We’re already a few weeks into 2022, but it’s not too late to discuss our favorite music from 2021. You can listen here.
Caleb’s Picks
1. Ignorance ~ Weather Station
For the second year in a row, my favorite album is by a Canadian whose previous work I had somehow overlooked. Ignorance is a collection of delicately arranged songs that make global struggles (climate change, capitalism) feel personal and personal struggles feel universal.
Highlights: “Atlantic,” “The Robber,” “Subdivisions”
Lyric:
“I should get all of this dying off of my mind
I should really know better than to read the headlines”
2. Open-Door Policy ~ The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady returned with their best album in over a decade. The characters have matured. They continue to seek but fail to find enlightenment, but instead blacking out during killer parties in Ybor City or getting dusted in the dark in Penetration Park, they’re now marooned from anti-psychosis meds, falling in the fountain, drowning in the Pacific, or limping home to Scranton.
Highlights: “Unpleasant Breakfast,” “Me & Magdalena,” “Lanyards”
Lyric:
“You just can’t keep throwing up
And then cover it with sawdust
And expect us not to notice
And pretend it didn’t happen”
3. Home Video ~ Lucy Dacus
Lucy Dacus’s third and best solo album is retrospective without being nostalgic. She recounts awkward liaisons, lousy poetry, bible camps, deadbeat fathers, dead-end relationships, and boys who will never be Marlon Brando.
Highlights: “VBS,” “Brando,” “Thumbs”
Lyric:
“Your poetry was so bad
It took a lot to not laugh
You say that I showed you the light
But all it did, in the end
Was make the dark feel darker than before”
4. The Ballad of Dood & Juanita ~ Sturgill Simpson
Sturgill has been breathing life into country music since 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. On this album, Sturgill channels Willie Nelson’s Redheaded Stranger to craft a concept album about a half-Shawnee born in Hardburly in ’29 who sets off on a mule with his hound and Martin Meylin rifle to hunt down the nogoodnik who kidnapped his Juanita. The frontier mythmaking is so thick you’ll taste the moonshine and smell the pine.
Highlights: “Ol Dood (Part 1)”, “Juanita,” “Go in Peace”
Lyric:
“Left the varnish off his words, feared no beast nor man
Didn't want to end up in his debt 'cause it'd damn sure get paid
He was harder than thе nails hammered Jesus' hands
Hе was the one they called Dood
Son of a mountain miner and a Shawnee maiden”
5. I Don’t Live Here Anymore ~ The War on Drugs
The War on Drugs continue to paint hurt, hope, love, loss, and nostalgia in abstract strokes that make their work instantly recognizable yet entirely their own.
Highlights: “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” “I Don’t Wanna Wait,” “Occasional Rain”
Lyric:
“Ain't the sky just shades of gray
Until you seen it from the other side?
Oh, if loving you's the same
It's only some occasional rain”
6. 30 ~ Adele
When I listen to Adele, I hear two different artists. There’s elevator Adele crooning the schmaltz that saturated most of 19 and 25. And then there’s the Adele that brings it in songs like “Rumor Has It,” “Rolling in the Deep,” and “Set Fire to the Rain.” The opening track on 30 made me worry I was in for another album of snoozers, but things pick up quickly beginning with “Easy on Me” and only get better from there. The stretch from “Easy on Me” through “All Night Parking” makes this my favorite Adele album, even if the songs near the end start to get sleepy again.
Highlights: “Oh My God,” “I Drink Wine,” “My Little Love”
Lyric:
“When I was a child, every single thing could blow my mind
Soaking it all up for fun, but now I only soak up wine”
7. The Horses and the Hounds ~ James McMurtry
McMurtry has never spared detail when describing the characters in his songs. As he’s aged, so have his characters and the details have become richer, more complicated, and more glorious.
Highlights: “Canola Fields,” “Jackie,” “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call”
Lyric:
“In a way-back corner of a cross-town bus
We were hiding out under my hat
Cashing in on a 30-year crush
You can’t be young and do that”
8. Chemtrails over the Country Club ~ Lana Del Rey
Lana continued her hot streak by releasing two stellar albums in 2021 (see #17 Blue Bannisters). Chemtrails lacks the consistency of her 2019 masterpiece NFR!, but “Waitress,” “Chemtrails Over the Country Club,” “Breaking Up Slowly” and “Dance Till We Die” stand with the best songs in her deep and delightful catalogue.
