→ September 3, 2022
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Music update, August 2022.

And we’re back, after I missed a non-December monthly playlist for the first time in something like six or seven years, thanks to the combination of the late draft, trade deadline, Gen Con, and my big family vacation to the UK, so this playlist covers stuff from two months rather than just the one. We’ve got a ton of potentially great new albums and EPs due out the rest of the year, including stuff from the first four artists here, plus something new from the Arctic Monkeys, Suede, Christine & the Queens, Editors, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dry Cleaning, and more. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the Spotify playlist here.

The Beths – Knees Deep. The Beths have released three fantastic singles ahead of their album, Expert in a Dying Field, due out on the 16th. I have gotten much worse at predicting which bands will break out into broader success, but man, if any band seems poised to do so right now, it’s the Beths.

The Wombats – Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This? One of my favorite bands going, the Wombats are putting out a six-track EP in November, just nine months after releasing their latest album, and this title track is a banger.

GIFT – Gumball Garden. The first time I heard this I was sure it was Tame Impala, or a Kevin Parker side project. It’s that precise psychedelic-rock vibe – or you might think DIIV if you’re familiar with them – and the vocalist sounds a good bit like Parker, but there’s no connection. GIFT is a five-piece band from Brooklyn and their debut album, Momentary Presence, is due out on October 14th. I love the whole track but the surprise guitar riff around the 1:35 mark is next-level.

Sports Team – The Drop. Sports Team’s second album, GULP!, is due out on September 23rd, a two-month delay due to production issues, but we’ve got four strong singles from the album now, including this, “R Entertainment,” “The Game,” and “Dig,” showing some versatility beyond their initial art-punk style.

STONE – Waste. Heavy post-punk music from a band led by the son of John Power, former lead singer/guitarist of the La’s (“There She Goes”) and Cast (“Alright,” “Sandstorm”), which is quite the way to rebel against your parents, I guess.

YUNGBLUD – Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today. I’m not a big YUNGBLUD fan but this is a perfect little 2-minute punk-pop song.

The Mars Volta – Blacklight Shine. TMV’s first album in a decade, just called The Mars Volta, will drop on September 16th, and will feature this track as well as their latest release, “Vigil,” both of which are experimental yet also somehow rather accessible.

The Lounge Society – No Driver. This punk/post-punk quartet comprises four teens from Yorkshire who’ve been releasing music since 2020 and just released their debut album Tired of Liberty on Friday.

Young Fathers – Geronimo. The Mercury Prize winners return with their first new music since 2018’s tremendous album Cocoa Sugar, bringing a track that combines multiple genres with just a dash of rap mixed in.

Black Honey – Charlie Bronson. Definitely a rougher edge this time around from the Brighton indie-rockers, although you can still hear their melodic tendencies underneath the grit.

Two Door Cinema Club – Wonderful Life. This Northern Irish band will release its fifth album, Keep on Smiling, on Friday; this lead single came out in mid-July and is more of the electro-pop we’ve come to expect from the trio, maybe skewing a little more towards rock than “I Can Talk” or “Sleep Alone” did.

The Killers – boy. A leftover track from before last year’s Pressure Machine, one that sounds like it belonged on 2020’s Imploding the Mirage.

Martin Courtney – Sailboat. Courtney is the lead singer/guitarist for Real Estate, but released his second solo album, Magic Sign, this summer; this track might be my favorite thing he’s done, a soft psychedelic-rock track that features a perfectly timed guitar riff that elevates the song into something more.

Sam Fender – Alright. A B-side from the Seventeen Going Under sessions, this could easily have appeared on the album, and I do think it’s a good rule of thumb that when an artist’s B-sides are good enough to consider as singles in their own right (or, say, to include on one of my playlists), then the artist is pretty damn good.

Stella Donnelly – How Was Your Day? Donnelly is an acclaimed singer/songwriter in her native Australia, but hasn’t received a ton of attention outside of it, although her quirky vocal style and hooky melodies would fit in well in the British indie scene. Her second album, Flood, dropped a week ago. I am also obligated to mention that, according to Wikipedia, Donnelly’s mother is Welsh.

Rina Sawayama – Catch Me in the Air. Sawayama is a pop artist at heart, and this is one of her most straightforward pop tracks so far, with a big hook in the chorus.

Lizzo – 2 Be Loved (I Am Ready). I thought Special was generally strong, with two big standout tracks in “About Damn Time” and this song, which I think most clearly reflects her work with Prince before he died.

Broken Bells – We’re Not in Orbit Yet… James Mercer (the Shins) and Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) are back with their first new music since 2019’s “Good Luck” and first new album since 2014’s After the Disco with a track that reminds me in good ways of “The High Road” off their first record.

Tei Shi – GRIP. Tei Shi ended up in a fight with her old label after they refused to pay her the rest of her advanced for her last album, La Linda, and wrote this song in 2021 about the experience.

Death Cab for Cutie – Here to Forever. DCFC return with their tenth album, Asphalt Meadows, on September 16th, featuring this very upbeat song with an existentialist message as well as “Roman Candles.”

Jack White – A Tip From Me to You. A surprise second album from White, Entering Heaven Alive, dropped in July, this one more acoustic/downtempo and less experimental than this spring’s Fear of the Dawn.

The Linda Lindas – Tonite. The Linda Lindas are media darlings, which makes me worry their label (or manager) will turn them into some bland pop act, which is largely what happened to the Donnas back in the 1990s. This is a cover of a Go-Go’s song the Lindas often cover live, and it’s a great version, but ironic because the Go-Go’s were also co-opted by the mainstream music industry.

The Front Bottoms – More than It Hurts You. From their new EP Theresa, this track feels like a throwback to the earliest days of emo, with the overly earnest vocal delivery but an inherent pop sensibility underneath the emo trappings.

Muse – Kill or Be Killed. I fell off the Muse bandwagon probably around The Resistance in 2009, although I’d been a big fan of their earliest work, and this track has a strong “Muscle Museum” or “Cave” vibe to me, so maybe they’re going back to their roots a little bit.

Archers of Loaf – In the Surface Noise. I wasn’t a big Archers of Loaf fan in their 1990s heyday, but they are about to release their first new album in 24 years, Reason in Decline, on October 21st, and I do like this vaguely psychedelic-rock track.

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→ July 4, 2022
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Music update, June 2022.

We have a bunch of comebacks this month, with bands I liked once upon a time returning either in reality or just to my radar because they put out something great in June. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Editors – Karma Climb. This is the best New Order song in 21 years. (Editors are not New Order, and this is the second single ahead of their seventh album, EBM, due out in September.)

The Beths – Silence is Golden. The Beths have had some great tracks over their four years of releasing music, with a lot of punk influences in their power-pop formula, but the music here is as close to straight metal as they’ve ever veered – and it works.

Talk Show – Cold House. Talk Show gets labeled as post-punk, or new wave punk, but their music is more darkwave with far less of a punk influence than any of the reviews.

Jungle – GOOD TIMES. Jungle’s already back with a two-track single less than a year after Loving in Stereo dropped, with this the better (and more uptempo) of the two songs.

Automatic – Skyscraper. Now this is post-punk new wave.Automatic was new to me before this track, although their newest album, Excess, was their sophomore release.

Queen Colobus – Think Fast. Welsh vocalist/saxophonist Beth Hopkins leads Queen Colobus, mixing jazz with indie/alternative rock, as if Dry Cleaning or Yard Act merged with Sons of Kemet.

CVC – Docking the Pay. Another Welsh band – I swear this is a coincidence – CVC might be most notable for wiping all their old music from streaming platforms, so right now all there is from them are two songs, this and “Winston.” This new single combines an electronic beat that reminds me of a HAERTS track with vocals that might be from a drinking song.

Inhaler – These Are the Days. Bono’s son – I guess at some point I should stop calling him that – and his band keep churning out solid alt-rock singles.

The Aces – Girls Make Me Wanna Die. I’d lost track of Aces after their first single, “Stuck,” made my top songs of 2016 playlist, because I didn’t find the debut album as catchy, but this has that same pop energy with better production values.

Sløtface – Come hell or whatever. Sløtface has gone from a band to a one-woman operation, with singer/songwriter Haley Shea the only remaining member, and this the first new single from her as the new Sløtface.

Bartees Strange – Wretched. Strange’s second album, Farm to Table, is a big step forward, expanding his repertoire of genres and reducing the influence of the National on his overall sound.

Preoccupations – Ricochet. A welcome return for these Canadian post-punks, whose fourth album, Arrangements, is due out in September.

Kid Kapichi – Rob the Supermarket. Kid Kapichi had two singles this month, this rocker, which could fit very well on their debut album This Time Next Year, and the extra-biting acoustic track “Party at Number 10,” the subject of which should be quite evident.

beabadoobee – 10:36. Beabadoobee does Sunflower Bean? This is a delightfully sunny pop track, leading into her second album, Beatopia, due out on July 15th.

FKA twigs – killer. Yet another new track from FKA twigs, separate from her Caprisongs mixtape, and I think more in line with the music from magdalena. “It’s dangerous to be a woman in love” can have so many meanings here.

Dry Cleaning – Don’t Press Me. I don’t love Dry Cleaning’s flat and very forward-produced vocals, but they get this great Wire/Magazine vibe when they let it rip, as they do on this lead single from their sophomore album, Stumpwork, due out in October.

Christine and the Queens – Je te vois enfin. This is the first new track from Christine and the Queens since last fall, and introduces the “Redcar” persona, although whether that means anything for the music remains to be seen. It’s in a similar musical vein to “I disappear in your arms,” one of my favorite tracks of 2020.

Kiwi jr. – Unspeakable Things. Man that organ riff with its one chromatic tone is pretty great, harkening back to the brief moment in the mid-aughts when emo was listenable.

La Luz – San Fernando Shadow Blues. I assume this is the theme to the next James Bond movie, which will star the as-yet unnamed actor skeet-surfing in the opening scenes to save the planet.

Porcupine Tree – Rats Return. Closure/Continuation marks Porcupine Tree’s return after a 13-year absence from recording, including this heavy, Rush-like rocker and last year’s single “Harridan.”

Soilwork – Nous Sommes la Guerre. New prog metal from a Swedish band I typically associate with more extreme sounds, but here we get only clean vocals and a very melodic synth line driving the track.

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→ June 3, 2022
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Music update, May 2022.

May went by a little too quickly for my tastes, but it did have plenty of new music, including album releases from Everything Everything, Stars, Porridge Radio, Just Mustard, Craig Finn, The Black Keys, Florence + the Machine, Kendrick Lamar, The Smile, Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire, Sunflower Bean, and Black Star. If you can’t see the widget below, here’s a direct link to the playlist.

Jamie T – The Old Style Raiders. Jamie T has been quite popular in the UK for about 15 years now, since Zane Lowe gave him a boost before his debut album even appeared, but I haven’t been a fan of his music before, between the cracked-voice sung-talked vocals and off-kilter guitar lines, but this … put this straight into my veins. Every aspect of this song works, right from that initial power-chord riff through the vocals (his voice is fuller, and its tone more consistent) through the soaring lines over the chorus. I’m in.

