Article29th December, 2021 / music
2021 in music
I can’t recall a year quite like this one; month after month of superb new music made even more overwhelming as my taste expanded deeper into modern jazz and more nuanced electronic genres.
This is my 18th annual roundup, and as ever, I put the work in, updating my draft list almost daily. It proved nearly impossible to refine the final list, so I’ve made changes. I usually feature 25 albums and follow that with a list of notables, but I’ve decided to formerly list an additional 25 albums this year. Anyway, it’s a vast roundup, so let’s get stuck in.
To listen while you read, play my 2021 Top Fifty Tracks on Apple or Spotify.
Albums EPs Tracks Covers Live, reissues, comps Shows Film & TV Notes Playlists
Top albums
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Promises
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, LSO
My undisputed no.1 since March, nothing moved me like Promises. The warmth of Sanders’ meandering sax and the sense of renewal in that metronomic seven-note motif. It feels like this music was always there, waiting. Comforting, spacious, generous and occasionally thrilling. This is an album not to be written off after a few minutes or rushed in any way. It’s a work of art to take with you always.
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Space 1.8
Nala Sinephro
I immediately fell in love with this electro space jazz masterpiece from the Belgian-born, London-based harpist. I ordered a copy; then Pitchfork reviewed it, Rough Trade failed to fulfil my order, it sold out everywhere, and I missed out on the first pressing. Anyway, Sinephro orchestrates a talented pool of musicians, and together they offer a transfixing, emotional, healing experience. Near equal to Promises in ambition and intimacy.
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Vulture Prince
Arooj Aftab
I loved this album from the Brooklyn-based Pakistani composer on first listen. Sparse but intricate, with elements of jazz, classical, even reggae, it serves as a tribute to her brother. Singing mainly in Urdu, Aftab’s sorrowful vocal weaves everything together, with lyrics drawing wisdom and comfort from traditional poetry. Forged in shadow but leaning into the light, it’s magical.
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Honest Labour
Space Afrika
Tried it, didn’t hear anything worthwhile, gave up. Tried again, heard everything, was captivated. The Manchester duo’s rich collage is a textured slow-burn that owes much to Musique concrète and the experimental ambience of Burial. I like it because it helps me understand the kind of music I want to make and because it’s a brilliant meditation on life and love, a field recording of our times.
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Isles
Bicep
Club music for home listening and the closest I got to a good night out during lockdown. There’s something joyously throwback about Bicep’s warm electronic melodies; I hear 90s crossover stuff like Leftfield or Orbital and an appreciation for Future Sound of London’s magnificent Papua New Guinea. I played this every Friday night and never tire of it because it’s so accomplished.
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Jubilee
Japanese Breakfast
A big year for Michelle Zauner, she also became a bestselling author with her memoir, Crying in H Mart. Her third album grew more comforting with every listen, and we played it all Summer. The guidance of Wild Nothing’s Jack Tatum is evident throughout, especially on the monster pop song Be Sweet, but Zauner deserves all the credit. Extra points for Kokomo, IN, which has all the melodic swoon of Camera Obscura.
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Infinite Granite
Deafheaven
I have no listening history with this band; not sure I’d even heard of them, but I played this to death. Their fifth album boldly rejects the blackgaze and screaming vocals they’d been known for favouring the powerful, melodic shoegaze teased on the previous album. It’s still hard-edged, but the tone is hopeful. This is music made on their terms, and to the benefit of a new audience and I, for one, am grateful.
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Lucid Express
Lucid Express
My nostalgia nodes loved anything shoegaze and dream pop this year, and some of the best new stuff came from the East. Nothing beat this album from “five young dreamers creating an airy blend of shoegaze and indie pop amongst the skyscrapers, mountains, and packed alleyways of Hong Kong.” Best of all was single Wellwave, a studied tribute to early 90s melodic guitar-haze indie.
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Talk Memory
BADBADNOTGOOD
A rich work of modern jazz that reveals more compositional care with every listen. I particularly love Unfolding (Momentum 73) with its interplay between Laraaji’s bubbling zither and Leland Whitty’s breathy sax (the latter as pleasing to my ear as Sanders’ improvised textures on Promises). It’s a beautifully presented album, and my copy also included a set of Memory Catalogue poster zines.
