Category: BestOf

10. Turnstile – GLOW ON 
The hardcore punk band from Baltimore have been on my radar for awhile but never surprised me. Glow On however brings a dreamier undertone and some new ideas to hardcore. Their musical experimentation adds a new angle to their incredibly catchy songs. Although they aren’t doing anything entirely new, they are breaking conventions and establishing a promising future. This ambitious and innovative record is just the beginning.

9. Backxwash- I Lie Here Buried With My Rings And My Dresses
This album is what happens when you open a door full anguish and dread. Ashanti combines experimental hip hop, industrial and heavy metal to give shape to her terror. It is harrowing and hellish but the songs are justified in their pain and anger. Not for the faint of heart but a little bit of pain is certainly a good thing to endure every so often.

8. Illuminati Hotties – Let Me Do One More 
If you were to combine the new sounds of The Coathangers and That Dog, you’d get the raucous fun this album has. The songs are direct with high octane riffs that are full of surprises. The album is so versatile in its styles and had unexpected depth for a catchy fun listening experience.

7. Blu – The Color Blu(e)
A clever and and incredibly creative album. Every song, title and sample is related to the color Blu(e). Intricate wordplay and solid sampling makes the thematic gimmick intriguing and impressive.

6. Weather Station – Ignorance 
Although it came out very early in 2021, I revisited
Tamara Lindeman’s heart-felt album many times throughout the year. Her introverted style is ornamented with orchestral sections to expand her musical style. Her songs contrast joy and sadness but always anchored by her beautiful lyrics.

5. Viagra Boys – Welfare Jazz 
Their 2nd release is full of entertaining post-punk hits. Some are punchy and aggressive while others are quite funny. The story telling is powerful with its boisterous vocals which are punctuated and embellished with saxophone. Adrenaline fueled fun with lots of mischief.

4. Injury Reserve – By the Time I get to Phoenix 
An experimental and emotional release that straddles hip-hop, industrial and psychedelia. Nervousness and anxiety is layered throughout this downward spiral. The lyrical despair is no doubt related to Jordon Grogg’s untimely passing last year. An abstract and surreal tribute. The glitchy and unpredictable directions are held up by its impeccable production. It is abstract, angry and emotionally resonant.

3. Porter Robinson – Nurture
An emotionally complex album filled with glitchy electronic sounds and interlocking melodies. On the surface it sounds so artificial with its intricate synth programming and processed vocals. These manufactured compositions are juxtaposed with an underlying passion and human sensibility. It may seem chaotic but the kaleidoscopic rhythms make this such a fun and reassuring listen. Nuture is an album full of energy and hope where you can safely escape into.

2. Middle Kids. – Today We’re The Greatest
This Australian trio came with a sophomore album full of indie anthems and clever hooks. Although not a complete package, it is full of sing along dynamic pop songs. The album is joyful and full of emotionally charged songs with swelling melodies that straddle between indie bangers and wonderful sentimental pop.

1. Low – HEY WHAT 
HEY WHAT is progression from Double Negative’s disintegrated melodic themes and energy. The sonic expressions unfolds emotional responses of both despair and passion. Each track rumbles and dissolves into each other and the arrhythmic flourishes sustains the uneasiness throughout the record. The impending doom struggles to break through to simply die away leaving the listener trapped. “Days Like These” captured a degrading soundscape of anxiety and impending doom that became my anthem for 2021.

Best Debut Album. Samia – The Baby
Twenty three year old Samia Finnerty’s debut album deals with the bad feelings of becoming an adult with soft and subtle lyrics.

10. Dan Deacon- Mystic Familiar
A cohesive album of lush bubbly digital compositions. A bit experimental, but always joyful and fun. A kaleidoscope of trippy sounds to make the day a bit brighter.

9. Sylvan Esso – Free Love 
Short & sweet but full of bouncy pop music. Folksy minimal melodies paired with synths and quirky sounds. It feels experimental but you’ll be dancing and head nodding to their fun spectral sound collages.

8. Code Orange – Underneath 
Pittsburgh’s hardcore punk quintet brings a maelstrom album full of technical and genre bending songs. Underneath explores how we can possibly exist in a digital landscape. Songs explode, skip, shift and splinter away. Futuristic and punishing. A powerful and creative result from this chaotic musical blender.

7. Land Of Talk – Indistinct Conversations 
Lizzie Powell’s bruised vocals on this a home-recorded album fits the emotional and intimate narratives. The album leaves you feeling vulnerable yet hopeful. A satisfying blend of guitar and lyrical musings but with Land of Talk’s distinctive ambiguity.

6. Adrianne Lenker – Songs 
Somber storytelling over hypnotic and rich melodies. Nostalgic imagery of love & loss over patient melody builds. Despite being quiet and shy, the album is a slow burn into examining complex emotions. An extraordinary rich album.

5. HAIM – Women in Music Pt III 
A tuneful and jammy soundtrack pulling from many styles & genres. This is easily HAIM’s boldest and polished album yet. It tackles several themes about self discovery and how to cope with loss and grief. The sisters crafted a wonderful album capturing what it’s like being young and sensitive in our current world. The album is full of soothing and vulnerable pop songs that are overflowing with infectious hooks and harmonies. This album is like a great summer book for the beach, but one you’ll want to read again and again.