Sharon Van Etten – Mistakes. I think this is SVE’s second-ever appearance on my playlists, and the other was a track she did with the National. Her laconic vocal style has never quite done it for me, but paired with a dark and insistent beat to contrast with some of her boldest singing yet. She leaned a bit into distortion and electronic elements on her last album, and they pop up even more on her latest record, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, although, once again, I’m less of a fan of her slower-tempo tracks.

Blossoms – Born Wild. I liked Blossoms’ latest album, Ribbon Around the Bomb, a bit less than I expected given how much I loved the two lead singles, “Ode to NYC” and “The Sulking Poet.” The title track, “Care For,” and this song are all quite solid. Recommended for fans of The Head and the Heart, Whiskeytown, and Lord Huron.

Folk Implosion – Don’t Give It Away. One of two new songs from Lou Barlow and John Davis, their first new music written and recorded together in 23 years, since the last Folk Implosion album was a Barlow solo effort. It sounds like they never left.

Young Guv – Nowhere At All. I saw the name “Young Guv” and thought it was going to be a horrible white rapper, but it’s actually Ben Cook, the guitarist for Fucked Up, making dream-pop tracks that sound like part of the Paisley Underground movement (early Bangles, Green on Red) rather than something new in 2022. I’m saying that’s a good thing.

Porcupine Tree – Herd Culling. Steve Wilson’s work with Opeth is evident once again on this new track, the third in advance of Closure/Continuation, the British prog-rock stalwarts’ first new album since 2009. This is edited to be a single, so I assume the album version will clock in at 10:28.

The Smile – Thin Thing. A Light for Attracting Attention, the debut album from The Smile (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead plus Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet), is almost certainly going to end up among my top ten albums of the year, but I’m still digesting it – it’s strange and ambitious and full of unexpected turns. This track has a big of “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” but moves into different territory with Skinner’s percussion when we hit the first break.

Foals – 2001. Foals promised us an upbeat dance album, and through four singles, where’s the lie? This is the funkiest these guys have ever sounded, and it turns out it melds extremely well with their previous sound.

Rina Sawayama – This Hell. A pretty straight-ahead pop track from Sawayama, this is the lead single from her sophomore album, Hold the Girl, due out September 2nd. I’d be surprised if this album didn’t make her a global star, although I know that isn’t always just about the music.

beabadoobee – Love Song. Beatrice is a talented guitarist who doesn’t let it rip enough, in my opinion, but this is a lovely little acoustic-ish number ahead of her second album, Beatopia, due out in July.

Sports Team – The Game. This extremely British rock band’s second album, Gulp, is due out in July. If the Libertines were more upper-class, but no more sober, they might sound like Sports Team.

Adwaith – Wedi Blino. If you think I’m including this song because it’s sung entirely in Welsh – the title means “Tired” – then, on the advice of my attorney, I will invoke my rights under the fifth amendment to avoid self-incrimination.

Suede – She Still Leads Me On. When Bernard Butler left Suede after their second album, Richard Oakes, who was just 17 years old, beat out hundreds of other guitarists to take his place. Oakes is now 46 years old. And Brett Anderson is 54. I suppose the bright side here is that I’m still young enough to put out that debut album!

Sky Ferreira – Don’t Forget. Ferreira released one single in 2019, and until now that was her only new music since 2013’s Night Time, My Time, her well-reviewed but uneven debut LP. This definitely sounds like a different artist – this is deeply rooted in mid-80s synthpop sounds, with music like Nu Shooz or even Peter Schilling.

Kendrick Lamar feat. Sampha – Father Time. I think I’ve settled into a space where I respect Kendrick Lamar’s work, but I know I’ll probably never love it. Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is a fascinating work of art, with some tremendous highlights, including “Auntie Diaries,” which is a massive statement of trans acceptance that also includes frequent use of the f-slur (in context, but still, regrettable). Barring that, this is my favorite track on the record, thanks to the presence of Mercury Prize winner Sampha on the chorus.

Stars – Pretenders. From Capelton Hill is Stars’ first album in five years, and it’s lovely even without the highs of 2012’s The North, which contained my favorite Stars track (and our wedding song), “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It.” This is probably my favorite song from the new album, especially with the duet in the chorus between Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell.

Superbloom – Falling Up. Very Melvins meets the Smashing Pumpkins circa 1994. I’m very vulnerable to music that reminds me of very specific eras, bands, or moments in time. This does it.

Just Mustard – Seed. This Irish group lives on the abrasive side of shoegaze without becoming as inscrutable (or unlistenable) as My Bloody Valentine, whose music I could just never get into. Just Mustard’s second album, Heart Under, just came out last Friday.

Killing Joke – Lord of Chaos. This is not a drill – we have new music from Killing Joke, a four-song EP called Lord of Chaos, and they pick up right where they left off after 2015’s Pylon. (The EP actually came out in late March. I’m just behind.)

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→ May 6, 2022
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Music update, April 2022.

April was a lighter month for good singles, but we’re heading into a heavy period of new album releases starting today (Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Sunflower Bean, Warpaint). We get new albums from The Smile, Everything Everything, Porridge Radio, Stars, and Liam Gallagher this month, and Bartees Strange, Foals, Soccer Mommy, and Post Malahahahaha I can’t even finish that, next month. As always, you can click here to access the playlist if you can’t see the widget below.

Kae Tempest feat. Grian Chatten – I Saw Light. Tempest is a poet and spoken-word artist whose work I was unfamiliar with, but this song, featuring Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C., flattened me. I heard the song and thought they might be a poet, just because the lyrics are that good, especially the depth of imagery within them.

Belle and Sebastian – Young and Stupid. This is the sweet spot for me with Belle and Sebastian – lush and a little more uptempo, with Murdoch’s wry humor throughout the lyrics, which he also exhibited in this tweet on Wednesday.

Sports Team – R Entertainment. Strong lyrics might be the theme for this month’s playlist; Sports Team does that thing I keep mentioning that I like where we get some British singer sing-talking clever lyrics over post-punk backing music. They’re just the right side of obnoxious for me.

Just Mustard – Mirrors. I think this Irish shoegaze band is starting to come into its own heading into their second album, with a better sense of its sound, including a slightly more prominent melody, and better production that better centers the vocals.

Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler – The Eagle and the Dove. Yep, that’s Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. Buckley’s career started on a British reality competition show, where she finished second, with the winner getting a part in a new stage production of Oliver! … which is a long way of saying she was a singer before she was an actress. It turns out she’s great at both, which you can see in 2019’s Wild Rose.

Let’s Eat Grandma – Levitation. I understand the joke in this band’s name (the importance of proper punctuation!) but I still don’t like it. Their sound, though, has a very mid-80s synthpop vibe that is catnip to me as a child of that era. This is my favorite song from them so far, coming off their third album, Two Ribbons, released last month.

Everything Everything – I Want a Love Like This. One of my favorite bands of the last decade, EE will release their sixth album, Raw Data Feel, on May 20th. This is the third single from that album – a fourth, “Pizza Boy,” dropped this morning – and I’m pretty excited about the direction so far.

Foals – Looking High. Foals promised that their upcoming album, Life Is Yours, due out June 17th, would be upbeat and danceable, and the early singles have delivered on that promise.

Cory Wong – Power Station. Wong has worked with a few musicians who worked with Prince, and this track sounds a lot like something we might hear from Prince’s endless well of unreleased tracks. I’m in.

beabadoobee – See You Soon. Beatopiacomes outon July 17th; withthis and “Talk,” both very strong singles with different vibes (this one is quieter and more lush, “Talk” is more straight-up rock), coming out in the last few weeks, I’m expecting a big leap forward on her second record.

The Head and the Heart – Shut Up. Every Shade of Blue came out in April and it’s really all over the place – it sounds like the work of three different bands who split the album between them – with this my favorite track on the album.

Arcade Fire – Unconditional I (Lookout Kid). I definitely worry any time Arcade Fire puts out a song with a second part, but this is actually a simpler and less pretentious affair than Win Butler has offered on similar diptychs (“Infinite Content,” the Orpheus/Eurydice tracks from Reflektor, or the two singles they released in March).

Interpol – Toni. The lead single from their forthcoming album The Other Side of Make-Believe, due out July 15th, is an understated affair from Interpol as they celebrate their 25th anniversary, a change from how they usually announce new albums – “PDA,” “Slow Hands,” and “The Heinrich Maneuver” were all heavier rock tracks and the lead singles from their respective albums.

Sunflower Bean – I Don’t Have Control Sometimes. This jangle-pop trio’s third album, Headful of Sugar, comes out today, featuring five songs we’ve heard already – four advance singles as well as the bonus track “Moment in the Sun,” a one-off single from 2020 that made my top 100 from that year.

Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia. Speaking of these Dublin punks, they dial the intensity down on their third album, as on the title track here. It’s hit or miss, unfortunately, as I think they’ve lost the righteous anger that made their last album, A Hero’s Death, more successful.

Iceage – All the Junk on the Outskirts. This track was left on the cutting room floor during the recording of 2018’s Beyondless, but they’ve “reconfigured” it and released in advance of their summer/fall tour.

Buzzcocks – Senses Out of Control. I assumed the death of Pete Shelley in 2018 would be the end of the Buzzcocks, but here they are … and this is actually pretty good, wth 66-year-old Steve Diggle handling vocals.

Working Men’s Club – Circumference. I don’t know if WMC qualify as “darkwave,” but I love their darker spin on new wave, which at least has strong roots in 1980s darkwave bands like Clan of Xymox and Bauhaus.

Wet Leg – Ur Mum. I’m just not on this duo’s wavelength despite the wide critical acclaim; the weird high/low vocal delivery just rubs me the wrong way, and I find myself in the minority in thinking their lyrics aren’t that witty. That said, there are three songs on their self-titled debut album I like, this one “Angelica,” and “Wet Dream,” which is a pretty solid effort.

SAULT – Luos Higher. SAULT changed their entire sound for their sixth album, Air, released last month with no advance notice, as with their previous records. They’ve dispensed with the ’70s funk and soul sounds, and all of the Black Lives Matter-themed lyrics are gone … in fact, just about all of the lyrics are gone. Air is almost all instrumental, highly experimental in music styles and forms, and simultaneously impressive and disappointing. I respect the ambition here, but what made SAULT’s first four albums in particular so incredible was their combination of smart, incisive lyrics and a modern twist on classic genres of music. Bring that beat back, Inflo.

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→ April 4, 2022
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Music update, March 2022.

Another strong month for new music, enough that I ended up cutting a few tracks – any time I do that I feel like it means the standard to make the playlist is getting higher. You can access it here if you can’t see the widget below.

Blossoms – Ode to NYC. I’d heard Blossoms before, but not much of their music, and nothing grabbed me like the two singles they released in March from their upcoming album, Ribbon Around the Bomb, have. “Ode to NYC” is like a mad scientist selected the best genes from Lord Huron and The Head and the Heart and made a new creature into this song. It’s also kind of amazing to me that a British band can so effortlessly co-opt the American indie-folk sound.

Riverby – Chapel. The vocals here from August Greenberg are stunning, on what is by far the best track on this emo-punk band’s latest album, Absolution. Just make the whole record out of this.

