The best albums of 2021 — the full list

My previous post mentioned how music was more of a balm this year than in 2020. Years of reading this blog have conditioned my readers to expect randomness, eccentricity, and maybe a little disingenuousness too. Listening to Dawn Richard’s album has made me question why it didn’t make the final cut; today Second Line: An Electro Revival sounds like another superb realization, the most kinetic album of an estimable career. 

Below her Morgan Wallen is proof that certified assholes can record solid if wearying albums –he’s got a mind like a moist paper towel — and smile thickly as red state listeners reward him with impressive sales and streaming figures, maybe 2021’s best. The Chills continue a helluva streak — the kiwi Superchunk? After a fine debut Krauss-Plant increase the guitar volume and coo-creak with an empathy inseparable from reverence. Spooked but not defeated, the British Dave and the Brooklynite Ka offer statements of pride.

Thanks again for reading. Keep the recommendations coming.

1. Tinashe – 333
2. The Weather Station – Ignorance
3. Lainey Wilson – <Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’
4. Mdou Moktar – Afrique Victime
5. Turnstile – GLOW ON
6. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg
7. Sons of Kemet – Black to the Future
8. Genesis Owusu – Smiling With No Teeth
9. Playboi Carti – Whole Lotta Red
10. Carly Pearce: 29: Written in Stone
11. Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
12. Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend
13. Garbage – No Gods No Masters
14. POLO G – Hall of Fame
15. Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert, and Jon Randall – The Marfa Tapes
16. Caetano Veloso – Meu Coco
17. Rochelle Jordan – Play With the Changes
18. Natalie Hemby – Pins and Needles
19. Lindsey Buckingham – Lindsey Buckingham
20. Cleo Sol – Mother
21. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant – Raise the Roof
22. Anthony Joseph – The Rich Are Only Defeated by Running For Their Lives
23. Dawn Richard – Second Line: An Electro Revival
24. Cloud Nothings – The Shadow I Remember
25. Eric Church – Heart & Soul
26. The Mountain Goats – Dark in Here
27. Dave – We’re All Alone in This Together
28. Young Thug and Gunna – Slime Language 2
29. The Chills – Scatterbrain
30. Morgan Wallen – Dangerous
31. Walker Hayes – Country Stuff
32. The Goon Sax – Mirror II
33. Tyler, the Creator – Call Me If You Get Lost
34. Ka – A Martyr’s Reward
35. Alan Jackson – Where Have You Gone