4. Nation of Language – Presence 
This Brooklyn trio brings their take on synth pop on their stellar debut. The crisp production and high craft is found in every sound and beat. Dense synths adequately compliment Ian Devaney’s deep rich and melancholy voice. Although this genre is nothing new, NOL weaves the nostalgia tropes of interlocking synths and electronic drums with purpose and emotion. They are bringing some needed personality into synth-pop, creating an exciting new chapter.

3. Idles – Ultra Mono 
I loved every single dropped before this album finally came out. From the first song Ultra Mono grabs you by the face, sits your ass down and forces you to pay attention to its abrasive and incisive commands. This adrenaline fueled album came out at the perfect time of such ambiguously lost year. It is confidant, angry and full of rage towards this modern reality we live in now. By the end of it you’ll be armed to combat anything that’s thrown at you. Whether to drop kick your anger into the other room or to scream and dance it away.

2. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher 
This album will take you through all the emotions. It’s a subtle record but over time you become overwhelmed with all the sentiments hidden in every song. The production is so tight with its lush and hypnotic melodies punctuated by brilliant lyricism. Punisher plays like a movie soundtrack criss crossing between memories of a life figuring things out the hard way. Every time I play this album I am still moved and captivated with all the beauty and sadness Phoebe examines in every song.

1. clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned
Clipping’s 2019 horror-core album There Existed an Addiction to Blood ends with nothing but the sound of a piano slowly burning to death. This is a peculiar end for such anxious ridden album. However, it is the ending you would expect from a horror film where the uneasiness of knowing whether the killer is finished or not. The band returns with Visions of Bodies Being Burned which could be a logical sequel to this nightmare. However, it’s not merely an album of extra tracks but rather an evolution of these established themes and builds upon them into unexpected directions. It’s dynamic & devastating and a fitting album for the top spot on 2020.

10. Purple Mountains – Self-Titled 
Heartbreak, grief, and disappointment. David Berman comes back after a long hiatus and then leaves us forever. The world will miss you.

9. Anamanaguchi – [USA] 
Bitpop, chiptune, digital soundjams. I never want to leave the video game world they created.

8. Freddie Gibbs, Madlib – Bandana
What do you expect when Freddie & Madlib get together? They just bring the best out of each other. Gritty and smooth at the same time.

7. Lightning Bolt – Sonic Citadel
Loud and punishing but still fun and melodic. Move fast, break everything. We need more intensity in this world. This band brings it.

6. Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
Ambitious baroque pop with incredible production. Natalie Mering creates a fantasy full of magic and daydreams. Album is so lush you can feel it.

5. Alex Cameron – Miami Memory
A slight departure from his previous 2 albums that I loved, Miami Memory celebrates a 70’s soft rock sound. Alex does a good job of painting different personas but this release has an obvious lean into his own life with actress Jemima Kirke. The album is tender, playful and triumphant. The entertaining narrator explores love and masculinity through his male perspective by the use of witty pop songs. The way Alex expresses himself and doesn’t shy away from anything is admirable and alarming. The album is a non romantic celebration of love and truth. His live shows match his jubilation with a compelling on-stage persona and delightful dance moves. One of the most entertaining shows of the year.

4. black midi – Schlagenheim
Despite being named after a dense computer crashing composition, this uk-based debut album only borrows the disorienting feeling that the music genre produces. It is explosive, energetic and challenging. The band takes cues from mathematical noise rock and experimental post punk but fuse these genres into something bizarre and new. Because there are familiar musical qualities one can latch on to, when the band goes anarchistic into uncharted dark inhuman sounds there is still a sense of control in the uncontrollable. The album is full of detours but always returns to a creative center. The album is bold and reckless balancing vulnerability and chaos.

 3. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
The sixth studio album is full of her best melodies to date. Blending allusive and romantic songs for this modern age we live in. Much like how the painter Rockwell depicted American life in highly stylized scenes, Del Ray depicts moments of old Hollywood, summertime and hope weaving them into a atmospheric personification of the American Dream. There is a Hemingway-esque quality to the songs with deliberate syllables and sounds which heighten the emotional tension contained within. It’s an honest masterpiece full unfiltered beauty, emotion and heartbreak.

2. clipping. – There Existed an Addiction to Blood
Clipping. always hits my “best of” lists, but this is the first time the band has delivered an album full of deep and powerful cuts. This release takes cues and draws inspiration from elements of horror and the occult. With this diabolical theme, Daveed and company is able to use anxiety to heighten the intensity of the songs. There Existed an Addiction to Blood has several layers of meaning seeping throughout, from invoking fear of your fellow man to exposing how we are all under siege. The album is a manifestation of the seemingly nightmarish times we seem to living in and the band’s sounds and lyrics invite this confrontation. The final 18 minutes is the sound of a piano burning (created by avant-garde Annea Lockwood) and it is a fitting end for such an apocalyptical album. A final scene that we would expect from a journey full of horror, pain and rage. The vinyl design on this release also matches the mood of the album.

 1. Caroline Palochek – Pang
Caroline Palochek has an uncanny ability to lure you into her unique musical world. Pang is her first album under her own name since ending Chairlift and although apprehensive at first, Caroline delivered a wondrous art pop album. She takes you on a journey from sweeping symphonic songs to intricate and delicate melodies. The album had its share of tension, pain and remorse but also intense bliss. Her enchanting voice guides you through such varied songs that can be natural or synthetic. Pang has such a musical range and is full of new surprises on every listen.