Hatchie – Lights On. This Australiandream-pop singer/songwriter is about to release her second full-length album, Giving the World Away, on April 22nd, featuring this track, “Quicksand,” and the solid title track.

HAIM – Lost Track. I have never cared for HAIM’s sort of inoffensive soft-pop, despite their acclaim from other musicians, many of whose music I liked. This is the first song by theirs I’ve really liked, as it doesn’t try to do much at all – there’s a good hook in the chorus, some nice counterpoint in the vocals, and it’s over in under two and a half minutes.

Soccer Mommy – Shotgun. Another artist I’ve never been able to get into, Soccer Mommy announced her third album, Sometimes, Forever, will drop on June 24th, with this lead single boasting a great hook in the pre-chorus line “Whenever you want me…”

Greentea Peng – Your Mind. Peng has shown an experimental bent since the start of her career, but she’s widening her musical template even further with this single, which leans further into jazz and if anything de-emphasizes her vocals in favor of more interesting music.

Elzhi feat. Georgia-Anne Muldrow – Already Gone. Elzhi is a Detroit rapper loosely associated with Danny Brown and the late J Dilla, with a discography that goes back to an EP he released in 1998. I’d never heard anything by him, but he has a strong old-school delivery that reflects those late ’90s roots.

Jack White feat. Q-Tip – Hi-De-Ho. White and Tip worked together on the final ATCQ album in 2016, so the pairing here isn’t surprising, but the song itself is. It’s not just Q-Tip making one of his hundred or so guest appearances, where he never mails it in but also never seems to exert himself that much, and it’s not just White playing a riff or two over and over again. It sounds like an experiment, like two people got in the studio and started messing with several ideas, but decided to release four minutes of that musical exploration even though it doesn’t confirm to expectations of what a single from two experienced, fairly mainstream artists should sound like.

Bartees Strange – Heavy Heart. Strange is a huge fan of the National but his music always sounds to me like a better twist on The Hold Steady.

Band of Horses – Warning Signs. I’d say Things Are Great is much better than Why Are You OK and somewhat better than Mirage Rock but not as good as Cease to Begin. So, if you already like Band of Horses, you should like this album, which for me was a mixed bag but more good than not.

Spiritualized – The Mainline Song. I’ve known about Spiritualized for probably 25 years, at least since Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, which was widely praised by critics at the time and has only grown in stature since then. Also, it’s hard to believe that that album, OK Computer, and Urban Hymns are all a quarter century old. Anyway, this is a joyous track from Spiritualized that seems to catch them at the top of their game.

Weird Nightmare – Searching for You. Weird Nightmare is Alex Edkins of METZ, and this sounds a lot like METZ, unsurprisingly, although if anything it’s a bit tighter and more accessible.

Blossoms – The Sulking Poet. I haven’t put two songs from one artist on the same playlist in probably five or more years, so it’s a big fucking deal (to me, at least), when I do do it. Like, big enough that I was looking at Blossoms tour dates and debating whether it made sense to go to Lisbon for two days to see them in a music festival.

alt-J – Happier When You’re Gone. I’vegone from the world’s biggest alt-J fan to someone who’d be fine if they never released another album. The ambitious, experimental, meticulous songwriting from their first album, An Awesome Wave, is long gone in favor of more easily digestible and, consequently, more boring alt-pop songs. This track is probably the closest they’ve come at least to the sensibility of the first album since anything on their second record.

Everything Everything – Teletype. Contrast that with Everything Everything, who probably peaked for me with the two tremendous singles off Arc, “Cough Cough” and “Kemosabe,” yet who haven’t stopped trying to innovate, or given up their weirdness to pander to a larger audience. This draws more on electronic music styles than what we’ve heard from them previously, although the next track, “I Want a Love Like This,” goes in a different direction.

Sprints – Delia Smith. Sprints’ new EP, A Modern Job, features a couple of very strong punk-pop tracks that are more punk than pop, including this one, which names one of Britain’s most notable celebrity chefs.

Pillow Queens – Hearts & Minds. This Irish quartet released its new album, Leave the Lights On, on Friday, to positive reviews. There’s definitely an American alt-rock vibe to their music; I saw a comparison to the Killers, which holds if you consider the half of the Killers’ catalogue where they lean into roots and country-rock, like “Dying Breed” or “Lightning Fields” from Imploding the Mirage.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Personal Message. A new artist to me, Melody Prochet released her first album a decade ago, and continues to make ethereal chamber-pop with a similar vocal style to Hatchie’s.

Arcade Fire – The Lightning II. Arcade Fire released two albums in March, right before Will Butler announced he was leaving the band. “The Lightning I” is a pretentious slog, while this track has more of the big energy that recalls their first two albums.

The Smile – Skrting on the Surface. I assume this supergroup’s album is coming very soon, with three singles released so far; it’s hard not to think of this as pre-Kid A Radiohead given the prominence of Thom Yorke’s voice and Jonny Greenwood’s musical direction, although nothing they’ve put out so far has the same rock vibe as Radiohead’s peak albums Pablo Honey and OK Computer.

Bloc Party – Sex Magik. I will probably forever want Kele & Company to make the next “Banquet,” but I’ll settle for something as frenetic and loud in that post-punk vein. Last year’s “Traps” had it, this mostly has it, while the newest single “If We Get Caught” doesn’t.

beabadoobee – Talk. Beatrice Laus’s second album Beatopia is due out on July 15th, and if this sunny fuzzed-out lead single is an indicator of what’s coming, I’m in.

The Mysterines – Means to Bleed. Lia Metcalfe and company finally released their first full-length album, but it didn’t include some of their best singles to date. Where’s “I Win Every Time?” Or “Gasoline?” Or “Bet Your Pretty Face?” There’s good material here, and Metcalfe’s deep, smoky voice pairs so well with the band’s crunching guitars, but they’ve toned some of the energy down a notch, and I miss their earliest work. I still think they’ve got a chance to be huge.

Drug Church – Fun’s Over. Musicians I know love Drug Church, and this marks the post-hardcore group’s second appearance on one of my playlists; their new album Hygiene is quick and punchy, with short bursts of mid-tempo punk with heavy bottoms and garage-rock production.

Crows – Garden of England. Crows’ debut album Silver Tongues was one of my favorites of 2019, and they just returned with their second LP, Beware Believers, on Friday. Their music is just as loud and angry, blending punk, garage, and thrash on this furious track released just a few weeks before the full record.

Opeth – Width of a Circle. Don’t get too excited – it’s a bonus track on the extended edition of Opeth’s 2019 album In Cauda Venenum. But it’s still new Opeth, and that’s good.

Vio-Lence – Upon their Cross. The lyrics don’t make a ton of sense, but the riffing from these Bay Area thrash pioneers is still good.

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→ March 6, 2022
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Music update, February 2022.

February turned out to be a loaded month for music, especially album releases, with The Wombats’ Fix Yourself, Not the World and Frank Turner’s FTHC two of my favorites, while Gang of Youths’ angel in realtime was a letdown after three great singles leading up to the release. I still need to listen to Black Country, New Road’s new album, and re-listen to the new LPs from White Lies and Band of Horses (which came out on Friday). In the meantime, here’s my latest playlist, which you can see here if you can’t see the widget below.

Everything Everything – Bad Friday. I love the way this song recalls the frenetic energy of some of EE’s best tracks, from “Cough Cough” to “Kemosabe” to “My Kz, Ur Bf” and “Planets.” The English art-rock quartet will release their sixth album, Raw Data Feel, on May 20th.

Portugal. The Man – What, Me Worry? Five years after Woodstock made the band into stars, led by the all-timer hit “Feel It Still,” the Portland-based rockers will return with their ninth album this June, and have just begun a U.S. tour with alt-J.

Arlo Parks – Softly. Parks’ first new music since her Mercury Prize-winning debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams came out in January of 2021 is this shimmering new track that contrasts sunny music with melancholy lyrics about a dying relationship. She told NME that she’s expanding her musical palette, which I take as a great sign.

Mattiel – Lighthouse. Featuring one of the best pop hooks of the year so far, this is the second single in advance of the Atlanta indie-rock duo’s third album, Georgia Gothic, on March 18th. I get a big Swing Out Sister vibe from the song, maybe just because of the lead singer’s voice.

Pillow Queens – Be By Your Side. I think this is the first Pillow Queens track I’ve heard, but their 2020 debut album In Waiting earned some very positive reviews; I’m fairly sure Spotify’s algorithm put it on my Release Radar because I love whenyoung, another Irish band that mines similar sonic territory.

Foals – 2am. Life is Yours, Foals’ seventh album, is due out on June 17th, and this is the second banger so far from the record, after last fall’s outstanding “Wake Me Up.”

Sunflower Bean – Who Put You Up to This? Great guitar work here, unusual for Sunflower Bean, whose previous songs have been more muted and driven by bright melodies.

Just Mustard – Still. This Irish shoegaze band first showed up on my playlists in 2019, with the singles “October” and “Seven,” but this is their first new music since then and comes with an announcement of a new album, Heart Under, due out in May. I enjoy the hard-edged guitar work contrasted with the clear vocals of Katie Ball.

Mdou Moctar – Nakanegh Digh. This bonus track on the deluxe version of Afrique Victime absolutely rocks, like so much of that album, and I can’t believe I have a college game to attend on the same night Moctar and Parquet Courts are playing near me.

Melt Yourself Down – Balance. I don’t even know how to describe MYD’s music; it’s not eclectic so much as it smushes together a half-dozen genres or styles, notably jazz, American R&B, and dance. They’ve been around for a decade, with their fourth album, Pray for Me I Don’t Fit In, coming out in February, but this was my first exposure to them. The guitar riff here is fucking incredible.

Johnny Marr – Ghoster. Marr has never quite hit the right melodic notes as a solo artist – I hate to say he needs his former bandmate, given what happened to that guy, but he needs someone like that – although the early singles from Fever Dreams Parts 1-4 have had some decent hooks.

Joy Oladokun w/Tim Gent – Fortune Favors the Bold. I love Oladokun’s voice, and here she finds another strong hook in the chorus; I’m not sure if Gent’s rapping adds much here, though.

Belle & Sebastian – Unnecessary Drama. I can never tell the direction in which Stuart Murdoch et al are going, but this sounds like a shift back to the more uptempo, rock-oriented sounds from Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.

Wet Leg – Angelica. I hated Wet Leg’s single “Chaise Longue,” which got all kinds of critical praise despite being annoying and juvenile, but this track is far better in every way. The lyrics are actually funny and clever, the melody is stronger, and they’re not repeating the same line ad nauseum. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, as they’re still quite distinctly in that vein of British indie rock where everything’s a bit off kilter, but if you’ve read my music posts for a while, you know I’m usually a sucker for that (from Gang of Four to Yard Act).

Blossoms – Ode to NYC. Another band I feel like I should have known before, Blossoms are English but remind me of Lord Huron and The Head and the Heart in all the good ways.

The Head and the Heart – Virginia (Wind in the Night). These folk-rock stalwarts will release their fifth album, Every Shade of Blue, on April 29th.

