It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

December 10, 2021 5:39 AM

NME's 50 best albums of 2021.

No Wet Leg, alas, perhaps because they haven't put out an album yet?

posted by signal (21 comments total)

Oh, lovely.
posted by Gadarene at 6:14 AM on December 10, 2021

I got around to the new Chvrches record this week. Very good.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:46 AM on December 10, 2021

So I haven't listened to most of these albums but of the ones I have Crawler by Idles was easily better than the Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Halsey and War on Drugs albums. Those were all forgettable on the first lesson and didn't get better with repeated listens. I hadn't even heard of them before, MTT 420 RR played on a stream I was listening to and I had to hear the whole album after that and I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop since. I sought those other albums out, so I was more primed to like them, but very little stood out. I may have liked the Halsey album more if the vocals sounded realer but I guess I won't know until they put out a live album.

Chaise Longue is easily the best song of the year though.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:46 AM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Heard of some of the artists, have listened to precisely none of these records, might (at least Billie Eilish, because it's kind of inevitable). Speaking of Wet Leg, they have a record coming out this April, and speaking of artists who I wish would put out a proper album, WARGASM, who seem to have enough released songs for a record, but don't seem to have any plans to assemble them into an album.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:59 AM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think my favorite of the year was Little Oblivions by Julien Baker which doesn't show up here. I even ventured into a club to see her in September.
posted by octothorpe at 7:06 AM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

just chiming in with more Wet Leg hype.. and I'd never have heard of them if not for rorgy (previously).
posted by elkevelvet at 7:08 AM on December 10, 2021

I happened to be looking at Pitchfork's list as well. It was interesting to see the lack of overlap between their list and NME. I believe these are the only ones to appear on both:

Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Snail Mail - Valentine
The War on Drugs - I Dont Live Here Anymore
Turnstile - Glow On
Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost
posted by gwint at 7:27 AM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

It is the most wonderful time of the year! I love to go back and relisten to a lot of the albums that were released in a particular calendar year. This year, I had apparently listened to something north of 110 albums with a 2021 release date and yet...

...it was only on the third spin that the uplifting synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay [YouTube 1 2 3, Bandcamp] fully clicked for me (and is now one of my favorite records of this year) or that I finally consciously listened to Cassandra Jenkins' great, poetic An Overview on Phenomenal Nature [Youtube 1, Bandcamp].

From the NME list, Little Simz is essential listen (it is beyond me how she topped her previous album AGAIN), the new Snail Mail album is great too, Genesis Owusu is one of the greatest and most pleasant surprises of the year for me, and Remi Wolf will recapture a carefree summer mood for you, now that it's dark and cold out.

I will definitely check out some of the other records from this list, thank you for posting.
posted by bigendian at 7:34 AM on December 10, 2021

Wet Leg's album is coming out in April.

I absolutely love Seventeen Going Under and am thrilled to see Sam Fender getting the accolades he deserves. He doesn't get much attention outside of the UK, which is a shame (and puzzling - his voice is absolutely beautiful and who doesn't like thrilling rock anthems with snazzy sax solos?). Wolf Alice are also not as popular as they should be (imo) across the Atlantic. Sam just released an acoustic version of SGO's title track with Holly Humberstone. I can see her blowing up next year. She's an excellent singer/songwriter, just won the Brit Award's Rising Star Prize and is going on tour with Olivia Rodrigo next year.

I also really liked Lil Simz, Sault, War on Drugs, Idles, Dry Cleaning, and Clairo's albums this year. I have to check out some of the others that made the NME list. I've been sleeping on Bleachers and Black Country, New Road in particular. I keep trying to get into Snail Mail and failing; maybe she'll click for me eventually.
posted by Stoof at 8:28 AM on December 10, 2021

I've heard the Sault, Killers, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Wolf Alice albums, and out of those I'd put put the Killers second and Eilish fifth (good album, but not as good as her first), but they're all among my best of the year - and that's enough to encourage me to check out a bunch more of these. Thanks, signal.

Not on this list, but on mine: Andrew W.K.'s "God is Partying", Aimee Mann's "Queens of the Summer Hotel", Elbow's "Flying Dream 1", Garbage's "No Gods No Masters", Kings of Convenience's "Peace or Love", and a few tracks from ABBA's "Voyage". Favourite is a toss-up between Wolf Alice, the Killers and Elbow.

The Guardian has counted down from 50 to 6 so far.
posted by rory at 8:52 AM on December 10, 2021

Well this taught me about Laura Mvula. Two of her older tracks are amazing:

overcome - contemp black black black dark dance choreography with uplifiting soul funk

contrast

ultrabright capetown pro self respect
posted by lalochezia at 9:20 AM on December 10, 2021

I'm currently compiling my end-of-year list (which will be posted at the end of the year, as usual). No obvious #1s, but some highlights include Fritz (skronky Sarah/Lush/Primitives-adjacent indiepop from Australia), Halsey's Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross-produced record (which rocks, but is on a major label so no Bandcamp link), Hazy Mountains (chilled electronic grooves, like the Avalanches without the all-star guests and sample-clearance budget), Heligoland (the Paris-based dreampop band, produced by Robin Guthrie), Hollie Kenniff (featherlight dreampop that makes the Cocteau Twins sound like Meatloaf), Mdou Moctar (groovy Touareg psych-rock), Noda Yûki (bedroom electronica from Japan), Saint Etienne's pre-9/11 vaporwave-adjacent record, Tape Waves (hazy, languid dreampop not far from Yo La Tengo/Galaxie 500/Mazzy Star) and Vanishing Twin (post-Broadcast/Stereolab bloopy library-jazz).
posted by acb at 9:22 AM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

It's really a slap in the face to realize how far from the mainstream best-ofs I've moved. I think the only thing I heard from this list was Sault's release, which was v. good.