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Planet (I)
Squirrel Flower
Ella Williams’s second album hooked me on first listen, and I spent a lot of time in its company. Vivid lyrics tackle everything from imposter syndrome to firestorms and floods, and there’s a real sense of movement and place. Musically, it’s so intimate, and the songwriting is incredible, so I cannot understand why it’s missing from almost every end of the year list.
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Tread
Ross from Friends
Intricate but effortless, the depth of this album from producer Felix Clary Weatherall struck me. Tracks like The Daisy and Run are thrilling and danceable, but ambient moments like Morning Sun In A Dusty Room give moments for pause. It’s a mature, intelligent electronic work made with a serendipitous process (check out his intriguing Thresho plugin).
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Nafs at Peace
Jaubi
Seven Hindustani classical-inspired freeform jazz tracks about faith, spirituality, and the self. Born from two unstructured Lahore recording sessions, there’s a looseness to the playing and sense of collaged ideas that results in irresistible hooks and grooves. I bought this in May, and I guess the pressing plants pushed it to the back of the queue because I’m still waiting for my copy.
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SHILOH: Lost For Words
John Glacier
I’m not sure what I love most about this short album from the London rapper, but it made a big impression on me. Maybe it’s her (yes, John is a woman) laconic delivery, or her honesty, or that the nocturnal London she inhabits and reports from feels so tangible. The production from Vegyn is focused and direct, and the whole thing feels genuine.
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I Don’t Live Here Anymore
The War On Drugs
Comforting and familiar, like a hot chocolate sent from the 80s. I resisted their safe sound for ages, even criticised it, but last year’s Live Drugs arrived like a soothing balm during lockdown, and now I’ve caved in completely. I mean, this is quality tunesmithery and life’s too short to resist. And besides, a little soothing AOR helps make all the new glitchy, modern, edgy music seem thrilling.
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HEY WHAT
Low
Double Negative was my number one album in 2018 and this thrusts us back into that sonic world with its intoxicating production and dense layers while making the lyrics and melodies a little more accessible. It’s a superb album that sounds exactly like the times we live in but feels like a dilution of the ambitious work of art it follows.
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Colourgrade
Tirzah
Something is captivating about this album, how it seems to hang in the balance like it could accelerate or collapse at any moment. Melodies come and go, and Tirzah seems unafraid to allow larger expanses of space between songs. Like much that I loved this year, it’s the work of an artist who isn’t trying to impress anyone, and it’s all the better for it.
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Afrique Victime
Mdou Moctar
A thrilling album of Tuareg blues rock from the talented Nigerien guitarist whose music first spread across Africa between old Nokia phones. There are gentle moments, but it’s best when the band go full throttle. The seven-minute title track is particularly stunning and full of extraordinary sounds that don’t derail the focus on the ongoing exploitation of Africa.
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Spare Ribs
Sleaford Mods
Probably the Nottingham duo’s best album. Sharpened lyrics seek and destroy, targeting inequality, corruption and the Brexit shambles. Guest spots from Amy Taylor and the brilliant Billy Nomates are highlights. Sleaford Mods is an outlet for frustration, a release valve, and I’m grateful for such deeply political, cathartic music that articulates the sorry state of Tory Britain.
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The Clearing
JJJJJerome Ellis
I was moved by this project from an “other-abled” musician unafraid to investigate his stutter on record. More essay than album, it grabs your attention with periods of total silence, or “clearings”, as Ellis describes the gaps in his speech. It’s also a powerfully poetic reflection on Blackness and resistance.
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Kofū II / 古風
Meitei / 冥丁
Meitei is an artist challenging the modern notion of Japanese sounds. Following his trilogy that began with Komachi and ended with Kofu, he released this additional record to further his unique “satire of Japanese aesthetics”. This is a transportive ambient sound collage giving ghosts from the past a fresh voice. Bonus points for the exquisite packaging.
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Unity
The KVB
I have a thing for songs about cities and buildings. Talking Heads, The Cure, Simple Minds, The Manics, Drahla and many more have offered strange images of cold urban spaces and formulaic patterns for living. The title track, informed by Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation, does exactly this, describing a dystopian cityscape of concrete and steel. A cracking bit of coldwave.
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Half Mirror
Chorusing
Matthew O’Connell made his hypnotic, laid-back debut in the mountains of North Carolina using a vintage tape delay, electric guitar, and a self-designed synthesizer named ‘Balsam’. The predominantly folky vibe is punctuated by occasional electronic sequences, widening the space into which the music flows. Minimal and beautiful, Chorusing reminds me of the later Talk Talk albums.
