
4. Madonna: "Beautiful Stranger" (Maverick) 52
5. Backstreet Boys: "I Want It That Way" (Jive) 49
6. Cher: "Believe" (Warner Bros.) 40 *
7. Smash Mouth: "All Star" (Interscope) 39
8. Ricky Martin: "Livin' La Vida Loca" (C2/Columbia) 37
The Roots: "You Got Me" (MCA) 37
10. Santana Featuring Rob Thomas: "Smooth" (Arista) 36
11. Kid Rock: "Bawitdaba" (Atlantic/Lava) 35
12. TLC: "Unpretty" (LaFace) 34
13. Fatboy Slim: "Praise You" (Astralwerks) 33 *
14. Beck: "Sexx Laws" (DGC) 32
15. Q-Tip: "Vivrant Thing" (Arista) 30
16. Ol' Dirty Bastard: "Got Your Money" (Astralwerks) 27
Rage Against the Machine: "Guerrilla Radio" (Epic) 27
18. Christina Aguilera: "Genie in a Bottle" (RCA) 25
19. Juvenile: "Back That Azz Up" (Cash Money/Universal) 22
Britney Spears: ". . . Baby One More Time" (Jive)

"i want it that way" is better than almost anything

tell me why

And now RS does lists where they say “I Want It That Way” is better than “Purple Haze”

― licorice in the front, pizza in the rear (Whiney G. Weingarten),

isn't it?

No imo

Polls ain’t nothing but a party

results for that yr can be seen below the top 25 here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20000816031543/http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/pazznjop/99/singles.php3

good songs going quite far down the list, and for the most part they were the sort of major label product you'd see on mtv. the music industry was swimming in excess cash that they'd fleeced from the public via cd price hikes but i guess it helped them make/release good music

Xgau also praised the first BSB album and gave it an A-. Critics have been slavering over Max Martin's bullshit from the get-go, especially compared to RS's initial reaction to Hendrix:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/10-classic-albums-rolling-stone-originally-panned-101316/

Electronic Sound:

40. Richard Pike - How to Breathe
39. Raven Bush - Full into Noise
38. Polypores - Chaos Blooms
37. Mira Calix - Absent Origin
36. Kit Grill - Fragile
35. Squid - Bright Green Field
34. Me Lost Me - The Good Noise
33. Pye Corner Audio - Entangled Routes
32. Leon Vynehall - Rare, Forever
31. Casper Clausen - Better Way
30. Alan Vega - Mutator
29. Kit Monteith - Audio-Cartographic Experiments Vol#1: Rise & Fall
28. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO - Promises
27. The Bug - Fire
26. The New Obsolescents - 'The Superceded Sounds of...'
25. Hattie Cooke - Bliss Land
24. Ian Boddy - Nevermore
23. Gemma Cullingford - Let Me Speak
22. Isvisible/Isinvisible - Moon-White Water
21. Can - Lice in Stuttgart 1975
20. Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Interim Report, March 1979
19. Blancmange - Commercial Break
18. Ed Dowie - The Obvious I
17. Sunroof - Electronic Music Improvisations Vol 1
16. Blanck Mass - In Ferneaux
15. Amon Tobin - How Do You Live
14. Jane Weaver - Flock
13. GLOK - Pattern Recognition
12. Anna Meredith - Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems
11. Jon Hopkins - Music for Psychedelic Therapy
10. Lisa Bella Donna - Moogmentum
9. OSS - Enter the Kettle
8. Haiku Salut - The Hill, the Light, the Ghost
7. Nightmares on Wax - Shout Out! To Freedom...
6. John Grant - Boy from Michigan
5. Campbell / Mallinder / Benge - Clinker
4. Public Service Broadcasting - Bright Magic
3. Hannah Peel - Fir Wave
2. Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying to Tell You
1. LoneLady - Former Things

xp If it contains nothing so bad as the second version of 'Forever Young,' only 'Tangled Up in Blue' comes even close to 'One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)'" To compare the new album to Blonde on Blonde at all is to imply that people will treasure it as deeply and for as long. They won't."

What the hell does Jon Landau have against “Forever Young”(??)

The 2004 record guide “reevaluation” of Nevermind is… really something

(…)Following Ezra Pound's call to arms, Cobain made it new. Following the Talking Heads' dictum, he stopped making sense. And he stopped making it in a way that made total sense to those who shared his alienation. It was like the James Dean of Rebel Without a Cause, the Bob Dylan of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues,' the Eddie Cochran of 'Summertime Blues,' and the Johnny Rotten of 'Pretty Vacant" had been rolled into one shy kid with beautiful eyes and unwashed blond hair. And if there was any doubt about the meaning of the mulatto/albino/mosquito/libido nonsense, there was the video, the most riveting three minutes in the history of MTV.

😬

(It also mentions Nirvana's trademark loud/soft dynamic and dark, surreal mood… I thought even the most ardent Nirvana fan would agree that, if such a thing could qualify as a trademark, the Pixies would have established those rights first?)

electronic sound is such a weird backwards-looking list. and a miniscule number of non white folks on it - pharaoh sanders, nightmares on wax, the bug, damo suzuki, anyone else at all? seriously wtf?

