→ January 6, 2022
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tick, tick … BOOM!

tick, tick … BOOM! is the ‘other’ Jonathan Larson musical, the one he wrote and performed himself a handful of times before he finished and sold Rent. As you probably know, Larson died of an aortic aneurysm, likely the result of undiagnosed Marfan syndrome, the night before Rent opened. That makes the story of tick, tick … BOOM! even more poignant – and sometimes painful – to watch: It’s about a young would-be playwright who is about to turn 30 and is wondering if he’ll ever get a play produced, or if he has to give up his dream and find a ‘regular’ job like his roommate Michael.

Lin-Manuel Miranda directed this film from Steven Levenson’s adaptation of Larson’s stage musical, splitting the film into two threads: A live performance of the play itself, powered by Andrew Garfield as Larson, and recreations of scenes from Larson’s life to which he refers within the play. At the time that he wrote this play, Larson was working at a diner while trying to get his first play, a dystopian sci-fi musical called Superbia that was loosely based on 1984, produced. His difficulties and his approaching birthday have led him to an existential crisis, and to a breaking point with his girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp), a dancer who gets a big opportunity in western Massachusetts that would force her to move out of New York. Larson’s roommate, Michael (Robin de Jesús), has given up his acting dreams to take a job in advertising, earning a steady income that’s enough to get him a better apartment and a fancy car. The story takes place against the backdrop of late 1980s/early 1990s New York, especially the AIDS crisis, with one of Jonathan’s co-workers dealing with the disease (which became a major subtheme in Rent as well).

Garfield is tremendous here as Larson – he’s brimming with enthusiasm and dry wit when he’s doing the stage part, anxious and frazzled and torn in different directions when he’s in Larson’s regular life. He carries the movie, even with a raft of strong supporting performances, including Shipp, de Jesús, and a surprisingly strong turn from Vanessa Hudgens as his foil in the stage play. It hinges on the lead, though, given how much of the movie is him singing and talking on the stage, and he delivers. I’d be floored if he didn’t join Will Smith among the Best Actor nominees for the Oscars this year.

I didn’t see Rent during its 12-year run on Broadway, or any of its tours; I’ve only seen the recording of the last date of that initial run, and have listened to the soundtrack. I know the music well enough now to know that it’s much better than the music in tick, tick … BOOM! This musical doesn’t have anywhere near the memorable numbers of Larson’s magnum opus – a tautological argument, since that’s why Rent is his magnum opus in the first place – but this film feels like the double A version of Rent‘s big leagues. These songs sound like they come from Larson in both music and lyrics, but they lack the strong hooks of “Seasons of Love,” “Take Me or Leave Me,” “Light My Candle,” or “La Vie Bohème.” The best song here might be the finale, “Louder Than Words,” which is the song that would sound most at home in Rent. Perhaps it’s unfair to judge this musical against a critically acclaimed juggernaut, but that’s the inevitable result of a compelling story that adheres so closely to Larson’s real life.

That might imply that tick, tick … BOOM! isn’t worth watching – it is. Being less than Rent is hardly an insult. The plays differ primarily in how the stories differ: This is autofiction, where Rent is a broad study of a set of characters, a time, and a place. It’s more than a historical artifact, not just of interest only because Rent became a Broadway classic, but my honest response was that it was fun and enjoyable but the music didn’t hit me like I want a musical’s soundtrack to.

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→ January 1, 2022
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Stick to baseball, 1/1/22.

Happy New Year, everyone. I had one new piece for subscribers to the Athletic this week, breaking down my Hall of Fame ballot, which went about as well as you might expect. I held a Klawchat on the 23rd.

Over at Paste, I reviewed the game Iberian Gauge, an 18xx game that’s on the shorter side for that genre, and wrote up everything I saw and played at PAX Unplugged this year.

I sent out a new edition of my free email newsletter this week, talking about music and how we consume and categorize it has changed since I first became a big fan of pop music about 40 years ago.

I also appeared on my friend Elliott Garstin’s podcast, Twenty Eyes Radio, to talk about my favorite songs and albums of 2021.

And now, the links…

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→ December 31, 2021
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Licorice Pizza.

