Best Of 2021: Music highlights from the first half of the year
With sixty album recommendations, you're BOUND to find something new to enjoy
Hi folks! This year I’ve been logging everything I listen to and maintaining a couple of playlists for the highlights -- one for just stuff released this year, and one that’s inclusive of everything. I wanted to take a moment to share the music from those lists. They’re...not short, so I’m only dedicating one or two sentences to each album. I’ve also made a playlist featuring a song from each! Hopefully you find something you can connect with — if you walk away with even one or two new favourites, I’ll be thrilled.
New releases are listed by release date; the old albums are alphabetical by artist.
NEW RELEASES:
YOASOBI - THE BOOK (Jan 6)
Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales (Jan 8)
One of the best-reviewed R&B releases of the year and for good reason; the unity of concept and the way she uses the bridging interludes to introduce songs are really fantastic. Explores society and sexuality really frankly and really well.
FloruitShow - What Can I Hold You With (Jan 10)
Gorgeously melancholic Mandarin-language folk/art songs.
Ayra Starr - Ayra Starr (Jan 22)
Really self-assured Afropop debut, probably my favourite album by a teenager this year (sorry Olivia; yours is good too).
Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood (Jan 29)
Incredibly creative guitar work — wholly unique ways of playing the instrument — paired with strong melodic writing. All instrumental.
AiNA THE END - THE END (Feb 3)
Honestly this album is all over the place stylistically, but in a fun way, and AiNA THE END has a really distinctive voice I enjoy quite a bit.
Dominique Fils-Aimé - Three Little Words (Feb 12)
Beautiful soul music featuring some really stunning multitracked vocal harmonies.
Monica Stadler & Harald Peterstorfer - Diary From Within (Feb 12)
A collection of largely-improvisational compositions, mostly for harp and guitar but with occasional other instruments.
Grove - Queer + Black (Feb 23)
Murky club music. Frequently political, always danceable.
Kumi Takahara - See-Through (Feb 24)
Mia Doi Todd - Music Life (Feb 26)
Folky, jazzy, and expansive — songs that start simple and then travel unexpected places. Mia Doi Todd has an extensive back catalogue with which I’m wholly unfamiliar, but I want to hear more.
Leanne Simpson - Theory of Ice (12 March)
A mix of spoken poetry and light singing over reflective and moody instrumentals. Simpson is a really skilled writer on Indigenous thoughtways and community and that’s a part of her music work too.
Valerie June - The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers (Mar 12)
Incredibly full and lush arrangements backing genre-defying songs. June’s voice is incredible, with a ton of feeling behind a distinctive twang.
Kayoko Yoshizawa - Akaboshi Aoboshi (Mar 17)
Eclectic indie with dreamy vocals and a nice range of featured instruments. Ryo Miyauchi has described Yoshizawa’s work as “storybook pop” which feels as good a term as any.
Afterglow - ONE OF US (Mar 24)
Part pop-punk, part garage-rock, all music from the BanG Dream! multimedia franchise. Very slick, very fun.
(Q2)
Amanda Whiting - After Dark (Apr 10)
Jazz harp is a great love of mine, and this is a solid stripped-back take on it.
Aimer - Walpurgis (Apr 14)
Straightforward JPop, but Aimer’s voice is gorgeously smoky and there’s some great tracks here.
Kitri - Kitrist II (Apr 21)
mekakushe - Hikari Mitai ni Susumitai (Apr 21)
Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince (Apr 23)
A mix of modern poetry and ancient ghazals, all set and reframed in a modern compositional context with a lot of harp (which obviously I love). I recommend this interview!
Ruba Shamshoum - Risha (Apr 23)
Shamshoum’s bio describes her work both as “soulful dream pop” and as jazz, and I do hear elements of both. Personally what I love most are her melismatic vocal melodies and her delivery, which is dreamy while still being supported by real vocal heft.
Dawn Richard - Second Line (Apr 30)
I think Dawn Richard has been doing incredible things in pop and dance music for a really long time, and Second Line feels like a real culmination of that. I loved this interview where she talks about the expansiveness of ‘dance music’ as a category (among many other things).
Kučka - Wrestling (Apr 30)
Woozy indie synth-pop with some fun distortion and choppiness.
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - Neadú (Apr 30)
Just a real solid album of traditional Scottish tunes in both English and Gaelic.
Fatima al Qadiri - Medieval Femme (May 14)
Cavernous, moody electronic compositions drawing from classical Arab poetry for inspiration.
Hazely - All Good Things (May 20)
An unexpectedly effective combo of R&B and round-dance songs, really fresh sound.
