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.