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Patina
Peter Gregson
This gorgeous, ambitious album from the accomplished cellist explores a sense of place and empty spaces where melodies are allowed to come and go, unforced, allowing an audible patina to grow over repeated listens. Gregson used 4k surround sound tech to compose in three-dimensional space. I love the recurring motif on the title track and the undulating electronic pulse on Sequence (Seven).
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New Long Leg
Dry Cleaning
Darlings of the indie press, but initially, I couldn’t get past the spoken vocal, which reminded me of the kind of self-centred person that dries a room out; all that “Her hippowww” business. Ugh. Revisiting later, I realised that’s the point: these are the poetic observations of a character exposed to life and how we live it today. I saw them live in November (supporting Sleaford Mods), and they were bang on.
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Agor
Koreless
Welsh producer Lewis Roberts’ first album, arriving ten years after his debut single. Like many faves this year, there’s a sense of collection and collage, enhanced here by his reliance on cut-up and choppy edits. Roberts gathers and connects a decade of ideas to form intimate moments and big climaxes that say more about mood and feeling than the dancefloor.
And here are albums 26-50. I wanted to write about these too, but it’s too exhausting.
- Eris Drew, Quivering in Time
- Loraine James, Reflection
- Alfa Mist, Bring Backs
- Grouper, Shade
- Joy Orbison, still slipping vol.1
- Elori Saxl, The Blue of Distance
- Carmen Villain, Sketch for Winter IX: Perlita
- The Antlers, Green To Gold
- Yann Tierson, Kerber
- Damon Albarn, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows
- Arushi Jain, Under The Lilac Sky
- G.S. Schray, The Changing Account
- LI YILEI, 之 / OF
- Parannoul, To See the Next Part of the Dream
- Anna Phoebe, Sea Souls
- Place:, KMRU & Air Texture, Place: Nairobi
- Little Simz, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
- Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, CARNAGE
- Arca, KICK ii, KicK iii, kick iiii, kiCK iiiii (approx 20 ace tracks across the series)
- Cassandra Jenkins, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
- Hana Vu, Public Storage
- aya, im hole
- Satomimagae, Hanazono
- Sons Of Kemet, Black To The Future
- Gruff Rhys, Seeing New Gods
Top EPs and mini albums
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Rain’s Break EP
Lucy Gooch
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Untitled (To Describe You)
Space Afrika
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to hell with it
PinkPantheress
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The Sky Is Bleeding
Biig Piig
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Emergency Telephone
Billy Nomates
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Once Twice Melody
Beach House
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Silk For The Starving
The Lounge Society
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Luminol
Midwife
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Colloid EP
Satomimagae
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Son
Rosie Lowe & Duval Timothy
Other notable albums ands EPs
Skullcrusher, Storm In Summer; Tasha, Tell Me What You Miss The Most; Model Man, Model Man; Vanishing Twin, Ookii Gekkou; Bendik Giske, Cracks; Shubh Saran, Inglish; Portico Quartet, Terrain & Monument; Lonely Guest & Tricky, Lonely Guest; Jónsi, Obsidian; Snail Mail, Valentine; Saint Etienne, I’ve Been Trying To Tell You; Deep Water, Friends; Skirts, Great Big Wild Oak; Fatima Al Qadiri, MEDIEVAL FEMME; Ballaké Sissoko, Djourou; Yu Su, Yellow River Blue; Social Haul, Social Haul; Soshi Takeda, Floating Mountains; Hiroshi Ebina, If There's Any Tinge of This World; White Flowers, Day By Day; Park Hye Jin, Before I Die; Ishmael Ensemble, Visions of Light; Flock of Dimes, Head of Roses; LoneLady, Former Things; Leon Vynehall, Rare, Forever; KMRU, Logue; Daniel Avery, Together in Static; Howie Lee, Birdy Island; SAULT, Nine; Allred & Broderick, What The Fog; Jane Weaver, Flock; The Weather Station, Ignorance; Julien Baker, Little Oblivions; Morimoto Naoki, sui; Whispering Sons, Several Others; AVAWAVES, Anna Phoebe and Aisling Brouwer, Chrysalis; For Those I Love, For Those I Love; Orla Gartland, Woman on the Internet — and so many more!
