Best albums of 2021

i'm seeing some best-of-the-year lists starting to appear, so… whacha got?

This is my favorite annual thread where the hipsters post albums and groups no one ever heard.

I think I only have two albums on my list

jeffml wrote:
This is my favorite annual thread where the hipsters post albums and groups no one ever heard.

kilsallys 40 item list of bands no one has heard of are a thing of the past

My favs for 2021
Julien Baker - 'Little Oblivions'
Goat Girl - On all fours
Arlo Parks - Collapsed in sunbeams

honorable mention to
Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz
Lucy Dacus - Home Video

End of year lists seem to be

Ranking of already popular albums i.e Adele, Olivia, Billie, etc which are meaningless to me

The already mentioned hipster lists or the best of bandcamp which my eyes glaze over

I will sometimes seek out a genre best of for ideas on stuff I missed like Power Pop

As much as I hate making lists, I have one started and will type it up soonish

kosmo wrote:
Ranking of already popular albums i.e Adele, Olivia, Billie, etc which are meaningless to me

add LDR and Lorde to that list too
I of the 5, I think Olivia's was the best, but that is not saying much

For a hot sec was liking lorde and there are some decent cuts on the two LDR releases, but over all both did not meet the hype

Will ABBA make any of these popular album lists…just because

Brown-hatch wrote:

kosmo wrote:
Ranking of already popular albums i.e Adele, Olivia, Billie, etc which are meaningless to me

add LDR and Lorde to that list too
I of the 5, I think Olivia's was the best, but that is not saying much

For a hot sec was liking lorde and there are some decent cuts on the two LDR releases, but over all both did not meet the hype

jeffml wrote:
Will ABBA make any of these popular album lists…just because

Brown-hatch wrote:

kosmo wrote:
Ranking of already popular albums i.e Adele, Olivia, Billie, etc which are meaningless to me

add LDR and Lorde to that list too
I of the 5, I think Olivia's was the best, but that is not saying much

For a hot sec was liking lorde and there are some decent cuts on the two LDR releases, but over all both did not meet the hype

how could I forget that.  I'm sure Koz and Starsky will have them in there best of list

Here the albums I enjoyed the most this year, lots of Twitter Listening Party discoveries, etc on this list.  No particular order and there are a few others that could be added as well

Black Honey - Written And Directed
Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods
PM Watson - True Story
LoneLady - Former Things
The Lathums - How Beautiful Life Can Be
The Coral - Coral Island
Kurupt FM -  Greatest Hits Part 1
Muzi - Interblaktic
The Velveteers - Nightmare Dreams
Yola - Stand For Myself
Curtis Harding - If Words We’re Flowers
Vistas - What Where You Hoping To Find?
The City Champs - Luna ‘68
Andy Bopp - AB
Aaron Fraser \ Durand Jones and the Indications - Introducing \ Private Spaces
Miscellan - Blue Ruin
Soda Blonde - Small Talk
Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost - Afters (Fantastic album but Mark Morriss was enlisted to sing on it, so a bit cringey now)

Looking forward to hear more from Brooke Coombe and Gabriels in 2022

See post #2 in this thread

kosmo wrote:
Here the albums I enjoyed the most this year, lots of Twitter Listening Party discoveries, etc on this list.  No particular order and there are a few others that could be added as well

Black Honey - Written And Directed
Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods
PM Watson - True Story
LoneLady - Former Things
The Lathums - How Beautiful Life Can Be
The Coral - Coral Island
Kurupt FM -  Greatest Hits Part 1
Muzi - Interblaktic
The Velveteers - Nightmare Dreams
Yola - Stand For Myself
Curtis Harding - If Words We’re Flowers
Vistas - What Where You Hoping To Find?
The City Champs - Luna ‘68
Andy Bopp - AB
Aaron Fraser \ Durand Jones and the Indications - Introducing \ Private Spaces
Miscellan - Blue Ruin
Soda Blonde - Small Talk
Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost - Afters (Fantastic album but Mark Morriss was enlisted to sing on it, so a bit cringey now)

Looking forward to hear more from Brooke Coombe and Gabriels in 2022

jeffml wrote:
See post #2 in this thread

kosmo wrote:
Here the albums I enjoyed the most this year, lots of Twitter Listening Party discoveries, etc on this list.  No particular order and there are a few others that could be added as well

