Saturday, November 27, 2021

2021 The Albums: Top 10

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2021's League of Their Own Pick
 

It is that time of the year again, our favorite time actually, as we look back on the year in music and select the 10 best albums of the year.

10) Black Midi - Cavalcade

9) One Trick Phony - V

8) BLK JKS - Abantu / Before Humans

7) Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

6) Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

5) Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

4) Shame - Drunk Tank Pink

3) Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz

2) J. Cole - The Off-Season

1) Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

 See 2021's Honorable Album Mentions


10) Black Midi - Cavalcade

After shocking audiences around the world with their 2019 debut, the four English young men return with a much tighter, intricate and often times mature album of mind bending speeds, sounds, and brutality. It is a record will have indie fans looking into metal and metal fans looking into indie music. 


9) One Trick Phony - V

One Trick Phony is the best band you have not heard. Starting in 2020, One Trick Phony mastermind Dave Blanchard created five albums since the start of quarantine. All of those records were different from one another but all led up to the culmination of V, his best and most insightful work. The album is a film score set to the soundtrack of your current life. Each song is an escape to a montage of various times in your life as you try and push for a better tomorrow. 


8) BLK JKS - Abantu / Before Humans

 One of the most exciting bands to ever emerge from South Africa returns for the first time in over a decade with the long awaited Abantu / Before Humans. Their sophomore record picks up where their fantastic debut, After Robots, left off but ushers us into a new era of their musical world that combines rock, funk, jazz, traditional South African styles and even at points metal. This is more than just a record but a universal offering leaving us in hopes that it doesn't take over another decade for new music. 


7) Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

Tyler comes of age in his best album since his emphatic debut a decade ago. Call Me If You Get Lost is the most candid, most open, and most powerful look inside the mind of one of the biggest creative forces in music today. With production contributions from Jamie xx, and lyrical collaborations with Pharrell, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne and Domo Genesis, this album packs a serious punch and makes us look forward to what is in store next. 

 

 


6) Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

The British quartet had one of the best videos of the decade thanks to "Scratch Card Lanyard," but their debut proved they were much more than just innovative video creators with a catchy tune. New Long Leg is a very cool, very slick talk rock record that feels like you are in the coolest London or Manchester pub listening to a band that is about to do some really interesting things. 

 

5) Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

Halsey is mainly known for pop hooks and chart topping tunes so when a collaboration album with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross turned up this year, it was unexpected for everyone. The record is not only Halsey's finest hour but is a force of power that makes you wonder if this is what Trent was trying to do with How to Destroy Angels or is this where he wants to shift the focus of NIN, with powerful vocals and storylines that are not from him. What an absolute tour de force that was easily the most exciting and unexpected record of the year. 

 


4) Shame - Drunk Tank Pink

Punk in 2021 was a different thing but Shame brought out the best in it and had us bouncing in apartments, homes, and our own spaces waiting for live music to return. Drunk Tank Pink is an in your face, unforgiving, unapologetic smack in the head we all need. 

3) Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz

The Swedish punks returned with their finest album which contained a mix of raw power, country music, and even folk mixed together to show the world that being left of center is much more than just tattoos and attitude, it is a way of life. One hell of a record that only left us exhausted but hitting the replay button again and again. 


2) J. Cole - The Off-Season

One of this generations greatest emcees returned with a powerful record that is rumored to be his last and if it is, J. Cole goes out on a high note. The Off-Season is the rare record that features other folks on tracks but also is him going full court press to the doubters that he is and was the real deal. An aggressive rap record with a lot of heart, if Rocky was an emcee, this would be the result. 


1) Deafheaven - Infinite Granite 

Deafheaven are known for their brutal screaming, black metal influence and sounds, pulse pounding drums, breakneck rhythms but what happens when they put most of that away? The result is a record that lives in the ethos of great bands like Depeche Mode, Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, Nitzer Ebb, among others. It is a cross between goth and new wave as well as industrial while giving fans a mature outlook as to what this band can do when they expand their minds, chops, and creativity. The most surprisingly and powerful record of 2021 might also be the most polarizing but that is what also makes it so damn intriguing and leaves you wanting to hear it again.

