Albums Of The year 2021

charlie clown · December 13, 2021

Done my usual survey and round up of various publications and websites end of year lists to try and get a view on the overall top albums of the year from a critics' point of view. A few observations... there seemed to be a tipping point about four or five years ago when it was suddenly deemed OK to actually put albums by female artists generally further up these lists than they ever used to be and that seems to have continued and now be the norm (clearly a good thing). Rock seems to be pretty much dead as far as these lists are concerned. The self titled album seems to have gone into hiding. As a genre hip-hop continues to dominate in terms of the sheer number of albums appearing in the lists generally but other than the Tyler The Creator record none of them have troubled the list of lists - as if everyone's listening to rap but no one seems to be able to make up their mind which ones are the good ones. And there are two or three albums that got very few nominations but scored big points when they were nominated (Self Esteem, Lana Del Rey, Wolf Alice).

Personally I find it a bit of a weird list as there's a fair few that I've listened to a lot this year that I'm surprised are not on this list and a fair number that I've not heard at all...

Anyway, ladeez and gennulmen....

1 - Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

2 Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

3 The Weather Station - Ignorance

4 Low - Hey What

5 Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

6 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage

7 Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

8 Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

9 Turnstile - Glow On

10 Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

11 Mdou Moctar - Victime Afrique

12 The War On Drugs - I Don’t Live Here Anymore

13 Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

14 Snail Mail - Valentine

15 L'Rain - Fatigue

16 Squid - Bright Green Field

17 Black Country, New Road - For The First Time

18 Sons Of Kemet - Black To The Future

19 Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

20 Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

21 Mogwai - As The Love Continues

22 Olivia Rodrigo - Sour

23 Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club

24 Madlib - Sound Ancestors

25 Aya - Im Hole

26 Jane Weaver - Flock

27 Idles - Crawler

28 Self Esteem- Prioritise Pleasure

29 Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia Of The Air

30 The Bug - Fire

Edited December 13, 2021 by charlie clown

Tommok · December 13, 2021