The Afghan Whigs – I’ll Make You See God. Good to have Dulli and company back. Age hasn’t blunted their sharp edges at all.

Killing Joke – Lords of Chaos. I assumed these post-punk icons were done after 2015’s Pylon, a fantastic album that would have served as a perfect coda to a long career of genre-expanding albums and influencing several generations of punk, metal, and alternative bands, but they’re releasing a new EP with this as the title track. Also, the show Euphoria really should have used Killing Joke’s song of the same name for the theme music.

The Beths – A Real Thing. The Beths return nearly two years after the New Zealand power-pop band’s last album, Jump Rope Gazers, with a song that talks obliquely about climate change. There’s no word on a new album but the band is about to finally embark on their first North American tour.

Alt-J – Happier When You’re Gone. The Dream, alt-J’s fourth album, represents a further shift in a less ambitious, more overtly commercial direction for the British trio, who have never managed to reach the heights of their debut An Awesome Wave in the decade since its release. This track bears some resemblance to that first album in its music, although there’s nothing so daring anywhere on this record.

Kreator – Hate Über Alles. The German thrash legends are still at it, forty years after they first formed, and I don’t think they’ve lost a step or even changed their sound much in that time.

Zeal and Ardor – Death to the Holy. This is about as good as Z&A’s marriage of gospel and death metal can get, where the extreme sounds actually work to enhance the more traditional elements between those moments.

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→ February 7, 2022
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Music update, January 2022.

Prospect season pushed this back about a week, but my monthly playlists are back, and this one is longer than usual because I have some tracks from late December as well. You can see the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

As for my use of Spotify, I’m leaning towards switching to another service, but in the middle of prospect-writing season, I didn’t have time to figure out the logistics of moving all of my playlists and information over – let alone deciding which service to use. I don’t think their responses so far have been adequate at all; putting a disclaimer before a podcast where the guest spends 2-3 hours spewing misinformation does nothing to stop the misinformation from spreading. That’s even before I get into more recent revelations of a Joe Rogan using the n-word dozens of times. I’ll get through the prospect reports and reevaluate where I put my money and where I ask you to listen to my playlists.

Gang of Youths – in the wake of your leave. I can’t wait for this Australian group’s third album, Angel in Realtime, which drops on February 25th. The title track was a top ten song of last year for me, and this one isn’t too far behind. There’s a lot of peak (1980s, not “Beautiful Day”) U2 in their music.

Khruangbin feat. Leon Bridges – B-Side. The collaboration that brought us last year’s EP Texas Sun returns with another EP this month called Texas Moon. This song is fantastic, but the second single from the EP, “Chocolate Hills,” was surprisingly boring.

Large Plants – The Death of Pliny. Large Plants is the new side project from Jack Sharp of Wolf People (not to be confused with Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Wolfgang Press, or Wolf). This track is very late ’60s blues-psychedelia with some lovely guitarwork as a highlight.

Waxahatchee – Tomorrow. Katie Crutchfield did the soundtrack for the Apple TV+ adaptation of the graphic novel series El Deafo. This song feels very much like someone asked her to write the most upbeat song she could, and it’s great.

Camp Cope – Running with the Hurricane. I heard this song before knowing anything about the band, and was surprised to hear something so Americana-sounding from an Australian band. If you like Waxahatchee, I think this song might be up your alley.

Sprints – Little Fix. This Irish punk-garage quartet have churned out a series of hooky singles that don’t skimp on the noise elements, always with something a bit clever in the lyrics as well.

Frank Turner – A Wave Across a Bay. Turner’s tribute to Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison, who killed himself in 2018, has a beautiful build in the chorus and Turner’s knack for turning clever phrases even in grief.

Spoon – Wild. Spoon’s first album in five years, Lucifer on the Sofa, drops this Friday, and the two singles I’ve heard so far show Britt Daniel in peak form, with a harder edge to the music behind him, something I can certainly support. The piano riff behind the chorus sounds incredibly familiar to me though.

White Lies – Am I Really Going to Die. It’s not as morbid as it sounds – it’s quite upbeat, in fact, and after hearing the two singles they’ve released, I’m wondering if As I Try Not to Fall Apart (due out February 18th) is going to be this British new wave band’s best album yet.

Shungudzo – It’s a good day (to fight the system). A tip from my grad school classmate Jim led me to I’m not a mother, but I have children, the 2021 debut album from Zimbabwean-American (and former Real World cast member) Shungudzo. The album itself combines multiple genres, from folk to hip-hop, with biting social commentary, and would have made my top albums of the year list if I’d heard it in time.

FKA Twigs feat. Jorja Smith and Unknown T – jealousy. So FKA Twigs released a mixtape in January called [CAPRISONGS] featuring a cornucopia of high-octane guests, but if you’ve followed my music lists at all, you had to know I’d choose the song with Jorja Smith to highlight. The drumbeat behind this track is intense, with sudden stops and starts that keep you off balance for the duration of the song.

Lucius – Next to Normal. I’ve liked quite a few Lucius songs over the decade since their first proper album came out in 2013, but I did not expect this track, which sounds like it could have come from Prince’s back catalog. Their third (or fourth, depending on whether you count their self-released record from 2009) album, Second Nature, comes out on April 8th.

The Mysterines – Dangerous. I’ve been looking forward to this British hard rock quartet’s debut album for about two years now, although this track isn’t the best representation of the high-octane grunge I’ve come to love from them. That LP, titled Reeling, is out March 11th.

Kid Kapichi feat. Bob Vylan – New England. Two artists who appeared on my top 100 songs of 2021 teamed up on this new single, taking aim at voter apathy in the UK with music that would have fit right in on Kid Kapichi’s This Time Next Year.

Crows – Slowly Separate. Crows’ Silver Tongues was one of my favorite albums of 2019, and this is the first new music from the British punk-rock band since then. They’re signed to IDLES’ Balley Records label, but I find their music more accessible and interesting than their bosses’ throwback punk style, more akin to Kid Kapichi or Fontaines D.C.

Yard Act – Pour Another. The Overload, the debut album from this British post-punk band, did not disappoint, from the title track to “Payday” to “The Incident” to this bouncy, dissonant tune. I keep coming back to the Gang of Four comparisons because they fit so well. Maybe these guys should cover “Natural’s Not In It?”

The Smile – You Will Never Work in Television Again. The Smile are Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. There’s supposed to be an album coming, but for now we have two singles that sound a fair bit like Radiohead’s first album, and I’m here for anything where Radiohead members return to their rock roots.

Peter Doherty & Frédéric Lo – You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever. Yep, that’s Pete Doherty of the Libertines, working with the French musician Lo, with an album from the two of them due out on March 18th. Doherty also hinted at new Libertines material perhaps coming within the year, which would be even more exciting, but this track has a lot of that same vibe, almost like an older twist on the Libertines’ sound.

Hatchie – Quicksand. Hatchie’s dream-pop sound always reminds me of the Cranberries’ first two albums before that band went sideways; don’t be fooled by the slow start here, as the chorus has the big hook Hatchie delivers on all her better tracks.

Griff & Sigrid – Head on Fire. Griff doesn’t miss – that’s three incredible pop tracks from her in a year, this one featuring the popular Norwegian singer Sigrid.

Tempers – Nightwalking. Gothic electronica from a NYC duo who’ll release their third album, New Meaning, in April.

Steve Vai – Zeus in Chains. Vai’s Passion and Warfare came out the summer after I graduated from high school, and I couldn’t get enough of it. That particular style of instrumental guitar music hit a creative and popular zenith at that time, ending some time in 1992-93 with the rise of grunge (I’d call Joe Satriani’s “Summer Song” the last big hit of this movement), and Vai’s next album, Sex & Religion, didn’t have the same kind of melodic highs, and I fell off the train. Then this song popped up on my Release Radar, and it’s pretty good – maybe not quite at the level of “I Would Love To” or “The Animal,” but with a solid hook and some peak Vai shredding.

Zeal & Ardor – Church Burns. This project of Swiss-American musician Manuel Gagneux will put out a new, self-titled album this month, and if this song is any indication, his efforts to integrate gospel sounds with extreme metal – he says “black” metal but I assume that’s a play on words – are reaching their fruition.

King Buffalo – Shadows. This track is ten minutes long, just to warn you, but if you like psychedelic metal with a good bit of stoner to it, King Buffalo’s Acheron should be right up your alley.

Anxious – Let Me. This Connecticut hardcore punk band veers into extreme metal territory, with less of the melodic sensibility of last year’s “In April.”

Destruction – Diabolical. These icons of ’80s thrash – Wikipedia calls them part of the “Big Four” of German thrash, which, sure – actually sound pretty good for a bunch of guys pushing 60, and I give them credit for sticking to their sound. Thrash’s moment came and went as its adherents either went more commercial (looking at you, Metallica) or more extreme, but I’ll forever think of it as the perfect blend of speed and technical playing, without the excesses of most death metal bands.

Deserted Fear – Reborn Paradise. German melodic death metal that borders on thrash, just with growled lyrics. The machine gun-like guitar riff behind the verse stood out for me even with the ridiculous vocals.

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→ December 23, 2021
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Top 100 songs of 2021.

Another great year of new music is in the books; despite less time in the car, I still heard more music this year than I can remember hearing before, and thus heard more good music, with longer monthly playlists and the longest year-end albums ranking I’ve ever assembled.

Previous years’ top 100 lists are all here: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.

You can access this year’s playlist here or use the widget below.

101. SAULT – London Gangs. This song is no longer available to stream, as SAULT only put their fifth album, NINE, online for 99 days. As a result, I’m disqualifying it from my top 100 and my albums list (I didn’t love it anyway), but this was the best track on the record.

100. Potty Mouth – Not Going Anywhere. I’m still bummed that this power-pop trio called it a day, but I can hardly blame them after all the trouble they had with their record label before their second album came out. Their last EP, 1% Happier, has four songs, including this banger – which I hope is a harbinger of at least one of these women staying in the industry – and “Contessa Barefoot.”

99. Wye Oak – Its Way with Me. Most of what we got from Wye Oak in 2021 was B-sides and demos from the Civilian era, but the duo did give us two new tracks, this one and “TNT,” without word on a new album yet.

98. Mini Trees – Carrying On. Mini Trees is Lexi Vega, an LA-based guitarist and singer who just released her debut album, Always in Motion, this fall, after putting out a few EPs over the last few years. This was the best track on the record, with the strongest riffs, although I don’t find Vega’s vocals that distinctive or interesting.

97. YONAKA – Call Me a Saint. I loved YONAKA’s debut album, Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow, but their follow-up, this summer’s “mixtape” Seize the Power, didn’t fulfill the first record’s promise, not in music or in lyrics, where Theresa Jarvis’ finds herself singing a series of clichés. Two tracks stood out, this one and “Ordinary,” more for their power-pop music than their words.

96. Cœur de Pirate – Plan à trois. Béatrice Martin released what I think is her best album to date, Impossible à aimer, full of beautiful tracks with lush arrangements and great pop hooks, many of which come straight out of the ’70s.