Top tracks
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Movement 7
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, LSO
I’m not sure I should single out one track, though I think this is a highlight. But please, listen to the whole thing.
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Unfolding (Momentum 73)
BADBADNOTGOOD
I love the interplay between Laraaji’s bubbling zither and Leland Whitty’s breathy sax, and how the two patterns merge at the end.
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Beautiful World
Parannoul
The undisputed highlight of the album, wasting no time smacking you around the chops with huge melodic, nostalgic drums and guitars. Wow!
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Wellwave
Lucid Express
I love everything about Wellwave. It’s a perfectly executed homage to early 90s shoegaze with an addictive outro. Bonus points for the extremely 90s video!
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Hard Drive
Cassandra Jenkins
I wish the rest of the album grabbed me as much as this soothing track, which Jenkins describes as “part travel diary and part spiritual character study”.
- Japanese Breakfast, Be Sweet
- Big Piig, Feels Right
- Platonica Erotica, King of New York
- Squirrel Flower, I’ll Go Running
- Julien Baker, Hardline
- Wu-Lu and Lex Amor, South
- Hamish Hawk, Caterpillar
- Arooj Aftab, Baghon Main
- Wolf Alice, How Can I Make It OK?
- Space Afrika, Honest Labour
- Nala Sinephro, Space 3
- Mitski, The Only Heartbreaker
- CHVRCHES & Robert Smith, How Not To Drown
- Beach House, Superstar
- Deafheaven, Great Mass of Color
- Remember Sports, Out Loud
- John Glacier, If Anything
- Bicep, Sundial
- Tasha, Bed Song 1
- The War on Drugs, I Don’t Live Here Anymore
- Skirts, Always
- Mdou Moctar, Tala Tannam
- Yu Su, Xiu
- Sam Fender, Seventeen Going Under
- Talmont, IDATMT
- The Antlers, Green To Gold
- Carmen Villain, Agua Azul
- Sleaford Mods, Nudge It
- The KVB, Unité
- Gus Gus, Stay The Ride - Natty Dub - Big Veira
- CASISDEAD & La Roux, Park Assist
- Empress Of, One Breath
- Damon Albarn, Esja
- G.S. Schray, Dome That Was Nothing
- PinkPantheress, Break It Off
- Lightning Bug, The Right Thing Is Hard To Do
- Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen, Like I Used To
- Lucy Gooch, Rain’s Break
- Peter Gregson, Patina
- beabadoobee, Last Day On Earth
- Yuragi, Underneath It All
- Billy Nomates, Heels
- Metronomy x Biig Piig, 405
- Anna Phoebe, Undercurrent
- Ross From Friends, Morning Sun in a Dusty Room
Covers
- SOHN, Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley, This Mortal Coil)
- Big Red Machine, A Crime (Sharon Van Etten)
- Idles, Peace Sign (Sharon Van Etten)
- Rina Sawayama, Enter Sandman (Metallica)
- Fiona Apple, Love More (Sharon Van Etten)
- Grandaddy, The Fox in the Snow (Belle & Sebastian)
- Julia Jacklin & RVG, Army Of Me (Bjork)
- Resynator, Matt Berninger, Ronboy, Only A Broken Heart (Tom Petty, from the Resynator documentary)
- Quivers, Near Wild Heaven, Celestial North, Nightswimming, The Darling Buds, Low, Desperate Journalist, Finest Worksong — all from A Carnival of Sorts: An R.E.M. covers compilation
- Cat Power, Bad Religion (Frank Ocean)
Live, reissues, compilations, soundtracks
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KID A MNESIA
Radiohead
The conjoining of Kid A and Amnesiac offered a welcome dump of multimedia material looking back at Radiohead’s make-or-break period.
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Come Down Dawn
The KLF
At last, the greatest chill-out album arrives on streaming platforms, albeit without those ghostly Elvis samples (try YouTube).
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First
Kohsuke Mine
Absolutely stunning modern jazz debut that swept Japan in the late 60s and early 70s, in a gloriously presented reissue.
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Gradients
Various artists
Ambient tracks from around the world, presented by Inner Ocean Records & Drift in partnership with Tokyo’s Waltz Tape Store.
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This Is Tehran
Various artists
Exposing Tehran’s creative energy with contemporary classical, experimental electronica, trip-hop and jazz.