Allison Russell - Outside Child (May 21)
This one is difficult to summarize but is a strong contender for my album of the year to date. Deeply moving both lyrically and musically and has really rewarded multiple listens.
Erika de Casier - Sensational (May 21)
Silky R&B with a streak of extremely dry humour.
Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee (June 4)
Catchy indie pop-rock with very evocative lyrics and an eclectic stylistic palette.
ONUKA - KOLIR (June 18)
I love ONUKA’s take on electro-folk and how they mix traditional and electronic instrumentation. This album pushes further in some fun directions and gets downright weird at times.
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NEW DISCOVERIES:
ABAO - kinakaian (2020)
Bracing, percussive multilingual pop centred in ABAO’s Indigeneity. I enjoyed this review.
Ah-Mer-Ah-Su - Star (2018)
Dreamy synth-pop with a deeply personal streak, accentuated by some well-chosen spoken interludes.
Allie X - Cape God (2020)
Moody, spare synth-pop thematically preoccupied with addiction and self-destructiveness.
Anjimile - Giver Taker (2020)
Folky compositions with diversions into other genres. Really effective lyrics and distinctive vocal style.
baobab and haruka nakamura - Kanata (2019)
Barbara Dane - I Hate the Capitalist System (1973)
Classic ‘70s protest folk. Dane gets angry on this record and rightly so.
Bube Dame König - Nachtländlein (2019)
Sweet-voiced, straightforward German folk. Really smart track sequencing, though it does frontload all the moody minor-modal stuff that is my personal fave.
Busiswa - My Side of the Story (2020)
This is my first real foray into amapiano music, and while I don’t know whether it’s representative I know this much: it slaps and it makes me want to learn more.
Charlotte Adigéry - Zandoli (2019)
Witty dance music with a strong pulse and a great sense of pacing
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue (1994)
Heard many songs from this growing up but never went and listened to the album straight through. Dolores O’Riordan’s voice was an extraordinary thing.
Ensemble Planeta - Planeta (2019)
SSAA classical a cappella. Lovely vocal tone and some really nice selections.
Haugaard & Høirup - Gæstebud (2005)
Rollicking Danish folk music. A mix of instrumental and vocal tracks, featuring a ton of guest musicians from multiple folk traditions.
Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan (2020)
Isabel Frey - Millennial Bundist (2020)
Early 20th-century Yiddish songs from the Jewish Bund, in new guitar-and-voice recordings by Frey. Love the concept of the project, and her voice is playful, stirring, or sweet as the song demands.
Jamie Drake - Everything’s Fine (2019)
You know that mid-10s “quirky” singer-songwriter stuff, you know you do. It can quickly turn cloying, but Drake’s spin on the genre feels fresh and effective.
Joan Armatrading - Track Record (1983)
Armatrading is one of those artists I should really know better, but this was a great entry point. Bombastic 80s bliss.
JYOCHO - The Beautiful Cycle of Terminal (2018)
Meticulous, ever-shifting guitar-based compositions, paired with Netako Nekota’s gentle vocal.
Karine Polwart - Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook (2019)
Cover albums can be a tricky thing, but Polwart wholeheartedly makes her selections her own, fitting them right into her particular take on modern Scottish folk music.
KEIKO - Lantana (2020)
Lous and the Yakuza - Gore (2020)
Beautifully-sung, lyrically dark trap-pop. There’s a lot of challenging vocal writing here, but it sounds completely effortless.
Maika Loubté - Closer (2020)
Shimmery, stuttery synth-pop in a variety of languages. Dreamy and fractured.
Räsynukke - Kaksi Vuodenaikaa (2016)
Modern Finnish folk music. Very melodic, great rhythm guitar, and Suvi Uura has a great voice.
Rene Marie - Vertigo (2001)
Sophisticated, complex jazz takes on a number of old standards. The way Marie can totally de- and reconstruct a song is really something.
Ringo Sheena - Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana (2003)
Somi - Petite Afrique (2017)
Jazzy song cycle centred on Little Africa, a sub-neighbourhood of Harlem. Moves between moods and styles with aplomb.
Thelma Plum - Better in Blak (2019)
Wry, darkly funny singer-songwriter work by a Gamiralaay woman engaging pretty directly with some challenging topics. Frequently extremely catchy.
Uri Nakayama - 11 (2020)
Weiwei Tan - 3811 (2020)
Mandopop with wistful and melancholic production and a real depth of feeling in Tan’s vocal performance. Enjoyed this piece contextualizing the album.
Yola - Walk Through Fire (2019)
Powerful voice paired with rock solid country/roots songwriting. A lot of these songs feel like they could easily become standards.
Yuki Nakashima - Chapter I (2020)