95. gang of youths – unison. This Australian quintet had a huge hit with their 2017 album Go Farther in Lightness, sweeping four of the biggest honors at the ARIA Awards (that country’s equivalent to the Grammys), but didn’t release another new studio single until “The Angel of 8th Avenue” this past summer, followed by this quieter, more serene track – fitting, as both were included on the EP total serene in July – that builds gradually to a huge finish that sounds like it was written to fill a concert hall. It’s all leading up to the band’s third album, Angel in Realtime, due out in February.

94. Jerro & Panama – Lost for Words. Jerro, a Belgian producer of melodic house music, released his first album this fall, highlighted by this collaboration with Australia’s electro-pop group Panama, who have appeared on my lists in the past for “Always” and “Hope for Something.”

93. IDLES – The Wheel. IDLES are critical darlings, but I can’t get on board with most of their music – it’s angry and true to punk’s roots, but that alone doesn’t make the songs compelling. This was the one track off Crawler, their fourth album, that grabbed me.

92. Talk Show – Underworld. This was the only release this year from Talk Show, produced by two members of Hot Chip (whose influence is rather evident), a textured, dark, almost gothic-sounding track with more electronic elements than we heard on the band’s previous EP. The title of this song is meant to evoke the legendary British electronic group, according to Talk Show themselves.

91. Renée Reed – Neboj. Reed grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, and the Cajun musical influence appears in spots across her eponymous debut album, a lo-fi affair that’s mostly just her voice and guitar. That formula can wear thin across an entire record, but here the guitar work is just gorgeous and invites a close listen, while the ethereal vocals accentuate the guitar rather than drowning it out.

90. Porcupine Tree – Harridan. Not bad for a bunch of greybeards – Porcupine Tree have been around since the late 1980s, and I assumed they were done recording, but this eight-minute single heralds the prog-metal icons’ first new album in 13 years, Closure/Continuation, due out in February. Fans of Opeth’s recent work will likely adore this.

89. Abstract Mindstate – A Wise Tale. Kanye West brought this Chicago hip-hop duo back together to record a new album for his label, YZY SND, and this lead single, which recalls early ’90s The Pharcyde, ended up by far the best track on their comeback album.

88. Superbloom – Pollen. Superbloom is a new grunge quartet out of Brooklyn who sound as much like Nirvana as any band I can think of from the last 25 years, although that often works against them (listen to “Whatever,” their most-streamed track on Spotify, to hear what happens when homage turns to imitation). “Pollen” is the title track from their debut album, which came out on my 48th birthday, and it’s the most original song on the record while still reminiscent of many great ’90s alt-rock artists (Hum and Lotion in particular).

87. Sunflower Bean – Baby Don’t Cry. I’m in the tank for Sunflower Bean at this point – they seem unable to do any wrong for me. Their indie-pop sound just works, and they come up with a lot of solid hooks, so while I conceded that they’re not breaking new ground, I’m going to listen to everything they put out.

86. Michael Kiwanuka – Beautiful Life. A lovely ballad from the 2020 Mercury Prize winner that came from the soundtrack to the Netflix documentary Convergence: Courage in a Crisis.

85. HAERTS – Shivering. HAERTS’ latest album, Dream Nation, was a mild disappointment to me, mostly because I liked their earlier work more and hoped for either some growth or a return to the more upbeat sound of their self-titled debut album. There are some highlights here, however, notably this track, boosted by an insistent organ line and repeated phrase in the chorus that serves as the album’s best earworm.

84. Spoon – The Hardest Cut. Hey, if Spoon wants to turn towards harder rock, I’m here for it. This song still grooves, maybe as well as Spoon’s best stuff (“I Turn My Camera On” remains my favorite for that reason).

83. Alien Boy – The Way I Feel. Speaking of grunge, there was a moment around 1995 when grunge and shoegaze seemed to be on a collision course, and bands like Lush and Ride were producing something that seemed like a hybrid of the two … and it never caught on no matter how much I wanted it to. Alien Boy, who describe themselves as a “loud gay band from Portland,” sound very much like a band of another era, especially on this track, where the arpeggiated guitars could have been ripped from any indie rock album in the middle of the 1990s.

82. Floatie – Shiny. This Chicago experimental-rock group released their debut album, Voyage Out, this spring to some critical acclaim. There’s some of black midi’s intention to deconstruct rock music and put it back together in novel ways, but here the musicians’ jazz backgrounds play a more prominent role, making something more accessible while every bit as off-kilter.

81. Susanna Hoffs – You Just May Be the One. Yes, that Susanna Hoffs, darling of 1980s MTV – it is not possible to me that one of my main celebrity crushes from childhood is now 62, by the way – just released her fourth solo album, her first LP of new material in nine years, with Bright Lights, and it’s the best thing she’s done since When You’re a Boy, which featured her wonderful cover of the Lightning Seeds’ “All I Want.” (The Lightning Seeds take their name from a misheard Prince lyric from “Raspberry Beret.” Prince, meanwhile, wrote the song “Manic Monday” and gave it to the Bangles for Hoffs to sing, giving the band their first mainstream hit. Everything is illuminated.) Hoffs’s voice has lost little to nothing, and the quirky folk-rock style she has pursued since the Bangles’ first breakup hits a new high here with tracks like this one.

80. Mastodon – Pushing the Tides. Plenty of standout tracks on Hushed & Grim, Mastodon’s vast new album, but this has been my favorite so far, just edging out “Teardrinker” and “Sickle & Peace.”

79. Lottery Winners feat. the Wonder Stuff – Bang. I’m disappointed that this track didn’t make The Lottery Winners’ great new album Something to Leave the House For, as it has a great hook in the chorus and brings back the Wonder Stuff, authors of the underrated 1990 college-radio hit “Circlesquare.”

78. The War on Drugs – Harmonia’s Dream. This is the album that made me a War on Drugs fan, thanks to tracks like this one, featuring a decidedly upbeat tempo and ton a memorable chorus, and a strong guitar solo at the end.

77. James BKS – Kusema. The French-Cameroonian producer and African hip-hop artist has released a handful of singles so far ahead of his delayed debut album Wolves of Africa, which he’s planning to release on his own Grown Kid record label. Kusema is the Swahili word for “to say” or “to express,” while this track includes bikutsi rhythms from his native Cameroon.

76. Anxious – In April. Anxious are a fairly new band from Connecticut with hardcore roots – they contributed a song to a hardcore compilation earlier this year – but whose bread-and-butter is pop-punk material like this highly melodic track or the subsequent single “Call from You” (which reminds me a lot of the early 2000s act Sugarcult).

75. Maisie Peters – Psycho. A straight-up pop song from one of my favorite new voices of the last five years. Good luck getting that chorus out of your head.

74. Frank Turner – Miranda. I liked the song before I knew the backstory – this is about Turner’s father, who came out as transgender in her 70s, and how the two are rebuilding their relationship.

73. Khruangbin feat. Leon Bridges – B-Side. Khruanbin and Leon Bridges are preparing Texas Moon, a follow-up EP to their 2020 release Texas Sun, for a February release. Khruangbin have been on quite a roll between that first EP and their outstanding album Mordechai, which made my top five albums of last year. This feels more like a Khruangbin track that just happens to have guest vocals than any of the tracks from Texas Sun, which works for me.

72. Courtney Barnett – Before You Gotta Go. I’ve been a Courtney Barnett fan for years, but her latest album, Things Take Time, Take Time, felt stagnant to me – her sound hasn’t changed at all since those first breakout singles (“Avant Gardener” and “History Eraser”) except perhaps to become more laconic and mellow, and I don’t think that sound best suits her unique lyrical style. More “Pedestrian at Best,” please, and less “Rae Street.”

71. Greentea Peng – Nah It Ain’t the Same. Aria Wells describes herself as a “psychedelic R&B” singer, although there are elements of hip-hop and light jazz throughout her music. Her debut album Man Made came out last June, but was uneven and in many cases seemed unformed, while this track was easily the best on the record.

70. Kid Kapichi – Self-Saboteur. Kid Kapichi’s self-produced, self-released debut album This Time Next Year is a blast almost start to finish, making it a bit hard for me to single out specific songs for this list – I truly don’t dial it in for just one or two songs, but start from the first track (“First World Goblins”) and go as long as I can with it. But if forced to pick a few standouts, this is one of them. “I don’t mean to sound like a preacher” is one of the lines of the year for me – I catch myself walking around the house singing it all the time.

69. TURNSTILE – BLACKOUT. TURNSTILE are like a better Helmet, for those of you old enough to remember the ridiculous buzz around Helmet, which the NYC punks never entirely fulfilled. If you remember Helmet’s more mainstream-oriented stuff, like “Unsung” and “Milquetoast,” you have a good sense of TURNSTILE’s sensibilities.

68. black midi – Chondromalacia Patella. black midi aren’t much of a singles band, between their song lengths and unusual sense of … well, everything. I’ve said before that they sound like a band trying to play their instruments inside-out, and that fits their new album as much as it did their first. This might be the most accessible track on the record, which is a low bar to clear, but also stands reasonably well on its own.

67. Bobby Gillespie w/Jehnny Beth – Chase It Down. The lead singer of Primal Scream and the (former?) lead singer of the Savages collaborated on an album this year, Utopian Ashes, that didn’t make great use of his guitar playing or her voice, unfortunately. Those are best showcased on this track, though.

66. Inhaler – It Won’t Always Be Like This. The Irish band, whose lead singer/guitarist happens to be Bono’s son, released their first full-length album, It Won’t Always Be Like This, in July, featuring “My Honest Face” (from 2019), “Cheer Up Baby,” and this great title track. They don’t break much new ground on the record, but it’s a solid alt-rock effort that feels well-grounded in more than just his father’s music.

65. Foals – Wake Me Up. Foals are promising Big Rave Energy on their upcoming album, and based on this track, I believe them.

64. Death from Above 1979 – One + One. This Canadian duo’s blend of guitarwork from the edge of heavy metal and dance rhythms and drum machines hit a new peak with their latest album, Is 4 Lovers, exemplified on this track and one more further on up the list.

63. Bruno Mars/Anderson .Paak – Fly as Me. I love the sound these two guys were trying to re-create on Silk Sonic,but they missed the target on the slow jams, which often veered too close to parodying the sound they were trying to emulate. This track nailed it, with a ’70s funk backbeat below some tongue-in-cheek rhymes from .Paak and a solid hook in the chorus.

62. beabadobee – Last Day on Earth. beabadobee’s been releasing songs for five years, and earned some acclaim for her 2020 debut album Fake It Flowers, but this is the first song of hers that I’ve found offered a strong melody to go with her solid fretwork and the sweetness of her voice.

61. CHVRCHES – Final Girl. The thematic heart of the Scottish trio’s tour is also one of the best tracks on Screen Violence, both in lyrics and music, with tremendous work from Lauren Mayberry on the pre-chorus (even if she resorts one of my least favorite cliches in the world, “only time will tell”). My wife even bought a “Final Girl” at the CHVRCHES concert we went to in Philly in early December.

60. Yard Act – The Overload. Still waiting for this English post-punk band to deliver their first full-length LP, but this rivals “Fixer Upper” for my favorite from them so far, with strong Gang of Four vibes. I love that singer James Smith said Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was his favorite album of 2021 too.