Here's The Wire's releases of the year.
Here's The Quietus' top 100 for 2021.
Here's Gramophone's albums of the year (through September).
Here's NPR's Deceptive Cadence albums of the year.
posted by the sobsister at 9:22 AM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

It's always tough to do a best-of-the-year list so soon. I feel like maybe I could finally do a best of 2014 -- I've had the time to both listen to much more of what came out that year and to reflect on if something is *good* or if it just captured a moment. As it is, nothing in 2021 is really popping out to me just yet, although I agree with NME on Arlo Parks, and I've also enjoyed Low Island and LUMP.
posted by miguelcervantes at 9:47 AM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was going to say "Get off my lawn" because I don't listen to any new music except Techno, but they put Bicep on there so I'm happy.
posted by mmoncur at 10:39 AM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

I know a few of these! Miracles do happen and I am not yet entirely old.* I'll be seeing Chvrches next week, so that's exciting.

I was really happy to see Self Esteem on the list. What Rebecca Taylor has been doing is amazing. Start here for the new album and here from the last one.

* In fact I am old.
posted by feckless at 11:08 AM on December 10, 2021

In mid-October I, out of the blue, thought "I wonder if SAULT has done anything since 5, which I loved" and checked their bandcamp, and got 7 and their two untitled albums, not realizing that I had just barely missed the window of availability on Nine. And now I'm annoyed, a) that I missed it, and b) that it's good and I can't have it :(
posted by aubilenon at 11:09 AM on December 10, 2021

I don't do albums anymore. Sadly that's an artifact of the downloading. I generally like the War on Drugs and Sam Fender, but their new tracks didn't do much for me.

Also I like The Killers but on Quiet Town, the juxtaposition between the cliched chorus and the verses (apparently a true story!) is just too much for me. It sounds like some kind of fake country song or two different songs in tone that were jammed together.

My favorite tracks:
Lord Huron - Not Dead Yet Yep, that's me.

James McMurtry - Canola Fields "cashing in on a 30 year crush - you can't be young and do that". You can't be young and write about that. I really like that artists that are legitimately old are releasing music, because the learned experience expressed in lyrics is so much wider. I'm looking forward to a rockin' song about medicaid.

Courtney Barnett - Write a List of Things to Look Forward To
"And we’ll scream, self-righteously, we did our best but what does that even mean."
The story of 2021.

Matthew E White -Genuine Hesitation I think the lyrics are really dumb, but it's 7 minutes long and doesn't get old.

Rag and Bone Man - All You Ever Wanted This is my favorite genre - unpopular pop music! This song is basically the same content as The Killers track Quiet Town, but it sounds real to me where that one sounds fake.

Langhorn Slim -Mighty Soul An anthem that's not anthemic. "Someday the world might come and blow your house down. First a tornado then a plague" - true.

I also discovered Charley Crockett, who has released 8 albums since 2015, and two in 2021 just like Lana Del Ray, but his latest two aren't the best compared to 2020's, and one was a cover album of James Hand songs that left off possibly the best song ever about a pet bird. So lots of catching up to do.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:39 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Of course none of my favorite records are on any of these lists—they never are. That said, I'm surprised that my favorite album of the year, Julien Baker's Little Oblivions, is nowhere to be found. I thought we had all agreed it was incredible. Some other favorites of mine (in no particular order): Graceful Rage by Harmony Woods, Driver by Adult Mom, Gami Gang by Origami Angel, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita by Sturgill Simpson, Bless My Psyche by Sincere Engineer. I'm sure there are more, but I guess the ones I can remember off the top of my head make a better list.

My favorite song, though, of 2021? That new Foals single "Wake Me Up" is just so damned good. Too bad the album isn't coming until next year.
posted by General Malaise at 2:44 PM on December 10, 2021

No Wet Leg, alas, perhaps because they haven't put out an album yet?

Also no yeule, because their second album has been pushed back to February. Their 2019 debut, however, will be listed in an addendum to my list as an older album of note I had discovered this year (much as the first Cigarettes After Sex album was a few years ago), as it'd have been on top had it come out this year.

Other things I'm looking forward to next year: a new Dubstar album (though presumably no Bandcamp for that again), and the hope that, just maybe, the next Slowdive album will surface then.
posted by acb at 3:07 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Any given year I mostly fall in love with bands who just absolutely weren't on my radar for the last 5. On that note, holy hell, ISS's Endless Pussyfooting????????
posted by runehog at 4:36 PM on December 11, 2021