Black Honey - Written And Directed
Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods
PM Watson - True Story
LoneLady - Former Things
The Lathums - How Beautiful Life Can Be
The Coral - Coral Island
Kurupt FM -  Greatest Hits Part 1
Muzi - Interblaktic
The Velveteers - Nightmare Dreams
Yola - Stand For Myself
Curtis Harding - If Words We’re Flowers
Vistas - What Where You Hoping To Find?
The City Champs - Luna ‘68
Andy Bopp - AB
Aaron Fraser \ Durand Jones and the Indications - Introducing \ Private Spaces
Miscellan - Blue Ruin
Soda Blonde - Small Talk
Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost - Afters (Fantastic album but Mark Morriss was enlisted to sing on it, so a bit cringey now)

Looking forward to hear more from Brooke Coombe and Gabriels in 2022

Does it make you proud that you haven't heard of so much good music?

Oh wow! We made the list!!

kosmo wrote:
Here the albums I enjoyed the most this year, lots of Twitter Listening Party discoveries, etc on this list.  No particular order and there are a few others that could be added as well

Black Honey - Written And Directed
Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods
PM Watson - True Story
LoneLady - Former Things
The Lathums - How Beautiful Life Can Be
The Coral - Coral Island
Kurupt FM -  Greatest Hits Part 1
Muzi - Interblaktic
The Velveteers - Nightmare Dreams
Yola - Stand For Myself
Curtis Harding - If Words We’re Flowers
Vistas - What Where You Hoping To Find?
The City Champs - Luna ‘68
Andy Bopp - AB
Aaron Fraser \ Durand Jones and the Indications - Introducing \ Private Spaces
Miscellan - Blue Ruin
Soda Blonde - Small Talk
Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost - Afters (Fantastic album but Mark Morriss was enlisted to sing on it, so a bit cringey now)

Looking forward to hear more from Brooke Coombe and Gabriels in 2022

The order cound change, but here's mine:

1. Aaron Frazer-Introducing
2. St. Vincent-Daddy's Home
3. Sierra Ferrell-Long Time Coming
4. Little Simz-Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
5. Liam Kazar-Due North
6. Heartless Bastards-A Beautiful Life
7. Dinosaur Jr.-Sweep It Into Space
8. Arlo Parks- Collapsed in Sunbeams
9. Hiatus Kaiyote-Mood Valiant
10. Wolf Alice- Blue Weekend
11. Nightmare on Wax- Shout Out to Freedom
12. My Morning Jacket-seff-titled
13. Japanese Breakfast-Jubilee
14. Lord Huron- Long Lost
15. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future
16. Faye Webster- I Know I'm Funny HaHa
17. Helado Negro-Far In
18. Cleo Sol-Mother
19. Bonny Light Horseman-Self Titled
20 (tie) Leon Bridges- Gold Diggers Sound
20 (tie) Curtis Harding- If Words Were Flowers
20 (tie) Durand Jones and the Indications-Private Space

Space wrote:
5. Liam Kazar-Due North

forgot about this one…top ten 2021 for me

Not saying I agree or disagree with Space's list, but at least his list has some bands that most people can recognize.  Not faulting Kosmo's list either, as he has some pretty good taste in music and I enjoy his Spotify playlists, but I find it hard to believe that his list wouldn't include more than one or two better known, somewhat mainstream bands…maybe not mainstream, but fairly recognizable names.

Space wrote:
The order cound change, but here's mine:

1. Aaron Frazer-Introducing
2. St. Vincent-Daddy's Home
3. Sierra Ferrell-Long Time Coming
4. Little Simz-Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
5. Liam Kazar-Due North
6. Heartless Bastards-A Beautiful Life
7. Dinosaur Jr.-Sweep It Into Space
8. Arlo Parks- Collapsed in Sunbeams
9. Hiatus Kaiyote-Mood Valiant
10. Wolf Alice- Blue Weekend
11. Nightmare on Wax- Shout Out to Freedom
12. My Morning Jacket-seff-titled
13. Japanese Breakfast-Jubilee
14. Lord Huron- Long Lost
15. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future
16. Faye Webster- I Know I'm Funny HaHa
17. Helado Negro-Far In
18. Cleo Sol-Mother
19. Bonny Light Horseman-Self Titled
20 (tie) Leon Bridges- Gold Diggers Sound
20 (tie) Curtis Harding- If Words Were Flowers
20 (tie) Durand Jones and the Indications-Private Space