59. English Teacher – Good Grief. I didn’t put these two songs back-to-back on purpose, but they do share a very British sensibility, with talk-sung lyrics that only occasionally line up with the music below them, yet somehow still work as a cohesive whole (which, for example, is one of my main complaints with the acclaimed “Chaise Longue” from Wet Leg this year – it doesn’t work together at all).

58. Bob Vylan – GDP. Imagine if Body Count didn’t suck. And Ice-T was actually British. This appropriately angry rap/rock track from an artist who describes himself as the “prettiest punk/rap/alt thing you’ll ever meet” forced me to reconsider my bias against artists who name themselves this way.

57. The Mysterines – Hung Up. We got three more singles from Lia Metcalfe and company this year – this one, “In My Head,” “The Bad Thing,” the last one as a sort of three-song EP with all of the tracks – as a lead-up to their long-awaited debut album, Reeling, due out on March 22nd. I love her snarling delivery and the heavy, crunchy guitar hooks on all of their stuff, but I am certainly a bigger fan of when they just let it rip, as on this track.

56. Wolf Alice – How Can I Make It OK? The second-best track from Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend, an inconsistent affair overall with multiple very high points throughout the record. This midtempo number is more reminiscent of the best songs from their debut album, My Love Is Cool, like “Freazy” and “Bros.”

55. Sports Team – Happy (God’s Own Country). Fresh off a Mercury Prize nomination for their 2020 debut album, Deep Down Happy, the art-rockers Sports Team released this ebullient single that was supposed to celebrate this spring’s easing of lockdown measures. Oh, those were the days.

54. Geese – Rain Dance. One of my top five albums of the year came from this Brooklyn quintet that’s barely out of high school, but whose affinity for early post-punk acts like Television and Suicide is incredibly evident in sophisticated, experimental tracks like this one.

53. Chime School – Radical Leisure. I enjoyed the eponymous debut album from Andy Pastalaniec, a.k.a. Chime School, a throwback to the 1980s heyday of jangle-pop from an avid San Francisco Giants fan.

52. Frank Turner – Haven’t Been Doing So Well. This is what I came here for – Turner letting it rip with big songs about big feelings, like “Recovery” and “1933.” And who among us can say we’ve been doing much better?

51. Mdou Moctar – Chismiten. The opening track from Afrique Victime is the best one, I think, although I admit that I could drop into this album at any point and sort of get lost in the charms of its blend of American guitar shredding and traditional Touareg music.

50. Joy Oladokun – look up. I love Oladokun’s voice, having first heard her music with the single “Sober” back in 2018, and this is the closest the folk/fusion artist has come to that peak for me, even with some hackneyed phrases in the lyrics.

49. Ariel Posen, Cory Wong – Spare Tire. Ariel Posen is a talented guitarist, but this is way out of his typical genre – a two-minute instrumental funk jam, boosted by guitarist/bassist Cory Wong, who tends to record more in the jazz/funk sphere and whose influence here seems obvious.

48. Amyl and the Sniffers – Guided by Angels. These Australian punks released their second album, Comfort to Me, in September, highlighted by this straight-up rocker with ridiculous (and I presume meaningless) lyrics.

47. BLOXX – Everything I’ve Ever Learned. BLOXX put out a four-song EP this year, Pop Culture Radio, to follow their strong 2020 debut album Lie Out Loud. This track could easily have been on that earlier record, an anthemic power-pop track with a soaring chorus.

46. Iceage – Vendetta. Iceage’s latest album, Seek Shelter, was probably their best to date, thanks to a continuing evolution in their sound, to the point where you can barely hear their punk roots, with elements of shoegaze, post-hardcore, even some of the melodic sensibilities of Britpop all appearing on the new LP and this song in particular.

45. Jorja Smith – Addicted. Smith released an eight-song EP called Be Right Back in May, more of a teaser than anything else, although she continued to appear on other artists’ songs – at least five such tracks this year that I know of.

44. Allie X – GLAM! This non-album single follows last year’s LP Cape God, which got a deluxe edition release this year that didn’t include this track … that I like more than any song on the album itself. It’s such a great pop song that I’m disappointed it didn’t catch on anywhere.

43. Royal Blood – Typhoons. The title track from Royal Blood’s third album has a great groove to it – and once again has me shocked that anyone can make these sounds come from a bass guitar.

42. Lorde – Solar Power. I actually agree with Pitchfork – Lorde’s latest album is boring, especially because it sounds so unambitious. The title track had the best hook on the record for me, and the lyrics are some of the best on the album as well. I feel like the general disappointment with the album has led the pendulum to swing too far the other way, dismissing the entire record, even its better moments.

41. Coeur de Pirate – Tu peux crever là-bas. “You can die over there,” says Béatrice Martin to a former lover who has been unfaithful. What a wonderfully dismissive putdown in a beautiful song.

40. Bloc Party – Traps. I can’t believe “Banquet” is 17 years old. I also can’t believe it took that long for Bloc Party to give us a worthy successor – they’ve had decent songs since then, but this one feels like a spiritual sequel.

39. Sam Fender – Get You Down. The title track from Seventeen Going Under was a bigger hit, and it’s worthy, but this was my favorite from the album, thanks to the gradual crescendo from the opening vocals-and-guitar through the addition of a second vocal line and guitar and onward, adding more layers as it progresses.

38. Lottery Winners – Much Better. One of my favorite albums of the year, Something to Leave the House For is full of pop gems, like this one, that got stuck in my head for weeks after I first heard them.

37. CHVRCHES feat. Robert Smith – How Not to Drown. If you want to accuse me of letting my Cure fandom push this song up the rankings, I’m not going to argue. It was great live without Smith, though.

36. Band of Horses – Crutch. This is the band I want Band of Horses to be, not the one from Why Are You OK, which is what the single after this one, “In Need of Repair,” sounded like.

35. Noname – Rainforest. If this is the last song we get from Noname, who announced that she’s taking a hiatus from music and won’t be releasing her second album any time soon, then the Chicago rapper and activist is leaving us with her best.

34. Japanese Breakfast – Be Sweet. Japanese Breakfast’s album is all over year-end lists, and I just couldn’t get on board with it: The general vibe is good, but there was exactly one song that had a memorable hook, and it’s this one, which is a damn pop gem and should have been all over the radio (if radio still exists) this summer.

33. Jungle – Keep Moving. This was the first song I heard from this electronic/R&B act’s third album, Loving in Stereo, and I assumed it would be the best song on the record like the last two lead singles (“Busy Earnin” and “Happy Man”) was. And then they put out a single that’s even better.

32. Kiwi Jr – Cooler Returns. These Canadian garage-rockers put out their second album and first for the label Sub Pop back in January, full of jangly tracks with dry wit like this one, which was by far my favorite on the record.

31. Atlas Genius – Elegant Strangers. I’m so glad to have this Australian indie-pop group back, as this was their first new music in two years and just their third song since 2015’s album Inanimate Objects. It’s also on par with some of their best singles, comparable to “Molecules” and “Trojans” for me.

30. AJ Tracey – Little More Love. Tracey, a British rapper whose real name is Ché (after Guevara), put out his sophomore album this year, Flu Game, a throwback in musical and rap styles to the 1990s, highlighted by this lead single, which seems very much like the one the label would release first to drum up airplay in advance of the record’s release.

29. Little Simz – I Love You, I Hate You. Little Simz is going to appear a few times on the list – hardly surprising since her album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was my #1 record of the year – and while this isn’t my favorite track from the album, the lyrics here, where Simz addresses her very difficult relationship with her biological father, are some of the best on any song I heard in all of 2021.

28. Griff – One Night. Sarah Griffiths, a 20-year-old singer/songwriter from London, put out four singles this year, and two were incredible, gorgeous pop tracks with big hooks and great use of her vocal range. This is actually the lesser of the two, if you can believe that.

27. Thrice – Scavengers. The first single from Horizons/East was my favorite track off Thrice’s eleventh studio album, driven by a droning guitar and drum line that introduces the song and succeeds each chorus.

26. Hatchie – This Enchanted. My favorite Hatchie track since 2017’s “Sure,” “This Enchanted” has the same dream-pop leaning as her first EP and first album showcased, but with the introduction of shoegazy guitar elements to elevate it to something more substantial.

25. Freddie Gibbs – Big Boss Rabbit. Gibbs would get my vote as the best American MC working today, and he’s incredibly prolific, both on his own singles and working with other artists. This is a great example of how skilled he can be with a mic in his hand, rhyming quickly and easily with a very distinctive cadence. I love the Mike Tyson quote at the beginning, too.

24. Parquet Courts – Walking at a Downtown Pace. I’ve never put a Parquet Courts song on any of my lists before this year – not even a monthly playlist – and now they have two tracks in my top 25. So much of what I’d heard from them before made them sound like a joke band to me, but it turns out I was wrong – they can fucking rock.

23. The War on Drugs feat. Lucius – I Don’t Live Here Anymore. As I saidin my albums writeup, I’m a latecomer to the War on Drugs, but I’m here now, and this is my favorite song of theirs. It’s not a coincidence that Lucius’ two singers are part of it; their presence gives the song some variety and different textures, which really helps lighten a song of five and a half minutes. The intro is a bit too reminiscent of “Bette Davis Eyes,” but I give Adam Granduciel credit for just flat-out admitting the Bob Dylan thing with the second line, “a creature void of form,” taken straight from “Shelter from the Storm.”

22. Cœur de Pirate – On s’aimera toujours. I loved Cœur de Pirate’s album, obviously, and this shimmering, upbeat love song is one of the best things I’ve ever heard from her, up there with “Carry On,” maybe second only to “Prémonition.”

21. Parcels – Somethinggreater. Parcels released a double album this year, Day/Night, running 23 songs and 96 minutes. I am going to just admit I haven’t listened to it yet, because that is a commitment. But this funk-tinged track from the Australian indie-pop band is sublime.

20. Griff – Black Hole. And thiswas Griff’s best song of the year, the one she performed at the Brit Awards before winning their Rising Star award. It’s a near-perfect pop song, again showing off Griff’s voice, with a brilliant build from the quiet opener to the giant chorus.

19. Little Simz – Introvert. The massive string- and brass-laden intro was itself unexpected, given all of Little Simz’s previous work, but then it surprises again, leading into a sensuous rhythm of clean guitar lines and synthesizers below her increasingly agitated rapping. This song alone should be the world’s introduction to Little Simz, except that it presaged an entire album of similar brilliance.

18. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Can’t Let Go. I was underwhelmed by the album, Raise the Roof, but it sure was great to hear these two together again on this cover of a Randy Weeks song first made famous by Lucinda Williams.

17. Jungle – Truth. This song floored me when I first heard it while listening to Loving in Stereo. It’s still clearly Jungle, but there’s an urgency here – as if they shifted forward from their usual dalliances with mid-70s R&B to slide into disco’s DMs. That six-note riff in the chorus is instant ear candy.