Highlights: “Waitress,” “Dance Till We Die,” “Breaking Up Slowly”
Lyric:
“I smoke cigarettes
Just to understand the smog”
9. Second Line ~ Dawn Richard
Dawn Richard melds R&B, funk, jazz, pop, hip hop, soul, EDM, NOLA, raunch, and Janelle Monae to create my favorite dance album of the year.
Highlights: “Boomerang,” “Bussifame,” “Mornin/Streetlights”
Lyric:
“Relax, enjoy the ride I’m giving you”
10. Jubilee ~ Japanese Breakfast
Jubilee blends the sound of 80s icons (Prince, Madonna) with contemporary indie idols (The XX, Mitski) to create an album that is so delicious I’m willing to overlook the gratuitous violins. “Be Sweet” is the “Blinding Lights” of 2021, but without being over-played.
Highlights: “Be Sweet,” “Slide Tackle,” “Posing in Bondage”
Lyric:
“I can feel the night passing by like a mistake waiting for me”
Honorable Mentions (loosely orderer)
11. Alpha ~ Charlotte Day Wilson
12. I Know I’m Funny, Ha Ha ~ Faye Webster
13. Wiki ~ Half God
14. A Billion Little Lights ~ Wild Pink
15. Screen Violence ~ Chvrches
16. Collapsed into Sunbeams ~ Arlo Parks
17. Blue Bannisters ~ Lana Del Rey
18. Gold-Diggers Sound ~ Leon Bridges
19. Call Me if You Get Lost ~ Tyler the Creator
20. Sometimes I Might ~ Little Simz
21. Stand for Myself ~ Yola
22. The Future ~ Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
23. A Southern Gothic ~ Adia Victoria
24. In Heaven ~ Strand of Oaks
25. Pressure Machine ~ The Killers
26. The Wilds ~ Andy Shauf
27. How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? ~ Big Red Machine
28. Happier Than Ever ~ Billie Eilish
29. Planet Her ~ Doja Cat
30. The Moon and Stars ~ Valerie June
31. An Overview on Phenomenal Nature ~ Cassandra Jenkins
32. Sour ~ Olivia Rodrigo
33. Things Take Time, Take Time ~ Courtney Barnett
34. Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night ~ Bleachers
35. You Get it All ~ Hayes Carll
36. A Beginner’s Mind ~ Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine
37. Valentine ~ Snail Mail
38. Twin Shadow ~ Twin Shadow
39. Dark in Here ~ The Mountain Goats
40. When You Found Me ~ Lucero
41. The Off Season ~ J. Cole
42. Little Oblivions ~ Julien Baker
43. Fatigue ~ L’Rain
44. In These Silent Days ~ Brandi Carlile
45. Thirstier ~ TORRES
46. if i could make it go quiet ~ girl in red
47. Good For You ~ Houndmouth
48. Solar Power ~ Lorde
49. Outside Child ~ Allison Russell
50. Reckless ~ Morgan Wade
Caleb’s favorite singles
1. “Chaise Lounge” ~ Wet Leg
2. “Certainty” ~ Big Thief
3. “Beautiful Life” ~ Michael Kiwanuka
4. “If You Say the Word” ~ Radiohead
5. “Bunny is a Rider” ~ Caroline Polachek
6. “Like I Used To” ~ Sharon Van Etter & Angel Olsen
7. “Whole Lotta Money” ~ BIA & Nicki Minaj
8. “The Walls Are Way Too Thin” ~ Holly Humberstone
9. “the angel of 8th ave” ~ Gang of Youths
10. “Bad Dream” ~ Cannons
Honorable mention: “Long Way” ~ Eddie Vedder
Adam’s Picks
Low - Hey What
Modest Mouse - The Golden Casket
Turnstile- Glow On
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Butterfly 3000
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites
Red Fang - Arrows
Halsey - If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten
The War on Drugs - I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Nate’s Picks
Billy Strings ~ Renewal
Bela Fleck ~ My Bluegrass Heart
John’s picks
Once again, John didn’t report any favorite music for 2021, so I’m going to guess that he would have picked “Butter” (BTS), “Up” (Cardi B), and “Leave Before You Love Me” (Jonas Brothers featuring Marshmellow).