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Let It Be (Super Deluxe)
The Beatles
It wasn’t all miserable. Listen again after watching Get Back and feel some of the fun the band shared in the studio. An audibly fresh remaster.
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Education Entertainment Recreation (Live at Alexandra Palace)
New Order
We attended this gig, so it’s lovely to have a full record of an excellent show.
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A Very Lonely Solstice
Fleet Foxes
Just Robin Pecknold and, on a few tracks, the Resistance Revival Chorus, recorded at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn.
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Collected Pieces II
Mary Lattimore
I loved Silver Ladders, so it’s a treat to have this collection of new and unreleased material from the amazing harpist.
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Rings Around The World (20th Anniversary Edition)
Super Furry Animals
One of my very favourite bands, and the digital version of this release goes deep into their greatest album.
Other notable Live, reissues, compilations, soundtracks
- The Specials, Ghost Town, 2021 40th anniversary remaster
- Nubya Garcia, SOURCE ⧺ WE MOVE (notably Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be (Nala Sinephro Remix)
- Various, J Jazz Volume 3: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan
- Les Filles de Illighadad, At Pioneer Works
- Squarepusher, Feed Me Weird Things
- Seefeel, Rupt and Flex (1994-96)
- My Bloody Valentine (catalogue streaming and reissues)
- Arcade Fire & Owen Pallett, Her (Original Score)
- Various artists, Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980-1988
- R.E.M., New Adventures In Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Primal Scream, The Screamadelica 12” Singles
- Nilüfer Yanya, Inside Out
- Lyra Pramuk, Delta
- Kelly Lee Owens, Inner Song Remix Series
- This Is The Kit, Off Off Oddities
Shows
Our first show of any kind since it all began was supposed to be Arooj Aftab at Kings Place, but that was cancelled at the last minute. So, our only show was local faves Sleaford Mods at Nottingham arena, supported by the excellent Dry Cleaning and Billy Nomates.
Music film, TV & games
The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+) made me fall in love with the band and their story all over again — here's my big review. I also loved Summer of Soul (Disney+), with even more footage unseen for 50 years. Where is this basement where all this great stuff lies hidden for 50 years? What else is in there?
Also explaining history through music and culture, 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (Apple) is a great series. Oh, and McCartney 3,2,1 (Disney+) is a brilliantly intimate look at his music. I also really, really enjoyed the Kid A Mnesia game.
Notes
As ever, there was plenty I was supposed to like but didn’t, and I’ll mention a few to offset any “hey, you forgot [x]” replies.
Unlike the indie press, I didn’t fall for the varying degrees of edgy “post-punk” assembled by Black Country, New Road, Black Midi, Squid, Shame, etc. There are moments when magic happens, but most of it seems awkward for the sake of it, and the vocals are grating. Dry Cleaning is the only group from this wave to (eventually) win me over, thanks to the witty doom-scroll poetry and cracking guitars.
As usual, there are popular albums that I tried hard to like but eventually gave up on. I love the first Big Red Machine album, but the second is an underwhelming broth spoiled by too many cooks (that’s a naff line, but it’s fair). Sault’s previous albums are stunning, but Nine seemed much weaker, with only a couple of solid tracks. I’m aware that The Weather Station album is conceptually interesting, but the music drifted past me, and I didn’t understand the acclaim. Faye Webster’s album seemed to fizzle out after the first couple of songs. I’ve liked Jane Weaver for a while, but Flock didn’t get me. I love the first Snail Mail album but didn’t love Valentine.
I tried my best with three critics’ faves: I thought the Wolf Alice album was too patchy and disjointed (although How Can I Make It OK? is an incredible song). I usually like Little Simz but found this lauded album frustrating despite several stunning tracks (most notably, I despised Emma Corrin’s plummy spoken-word interludes). And I struggled with Nick & Warren’s lockdown album, Carnage (I adored the last three Seeds albums, and Ghosteen was my no.1 in 2019, but I didn’t warm to this).
Playlists and previous
So, that was 2021 in music. Need a playlist? NP. You can wade through my vast and unedited 2021 Faves playlist (approx 445 songs, 38 hours; Apple, Spotify), or go for the more focused 2021 Top Fifty (almost 4 hours; Apple, Spotify) mirroring my top fifty list.
And don’t forget to follow Colly’s Music Weekly on Apple or Spotify for a weekly hour of new releases throughout the year.
Check out all my yearlies or go directly to 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, or 2004.