OkayAfrica's best South African songs: https://www.okayafrica.com/south-african-music-amapiano-best
(despite the url it's not exclusively amapiano)

Oh and Ghana too: https://www.okayafrica.com/ghana-music-songs-best-2021/

The Narcotix – Mommy Issues EP

i posted about this on the bandcamp thread earlier this year, mind-blowing stuff

Agreed on that Electronic Sound list, NickB

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2021/12/13/aquarium-drunkard-2021-year-in-review/

AD list actually feels like Christmas morning, totally overwhelming and excessive and wonderful. There was so much good stuff, I couldn't even scroll all the way to the end! Love the format, too.

Ah this is the good stuff

Critics have been slavering over Max Martin's bullshit from the get-go,

mmm does the slavering come with a side of mac 'n' cheese

Cheese, definitely.

V cool list, AD!

Randomly picked a record off AD, ended listening to Kafari, has under 1,000 streams on spotify and it’s sounding gorgeous this morning.

Lot of new stuff for me on this NPR Best Electronic Music list
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/11/1061625196/the-best-electronic-music-of-2021

First three things I tried in that Aquarium Drunkard list were great.

the Moon Glyph label sampler on the AD list is sounding amazing: https://moonglyph.bandcamp.com/album/amethyst-new-sounds-from-moon-glyph-records

almost annoying to discover a well of new-to-me music at this time of year

Nice to see AD also recommending Ducks Ltd., as well as The Babe Rainbow, the SUSS EP, Bobby Lee and Scott Hirsch (the latter also found in RSTB).

Can confirm that the La Ola Interior: Spanish Acid and Ambient Exoticism comp on the AD list is fucking awesome, well worth the dinero.

This is the best list I've read so far, yeah. I used to hail the Quietus, but they've gotten much too much into weird British no-wave slop shit and arty metal for me.

Yeah the AD list is great! Definitely some new discoveries, though I must have been on a very similar wavelength to them this year as there aren't quite as many surprises as there have been in years past (not a bad thing at all, or a knock to their list).

Oh yeah, thanks for the AD list. Of the ones I've heard, Floating Points floats me to sleep, every time: though I enjoy some of it along the way, have never made it all the way through while conscious. On the other hand, though Carlos Niño & Friends – More Energy Fields, Current is very mellow, its pace keeps me awake, as we seem to be viewing, say, the Pacific Coast Highway from a helicopter, at different angles, staying on track (it's jazz, w studio sleight ov hand). And Sons of Kemet's Black To The Future is first thought best thought for the lists/ballots I haven't finished yet, judging by all the things on here I better listen to.

SPIN albums

https://www.spin.com/2021/12/best-albums-of-2021/?fbclid=IwAR1Dq3hkCqBvr8ZDPbB16PCiZ1A8g6CHQ3pgPmumzSjyg6MSj0rKrUdKMmY

https://www.vulture.com/article/best-albums-2021.html

Wait, SPIN still exists? Is there a 2021 Creem list somewhere too?

When do we do our end of the year on here? Feels like we should be starting soon? Am I just competely overlooking it>?

year ain't over

Yeah I guess that my memory is serving me strangely— I felt like we'd started by this time last year, but I guess not.

we do usually start the nominations thread around now

working on it!

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2021/best-of-2021-bodies-in-motion

first bandcamp list. the through-line on this one seems particularly abstract though

I think it’s mostly “dance” music?

Hopla! ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / NOMINATIONS THREAD

The bandcamp lists are def a bit confusing this year, though all is forgiven for pointing me toward Fimber Bravo's dope cosmic-electro-steelpan album: https://fimberbravo.bandcamp.com/

SPIN tracks

https://www.spin.com/2021/12/best-songs-of-2021/

Yes, bring on more “lol SPIN still exists?!?” jokes

it does exist, but shouldn't!

and SPIN picked the worst Musgraves song, sweet!

Outside of the top 5 that Spin list is super weird.

fader list is actually pretty distinct and interesting. first one i've seen to include juls' 'sounds of my world,' so it's a-ok with me.

https://www.thefader.com/2021/12/14/the-50-best-albums-of-2021

i didn't know the #1 album existed lol

That's a cool one. There's some error I think... their #1 appears between #8 and #7.

nice to see some love for the porter robinson album

Anyway, Stereogum

https://www.stereogum.com/2170186/best-songs-2021/lists/year-in-review/2021-in-review/

I Care If You Listen: https://icareifyoulisten.com/2021/12/editors-picks-2021-new-music-albums/

Alex Ross: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2021-in-review/notable-performances-and-recordings-of-2021

Concrete Islands! https://concreteislands.com/concrete-islands-albums-of-the-year-2021/

latest delightful find from list scavenging is yasmin williams

DJ Mag's top albums of 2021
https://djmag.com/longreads/dj-mags-top-albums-2021

DJ Mag's top tracks of 2021
https://djmag.com/longreads/dj-mags-top-tracks-2021

I've noticed it on a ton of lists and finally read some reviews, but will just say here: I don't understand why people are ape over this Weather Station record. It is really yawnsome.