2021 The Albums: League of Their Own

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This award started long before the site was even a thought, in one publication, radio show or another. Since 2000, I have handed out a "League of Their Own" Award to an album that is made by an artist who is the most forward thinking, open minded, revolutionary musician out there today. Their accomplishments in the past 12 months have either resurrected a sound, broke down walls and created new frontiers or have totally reinvented a genre all together. The choices for "League of Their Own" have become more than just the best album of the year but the most important record to be released at that time.

See List of 2021 Honorable Mentions

In the past winners have included:

2000 - Radiohead - Kid A
2001 - The Strokes - Is This It?
2002 - NERD - In Search of...
2003 - The White Stripes - Elephant
2004 - The Killers - Hot Fuss
2005 - The Mars Volta - Francis the Mute
2006 - TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
2007 - Kanye West - Graduation
2008 - Santigold
2009 - Mastodon - Crack the Skye
2010 - Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
2011 - Bjork - Biophilia
2012 - Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes
2013 - Arcade Fire - Reflektor
2014 - Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2 
2015 - Kamasi Washington - The Epic
2016 - David Bowie - Blackstar
2017 - Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
2018 - Richard Russell - Everything is Recorded
2019 - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rats Nest 
2020 - Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
 

...and now to add to this ever growing list is an artist who is constantly reinventing herself as not just a persona or style of music but in an overall package that blurs the line between pop, alternative, rock, and even in some cases, experimental. This is a category for someone just like her. 

Ladies and gents, the 2021 League of Their Own winner is... 

St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

Annie Clarke is a shapeshifter and a certifiable icon. So when she combined her love of icons like Warhol, New York City in the 1970s, her father's classic rock collection and took on the persona of Warhol Factory alum trans legend Candy Darling, the possibilities were endless. Daddy's Home is a concept record that pays homage to all of these things. A record that recorded in order to connect with her father as he emerged from a prison sentence to the era of things he enjoyed and what surrounded them. She takes us in a musical time machine back to the seedy, gritty, dangerous New York City of the mid-70s and gives us a new spin on it as she sings through a modern eye. A record that after endless listens this year gets more and more interesting with every spin.


2021 The Albums - Honorable Mentions

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In keeping our Thanksgiving weekend tradition, we are coming out of hiatus to post our year-end music lists for the year. Here is the first of three lists dedicated to our favorites of the calendar. 

Instead of presenting everything over the course of three weeks as we did last year, we are going to just get them all out now over the course of this weekend. 

Here is our first list -- Honorable Mentions -- records that were good but not strong enough to crack our top 10. As we always do, we breakdown the list in short form and then with explanations.

- L.A. Exes - Get Some

- Benny the Butcher - The Plugs I Met 2

- DMX - Exodus 

- Inhaler - It Won't Always Be Like This

- Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life

 

L.A. Exes - Get Some

Jenny Owen Youngs leads a brand new band that brought glossy fun in the sun sounds back to rock and roll in a year where we tried our best to emerge from darkness. A blast to listen to from start to finish and includes of the best renditions of The Cranberries timeless classic, "Linger."



Benny the Butcher - The Plugs I Met 2

One of hip-hop's finest emcees fires back with the sequel to a mixtape that had everyone talking. The Plugs I Met 2 is proof that sometimes sequels don't suck and is the musical equivalent of Empire Strikes Back to A New Hope. A hell of a listen from start to finish. 




DMX - Exodus 

The Swizz Beats-produced posthumous release from one of the best to ever do it is a sad but triumphant listen. One of X's best albums and sad to see that he could not be here to enjoy the fruits of his labor which featured collaborations with U2's Bono, Jay-Z, The Lox, Nas, Benny the Butcher, Snoop Dogg among others. 



Inhaler- It Won't Always Be Like This

Dublin's much talked-about four piece were set to take over the world in 2020 but the pandemic forced their global domination back a year. As they hit sweaty clubs, the son of U2's Bono fronts the group that oozes charisma, charm, vulnerability, and seduction on a fantastic debut. 




Parquet Courts - Sympathy For Life

The New York City indie rock favorites return with one of their best records in years. A record that buzzes and captures the energy of the city they call home as well as playing off post-pandemic themes of going about your life after two terrible years.