Space wrote:
The order cound change, but here's mine:

1. Aaron Frazer-Introducing
2. St. Vincent-Daddy's Home
3. Sierra Ferrell-Long Time Coming
4. Little Simz-Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
5. Liam Kazar-Due North
6. Heartless Bastards-A Beautiful Life
7. Dinosaur Jr.-Sweep It Into Space
8. Arlo Parks- Collapsed in Sunbeams
9. Hiatus Kaiyote-Mood Valiant
10. Wolf Alice- Blue Weekend
11. Nightmare on Wax- Shout Out to Freedom
12. My Morning Jacket-seff-titled
13. Japanese Breakfast-Jubilee
14. Lord Huron- Long Lost
15. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future
16. Faye Webster- I Know I'm Funny HaHa
17. Helado Negro-Far In
18. Cleo Sol-Mother
19. Bonny Light Horseman-Self Titled
20 (tie) Leon Bridges- Gold Diggers Sound
20 (tie) Curtis Harding- If Words Were Flowers
20 (tie) Durand Jones and the Indications-Private Space

I need to get the Nightmares on Wax

jeffml wrote: I find it hard to believe that his list wouldn't include more than one or two better known, somewhat mainstream bands…maybe not mainstream, but fairly recognizable names.

Space wrote:
The order cound change, but here's mine:

2. St. Vincent-Daddy's Home
7. Dinosaur Jr.-Sweep It Into Space
8. Arlo Parks- Collapsed in Sunbeams
12. My Morning Jacket-seff-titled
14. Lord Huron- Long Lost
20 (tie) Leon Bridges- Gold Diggers Sound

Tell me you have heard of these people, if not I don't know why you hang on a music board that is geared to the more obscure artists to begin with
not like this is Jiffy Lube forum, it's a 9:30 club forum

To be fair most of my list are mainstream in the UK, hence why most of list are alumni from Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties.

The most “obscure” entry on that list is Andy Bopp who is a long standing power pop songwriter from Baltimore.

Most of list was bought via Bandcamp

https://bandcamp.com/kosmowren

Space wrote:
20 (tie) Leon Bridges- Gold Diggers Sound
20 (tie) Curtis Harding- If Words Were Flowers
20 (tie) Durand Jones and the Indications-Private Space

way to sneak two extra entries into your top-20 list.

jeffml wrote:
Not saying I agree or disagree with Space's list, but at least his list has some bands that most people can recognize.  Not faulting Kosmo's list either, as he has some pretty good taste in music and I enjoy his Spotify playlists, but I find it hard to believe that his list wouldn't include more than one or two better known, somewhat mainstream bands…maybe not mainstream, but fairly recognizable names.

Space wrote:
The order cound change, but here's mine:

1. Aaron Frazer-Introducing
2. St. Vincent-Daddy's Home
3. Sierra Ferrell-Long Time Coming
4. Little Simz-Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
5. Liam Kazar-Due North
6. Heartless Bastards-A Beautiful Life
7. Dinosaur Jr.-Sweep It Into Space
8. Arlo Parks- Collapsed in Sunbeams
9. Hiatus Kaiyote-Mood Valiant
10. Wolf Alice- Blue Weekend
11. Nightmare on Wax- Shout Out to Freedom
12. My Morning Jacket-seff-titled
13. Japanese Breakfast-Jubilee
14. Lord Huron- Long Lost
15. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future
16. Faye Webster- I Know I'm Funny HaHa
17. Helado Negro-Far In
18. Cleo Sol-Mother
19. Bonny Light Horseman-Self Titled
20 (tie) Leon Bridges- Gold Diggers Sound
20 (tie) Curtis Harding- If Words Were Flowers
20 (tie) Durand Jones and the Indications-Private Space

I'd bet Kosmo digs a bit deeper into music than I do, hence his list would on the whole have more obscure artists.

I appreciate lists like Kosmo's, where I don't know the majority of the music. They give me a good starting point to exploring stuff I don't know. And there's probably a half dozen things on his list that I do know that give me a touchpoint for what the other stuff might be like.

The same goes for the NPR and Pitchfork lists I've seen. I don't know a majority of the music on the lists, but they give me a good starting point on exposure to new stuff. Of course, those two lists are probably more all over the map than Kosmo's, because they're probably compiled by a staff rather than one guy.