16. Jonah Nilsson/Steve Vai – Diamond Ring. This showed up on one of my auto-generated Spotify playlists because of Steve Vai; I didn’t even know who Nilsson was (he’s part of Dirty Loops), and Vai is only here for a solo at the end, but hey, this is a superb little pop number that sounds with extremely strong peak MJ vibes. Dirty Loops also released a fun album with Cory Wong (see #49) this fall called Turbo.

15. The Wombats – If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming with You. I’m cautiously optimistic, based on the three singles we’ve gotten so far, that the Wombats are about to produce a worthy successor to their 2015 album Glitterbug, which was one of my favorite LPs of the decade. This song has Matthew Murphy back at his wittiest, and I think there’s an extremely high correlation between the quality of his lyrics and the quality of the music on their songs.

14. White Lies – As I Try Not to Fall Apart. White Lies might be the best new wave band going right now – as in, they think it’s 1983, and make music to match, and I am completely fine with that. I am comfortable with that aspect of myself. My music mind will forever think it’s at least sort of 1983 and want to hear music that reminds me of that time, sometimes even more than I want to hear music that is actually from that time.

13. Pond – America’s Cup. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker was once a member of Pond, while several current members of Pond are heavily involved with Tame Impala now, and you can hear the connection in this psychefunkadelic track that alludes to Australia’s surprising win in the 1983 sailing race of the song’s title.

12. Arlo Parks – Hope. Most of the best songs from Parks’ Mercury Prize-winning album Collapsed in Sunbeams were released as singles prior to 2021, and appeared on prior year-end lists of mine, including “Hurt,” “Green Eyes,” and “Black Dog.” This was the best of the new tracks when the album first appeared in January, with a breezy, soulful piano line behind Parks’ gorgeous vocals.

11. Sleigh Bells – True Seekers. It’s the best thing they’ve done since “Rill Rill.” I happen to think Alexis Krauss has a great voice, but the music so often works against her that she gets drowned out or overshadowed. This song works with her, the way the music did on “Rill Rill,” so that her vocals grab you by the ears and aren’t competing for your attention with the rest of the song.

10. Manchester Orchestra – Telepath. This sounds like something Alison Krauss could have written and recorded with Union Station, a beautiful song about love and seeking forgiveness that I wish was twice as long.

9. gang of youths – the angel of 8th ave. I’m also getting on this train a little bit late, but my god, this song is tremendous. That little guitar riff in the intro – is that “Melt With You?” Something else from the new wave era? Yet there’s a decided shoegaze vibe to the vocals, a pounding energy to the bass and drums, an ambition to the chorus … this is the song that made me a gang of youths fan.

8. Lottery Winners – Favourite Flavour. The Lottery Winners might be my favorite pop band right now, although their lack of any kind of attention over here probably makes them alternative or indie or whatever. Genres are stupid. They make great, catchy, light-hearted songs, and if you like that sort of music, you should go listen to them.

7. Royal Blood – Boilermaker. Josh Homme’s help on Typhoons was especially evident here, which sounds a fair bit like someone put Royal Blood and Queens of the Stone Age in a blender and this is what came out of it.

6. Kid Kapichi – Working Man’s Town. As I said above, I love this album start to finish, but if there’s a single song I most think about, or hum, or want to turn on, it’s this one, which encapsulates everything that’s great about the album, from the crunchy guitars to the righteous indignation in the lyrics. They are Angry Arctic Monkeys, and that works for me.

5. Little Simz, Obongjayar – Point and Kill. Obongjayar brings not just his vocals but his Afrobeat style to this collaboration with Little Simz that doesn’t have the lyrical power of “I Love You, I Hate You” or the sheer musical ambition of “Introvert,” but that instead delivers its message through a fusion of sounds and styles, while also providing one of the album’s strongest melodies.

4. Charli XCX feat. Christine & the Queens and Caroline Polachek – New Shapes. These three women were supposed to perform this song on Saturday Night Live last weekend, but a COVID outbreak on the set cancelled the performance, and I think we’re all the worse for it. It would have been a great showcase for the song, which has an incredible hook and features two of the best singers in the alternative/pop space right now. Good for Charli XCX for collaborating with them.

3. Parquet Courts – Black Widow Spider. It took me about a month to figure out that the song this song kept reminding me of was Olivia Tremor Control’s “The Opera House,” a low-key favorite of mine from the mid-90s (thanks to a CMJ monthly disc), but this sort of does that one better, probably thanks to the construction of the chorus. That psychedelic/blues riff that opens the song is such a grabber.

2. Foxing – Draw Down the Moon. The title track from Foxing’s latest album is the peak of everything they do as a band, with a gigantic chorus, big falsettos, tonal shifts, and the sense that you’re listening to something grander than your average rock song. Foxing showed great ambition on the new album, and achieved it, never more so than on this track.

1. Wolf Alice – Smile. Man, Ellie Rowsell can do it all, even rap … okay, maybe that’s not the best part of the song, but when Wolf Alice decides they’re going to rock, they put out these huge, muscular, wall-shaking riffs, like they did at the end of “You’re a Germ” from My Love is Cool. “Smile” opens with one of those riffs, then downshifts for Rowsell’s verses, then brings in softer harmonies in the chorus over the layered guitars before we get back to the gigantic riff again. It’s a masterpiece of construction, bolstered by one of my favorite guitar lines of the year.

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Top 21 albums of 2021.

I have never had this many candidates for a best albums ranking before. I had this idea eight years ago that I’d make the length of my year-end album lists equal to the last two digits of the year, which would probably work until I was about 55 or so and who knew if I’d even still be doing these. Most years, though, I found that while there were always plenty of songs I loved, there were never quite enough albums, even accounting for the fact that every year I seem to find more new music to listen to, between the wonders of Spotify (for the listener, at least) and reader feedback. This year, though, I could have gone 30 deep and still had more to consider, even keeping the bar for inclusion reasonably high. I stopped this list at 21, to return to the old gimmick, but my honorable mentions include Amyl & the Sniffers’ Comfort to Me, Chime School’s Chime School, The Coral’s Coral Island, Deafheaven’s Infinite Granite, Inhaler’s It Won’t Always Be Like This, Khemmis’ Deceiver, Pond’s 9, Thrice’s Horizons/East, TURNSTILE’s GLOW ON, and Willow’s Lately I Feel Everything.

You can see my previous year-end album rankings here: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and my top albums of the 2010s.

21. Death from Above 1979 – Is 4 Lovers. I missed DfA1979’s first album when it first came out, but have been increasingly a fan of their work since they re-formed after a ten-year hiatus, and this is the best thing they’ve ever done – more mature and cohesive without losing the urgency or the fury of their first record. Highlights including “Modern Guy,” “One + One,” and the two-part “N.Y.C. Power Elite.”

20. Susanna Hoffs – Bright Lights. No, really, the lead singer of the Bangles put out one of the best albums of 2021. It’s a mélange of styles more appropriate to her age and this stage of her career, but damn if she doesn’t nail just about all of it, mixing in bits of folk, lite jazz, and torch songs for a record that manages to sound timeless. There’s one really ‘off’ track here (“Take Me with U”), but highlights include the oldies-influenced “You Just May Be the One,” “One of These Things First,” and “Name of the Game,” the last one featuring Aimee Mann.

19. CHVRHCES – Screen Violence. A welcome return to form for the Scottish electro-pop trio, with some of Lauren Mayberry’s best lyrics to date, built around themes of digital harassment and online hate, and better hooks than we heard on their last album, Love is Dead. Highlights include “How Not to Drown,” “Final Girl,” “California,” and “Screaming” (from the Director’s Cut).

18. The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore. This is the tightest, most accessible album from TWoD yet, with much stronger hooks than they’ve had before. I’ve become accustomed to the Bob Dylan impression – at which singer/songwriter Adam Granduciel winks in the lyrics to the title track – although I’m still not a fan of the song lengths. Highlights include “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” “Harmonia’s Dream,” and “Change.”

17. Maisie Peters – You Signed Up for This. I’ve been a fan of Peters’ work since her first few singles, and while her sound has changed to something far more pop-oriented, the wit and insight of her lyric has only improved as she’s reached her early twenties, and it’s not as if her hooks have suffered from working with Ed Sheeran. Highlights include “Psycho,” “John Hughes Movie,” “Brooklyn,” and the title track.

16. Jungle – Loving in Stereo. Still fairly unknown in the U.S., Jungle have become quite popular in their native U.K. with their American R&B/disco throwback sound. This album, the duo’s third, is their most upbeat by far, a welcome antidote to a year of bad news. Highlights include “Truth,” “Keep Moving,” “Talk About It,” and “All of the Time.”

15. black midi – Cavalcade. The highly experimental English quartet returned with another album of challenging, unexpected, noisy tracks that defy any expectations you might have of a typical rock record … and yet somehow still manage to bring a weird sort of melody to their songs, something you can grab while you’re digesting the bizarre arrangements and tonal shifts. Highlights include “Chondromalacia Patella,” “John L.,” and “Slow.”

14. Emma-Jean Thackeray – Yellow. Thackeray is a trumpeter and bandleader from Yorkshire but is more than comfortable in American jazz and funk traditions, producing an album that refers back decades while still producing something fresh, thanks in no small part to the lush vocal harmonies on most of the tracks on this ebullient record. Highlights include “Say Something,” “Green Funk,” “Third Eye,” and “Sun,” the last of which has a nod to Parliament’s “Flashlight” in the chorus.

13. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim. A sprawling album of 15 tracks and 86 minutes, Hushed and Grim threads a difficult needle, maintaining some of the more mainstream sensibilities of their last album, Emperor of Sand, without giving up some of their more complex arrangements or expansive song lengths (six of the tracks run six minutes plus, and only two are shorter than 4:59). Every review I found was positive except Pitchfork’s, of course. Highlights include “Pushing the Tides,” “Teardrinker,” and “Sickle and Peace.”

12. Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend. I respect the ambition here, and the highlights are very high, but when they go into quietcore territory they tend to lose me for the same reason I was tepid about their Mercury Prize-winning Visions of a Life – those songs lack the beating heart of their best tracks. Highlights include “Smile,” “How Can I Make It OK?,” “Safe from Heartbreak,” “Play the Greatest Hits,” and “No Hard Feelings.”

11. Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks of God. One of the most unexpected albums of the year was this introspectiverecord from the Georgia quartet whose albums have all been thematic in some way, but who reached a new apex here on a record about death and grieving. The album hums along even as it moves between heavier numbers and mournful acoustic tracks, each of which stands on its own while contributing to a whole that is cohesive in sound and lyrics. Highlights include “Telepath,” “Bed Head,” “Annie,” and “Keel Timing.”

10. Gojira – Fortitude. The best metal album of 2021 came from the group I’d call the best metal band working today. Gojira explores the edges of extreme metal without succumbing to its excesses – an affliction that cursed Carcass’ 2021 album Torn Arteries, which took a step back from their Surgical Steel peak – and without losing track of the guitar riffs that make metal compelling. Highlights include “Another World,” “Born for One Thing,” “Amazonia,” and “Into the Storm.”

