Top 10 Albums of 2021

Honorable Mentions (No Particular Order):

Kanye West – Donda: A truly loveable mess by Ye that I see myself genuinely revisiting.

Sematary – Rainbow Bridge 3: A phenomenally noisy indulgence of angst.

Spellling – The Turning Wheel: The best soundtrack for the musical that never existed.

Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert: A beautifully grandiose rap album.

1. Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (9.4): A life-changing and emotional contemporary orchestra piece. Pharaoh Sanders does not disappoint with his saxophone improvisation throughout the record. The motif of a hook will forever be ingrained in my head. Movement 6 is out of this world.

2. Lingua Ignota – Sinner Get Ready (9.2): Very experimental and revolutionary use of the organ, opera-esque singing, and other instruments. A great representation of the complicated relationship between an artist and God in the 21st century.

3. JPEGMAFIA – LP! (9.1): I must recommend the offline version that you can find on YouTube or Bandcamp. It’s much better as it is the true version Peggy wanted to release. Amazing sampling and amazing musicality; I recently released a full review you can check out.

4. Sunn O))) – Metta, Benevolence BBC6 Live: On the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs (9.0): Phenomenal ambient piece. I just reviewed it, so I’ll just say the patience pays off.

5. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END (8.9): Aesthetically, they will always produce the loveable crushing crescendos that should be and is a model for all post-rock bands to come. The context of socialist critique on society accompanied with the conceptual artistry of radio recording use is amazing.

6. Japanese Breakfast – Sable (8.9): Never thought I would love a video game soundtrack so much without actually playing the game at all. I genuinely enjoy it more than her actual, personal album from this year. It really exemplifies the mystical, deserted world of the game even before I played.

7. Squid – Bright Green Field (8.9): Kind of forgot this album was from this year, but it has such remarkable “relistenability.” Definitely at the forefront of post-punkish type music right now.

8. CZARFACE & MF DOOM – Super What? (8.8): RIP MF DOOM and so thankful for this posthumous release with CZARFACE that I think is super underrated in terms of albums this year that critics are talking about. Great, loveable, classically comic-themed transitions with memorable verses.

9. Black Dresses – Forever In Your Heart (8.8): A more refined album than their previous, and super happy that they regrouped, but less iconic songs. Still, amazingly fuses industrial rock elements with hyperpop with comedic undertones.

10. Parannoul, Asian Glow & sonhos tomam conta – Downfall of the Neon Youth (8.8): A great shoegaze and post-rock album that includes unexpected collaboration with Korean groups.

**Also note that Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red is not mentioned because he was on the 2020 list for me rather than this year.