9. Cœur de Pirate – Impossible à aimer. Béatrice Martin may be saying she’s impossible to love, but I fell for this album right away – she dives heavily into lush pop sounds from the 1970s, such as the lovely string arrangement that opens “On s’aimera toujours,” while continuing the piano-driven focus from her instrumental EP Perséides, all showcasing her beautiful voice (which continues to impress even after recent surgery on her vocal chords). Highlights include “On s’aimera toujours,” “Tu peux crever là-bas,” and “Tu ne seras jamais là.”

8. The Lottery Winners – Something To Leave the House For. The most recent release on this list, Something to Leave the House For just dropped on December 4th, with most of the fantastic singles they’d released in the prior year appearing on this album, which is a banger all the way through. The Mancunian quartet have a knack for churning out pop tracks with undeniable hooks, the sort of songs that get stuck in your head but you don’t really mind because they’re the feel-good kind of pop tracks. Highlights include “Much Better, “Favourite Flavour,” “Sunshine,” “Start Again” (with Frank Turner), and “Hotel DeVille,” although the March single “Bang” (with the Wonder Stuff) didn’t make the release.

7. Royal Blood – Typhoons. Production help by Josh Homme made a huge difference for the English duo, as their sound here includes more funk and disco elements, similar to the way Homme’s Queens of the Stone Age expanded their song after working with Mark Ronson on their last album. Highlights include “Boilermaker,” the title track, “Oblivion,” and “Trouble’s Coming.”

6. Foxing – Draw Down the Moon. The St. Louis trio’s blend of post-rock, emo, metal, and even more came together on this masterful album that is as ambitious as any record I heard this year – and succeeds, incorporating all manner of styles and genres within songs, demanding that you keep up with the rapid textural and sonic shifts, without forgetting the essential element of melody. It’s a record that rewards careful listening and patience, as so many tracks end somewhere completely unexpected. Highlights include the title track, “Go Down Together,” “Bialystok,” “737,” and “Beacons.”

5. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime. One of the most globally acclaimed albums of 2021, Afrique Victime may help introduce Moctar’s blend of traditional Touareg music and western guitar rock to a wider audience. The fretwork here is incredible, more than enough to pull in anyone who plays guitar or enjoys that style of music, but even if you’re not into that specific aspect, this album just flat-out rocks. Highlights include “Chismiten,” the title track, and “Taliat.”

4. Geese – Projector. If I called these Brooklyn teenagers/early twentysomethings the American black midi, would it feel like enough of a compliment? Geese are experimental, but their base sound derives far more from post-punk traditions like Television, Suicide, and Wire than the noise-rock antecedents of black midi – and the result is a more accessible and delightfully weird debut album. Highlights include “Rain Dance,” “Low Era,” “Disco,” and the title track.

3. Kid Kapichi – This Time Next Year. This Hastings quartet blends a strong Arctic Monkeys musical and lyrical sensibility with heavier guitarwork, veering into punk territory, with a series of working-class anthems where singers Jack Wilson and Ben Beetham rage against various machines. The band produced and released the album themselves, which might be why it hasn’t appeared on many year-end lists, but it was clearly the best straight rock album of the year for me, and one of the only truly no-skip albums of 2021. Highlights include “Working Man’s Town,” “Sardines,” “What Would Your Mother Say,” “Don’t Kiss Me (I’m Infected),” and “Self Saboteur.”

2. Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams. Winner of this year’s Mercury Prize, this debut album from the 21-year-old British singer-songwriter features nearly all of the singles I’ve included on my playlists from Parks over the last two years. Parks’s voice is gorgeous, soft and somewhat high-pitched, yet able to fill all the spaces left by the minimalist R&B, jazz, and folk music that backs her up across the album. Her lyrics are close and intimate portraits of pain and hope around stories of broken hearts, damaged families, and other stories, replete with little details (“Dragonfruit and peaches in the wine,” “Wearing suffering like a silk garment or a spot of blue ink”) that provide the images to the short films she’s creating with every track. Highlights include “Black Dog,” “Green Eyes,” “Hurt,” “Hope,” and “Caroline.”

1. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. I called it in September, saying this was the best album of 2021, and that has more than held true, not just on my own list but on the non-scientific compilations over at albumoftheyear.org. The title is a backronym for Simbi, Simz’s nickname among her friends, and also introduces the listener to the profound lyrical themes she’s about to cover, including her difficult relationship with her biological father (“I Love You, I Hate You”), global feminism (“Woman”), the dichotomy required of people with public personae (“Introvert”), death and grief (“Little Q”), and more. The album features spoken-word interludes from Emma Corrin, who played Princess Diana Spencer on seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown, and tremendous guest appearances from Obongjayar and Cleo Sol. And the music, which incorporates elements of Afrobeat, British and American hip-hop, and old-school soul, is compelling just about the entire way through, providing a strong backdrop for Little Simz’s rapping while delivering a series of memorable hooks. It’s one of the best albums of the century so far, and if it doesn’t make Little Simz a star around the world, that’s our loss. Highlights include the songs mentioned above as well as “Point and Kill,” “Rollin Stone,” and “Protect My Energy.”

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Music update, November 2021.

I lowered the bar a little bit this month to make the playlist a more suitable length, as it seemed like the tide of new releases finally slowed up a bit as we approach the end of the year. I’ll post best of 2021 album and song lists later this month, probably the week of the 13th but possibly the week after that, depending on how busy I am with prospect calls. As always, you can find the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Charli XCX featuring Christine and the Queens & Caroline Polachek – New Shapes. This is hands-down one of the best pop songs I’ve heard this year. I’m not a big Charli XCX fan, but she chose the right collaborators on this track, and each of them gets a distinctive verse to show off their vocal skills.

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak – Fly As Me. I didn’t love the Silk Sonic album as much as I expected to, but this song is a perfect mix of ’70s funk and ’80s R&B. Paak sure sounds a lot like Skee-Lo on that second verse, though.

Foals – Wake Me Up. These guys are good for one solid banger every album, but singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis has promised that the next LP will be more rave-influenced like this track is, so gird your loins.

CHVRCHES – Screaming. The “director’s cut” of Screen Violence adds three more tracks and runs nearly an hour; this is the best of the additional songs.

The War on Drugs – Harmonia’s Dream. I Don’t Live Here Anymore is my favorite TWoD album, and it seems like the critical consensus is that it’s their best. I still think the songs are too long, but that’s just who they are. There’s just more here this time around: stronger melodies, more energy, more prominent drum and bass lines, even some better lead guitar work.

Chime School – Radical Leisure. Chime School is San Francisco musician Andy Pastalaniec, mixing jangle-pop sounds of the 1980s and some elements of Britpop. It’s sunny and bright and takes me back a few decades every time he opens a verse with “Tell me what it’s like…”

Potty Mouth – Not Going Anywhere. An ironic song title for a band that just announced they’re breaking up. At least they’re going out with a few bangers on this final EP.

Gang of Youths – tend the garden. I’ve never heard a band remind me so much of U2 without explicitly sounding like U2. There’s a little something in the singer’s laconic delivery that reminds me of Bono’s quieter moments, but otherwise I can’t pinpoint a specific connection. I’m a fan based on their last few singles.

English Teacher – Good Grief. This Leeds quartet is rather unapologetically English, with that certain style of sing-talked vocals and witty lyrics by lead singer Lily Fontaine. I’m kind of a sucker for bands like this when the lyrics are strong.

The Wombats – Everything I Love Is Going to Die. A bit morbid, I suppose, but this is how Matthew Murphy rolls.

Bob Vylan – GDP. I am not a fan of this kind of artist name, riffing on a more famous musician but changing one letter or sound, but this rap song with metal riffs behind the rhyming is actually pretty strong, and I can’t argue with the sentiment.

Frank Turner – Miranda. This song is based on the true story of Turner’s parent Miranda, who came out as transgender at the age of 72.

Bloc Party – Traps. They’re back – the band’s sixth album, Alpha Games, their first since 2016, is due out in April. “Banquet” is a forever track for me, so anything they do in that vein is right up my alley.

Yard Act – Payday. Yard Act are another of those post-punk sing-talk British bands I just can’t seem to get enough of. It doesn’t hurt when the song beneath the lyrics has a solid groove to it, and the chorus has me shouting along. “We all make the same sound when we’re mowed down” is grim, but rather well sums up our dystopian experience.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – It Don’t Bother Me. Plant and Krauss’s second album together, Raise the Roof, came out this month … and it’s kind of tame. I was hoping for more of Krauss’s bluegrass roots to show through, but it’s a muted affair throughout.

Cate Le Bon – Moderation. I’m contractually obligated to put a Welsh artist on the playlist whenever possible. Le Bon’s sixth album, Pompeii, comes out on February 4th. Wikipedia calls her music “baroque pop;” I hear a lot of Roxy Music here.

Aeon Station – Fade. Aeon Station is three-fourths of the indie band the Wrens,butall I hear here is Arcade Fire, in a positive way.

IDLES – The Wheel. Critics love IDLES; I don’t entirely get it. I don’t hear the hooks or the energy I want from a punk band. This song, however, has all of that. I’m in by the end of the first measure.

Tony Iommi – Scent of Dark. The iconic metal guitarist returns with this menacing, instrumental doom track that always sounds like it’s about to turn into a vocal track, like there’s a verse just around the next beat, but instead it sludges forward with Iommi’s trademark detuned riffing. Not bad for a 73-year-old who’s been playing with prosthetic fingertips for a half-century. Iommi’s former band, Jethro Tull, also released a new song this past week, and Ian Anderson’s voice hasn’t held up as well as Iommi’s fret hand.

Porcupine Tree – Harridan. I assumed Porcupine Tree was done, at least as a recording act, but their eleventh album Closure/Continuation comes on next June. It’ll be the prog-rock band’s first record in 12 years. I mostly know of them through their association with Opeth; he co-produced Blackwater Park, which I would probably rank as the best metal album of all time, certainly the best extreme metal album, as well as Deliverance and Damnation, all of which showed Opeth moving in a more progressive musical direction.

Animals as Leaders – The Problem of Other Minds. This instrumental trio’s album The Joy of Motion made my top albums of 2014 list, but they’ve only released one album in the intervening seven years. This track and its B-side Monomyth (are B-sides even really a thing any more? The term seems like an anachronism) are the first from the band’s Parrhesia, due out on March 25th.

Cynic – In a Multiverse Where Atoms Sing. Another band I assumed was through, with co-founder Sean Reinert and longtime bassist Sean Malone dying in 2020, although Reinert had left Cynic in 2015. Anyway, Cynic just released Ascension Codes, its first album in seven years, last week. It’s just their fourth album in over 30 years under the name, with singer-guitarist Paul Masvidal the only remaining founding member.

Mastodon – Sickle and Peace. Hushed and Grim cameout early in November and it’s a mammoth record, running almost an hour and a half, with some incredible guitar work and huge changes in style and tone. I almost went with “Gobblers of Dregs,” but that track is eight and a half minutes long, and I prefer the guitar riff in this song anyway.

Toundra – El Odio, Parte II. One more instrumental metal track to wrap things up this month, this one another monster track from this Spanish metal act, whose sixth album Hex comes out on January 14th.

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