Licorice Pizza, the latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson, feels like the work of an entirely different writer than PTA’s last film, Phantom Thread. Where that movie was tense, quiet, often creepy, Licorice Pizza never stops moving – in one sense, almost literally, as the two main characters spend a substantial portion of the film running, often in less-than-sensible shoes. It’s a beautiful, quirky, and funny coming-of-age story. I just wish so much of its greatness wasn’t undone by a pointless racist gag that PTA could have excised without losing anything.

Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, son of Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a precocious almost-16-year-old actor and would-be entrepreneur who spots Alana Kane (Alana Haim) when the photography company she works for comes to his school for picture day. He tries to flirt with her, despite the ten-year age gap, and somehow coaxes her into meeting him for a not-date date at the absurdly named but extremely ’70s restaurant Tail o’ the Cock, where he’s on a first-name basis with the staff and is treated like a VIP. Gary tries to get Alana some movie and TV work, while she tags along with his venture to sell waterbeds, and the two continue to move along as if they don’t actually have feelings for each other, even though we know by the time the movie ends, they have to get together somehow.

Hoffman and Haim carry this movie, Hoffman in particular, with his effortless charm and a self-aplomb way beyond his years. The age gap between them – which is larger than the one that had certain folks upset in Call Me By Your Name, although that criticism was probably about something other than their ages – is less evident on the screen, because Gary is developmentally advanced for his age, while Alana is still quite immature. The latter point especially shows up in scenes at Alana’s home, where she still lives with her parents and two older sisters, all played by Alana’s actual family (quite well, in fact – her father is a riot), and she’s very clearly the baby of the bunch, twenty-five but aimless. She hangs around with Gary and his friends, even though she knows it’s “weird,” in part because they give her a way to stave off adulthood. Because Hoffman plays Gary as this worldly teenager who understands more of adult ways than just about any teenager I know, which is built into the character’s story (and that of the real-life actor, Gary Goetzman, on whom PTA based Valentine), the love story between the two comes off as more innocent than it might otherwise.

The unsung hero of Licorice Pizza might be the costume department. Films set in the 1970s often shove that decade’s regrettable fashion choices in the viewer’s face, but Licorice Pizza instead leans into the better side of ’70s fashion. Haim is a fashion plate, wearing some gorgeous prints across a series of short dresses that wouldn’t be out of place today aside from the oversized collars. Valentine doesn’t have quite as much fun, but the white suit and fuchsia shirt he dons near the end of the film couldn’t come from any other decade.

PTA also populates the film with many real-life characters from Hollywood of the time, including Sean Penn as the legendary actor William Holden (thinly disguised as “Jack Holden”), and Bradley Cooper in an absolutely ridiculous (and very fun) turn as producer Jon Peters, with whom Cooper worked on the remake of A Star is Born. Benny Safdie appears as city councilman Joel Wachs, on whose campaign Alana works near the end of the film. If you listen carefully, you’ll catch the voice of John C. Reilly in an uncredited role as another real person. Most of this works to add color to the film, accentuating its sense of time and place, although the Holden segment goes on longer than it needs to.

That racist gag, though. John Michael Higgins plays a real person, Jerome Frick, who owned a Japanese restaurant in the LA area called Mikado. In the film, he appears once with his Japanese wife, and speaks to her in slow, exaggerated English with a mock-Asian accent. He appears again, later, with a different Japanese wife, and pulls the same shit. There is a punchline there, at Frick’s expense (turns out he’s just an ignorant asshole), but I’m not sure any punchline could justify that lead-up. It appears that Jerome Frick’s second wife, Hiroko, was a fluent English speaker, yet PTA only has the two women speak Japanese in the film. Perhaps this was some complicated way to mock the real-life Frick – and, for what it’s worth, the punchline itself is funny – but few if any viewers will be in on the joke, and the whole thread adds precisely nothing to the film. It’s a shame that either nobody called PTA out on it, or, more likely, that he just ignored them. The Hollywood Reporter just published a longer piece on the controversy this morning, which links to a November interview with PTA where he tries to defend it as true to the time period.

If that bit were cut from the movie, Licorice Pizza would be just about perfect; it’s still my favorite of the movies I’ve seen so far, even with the bitter taste of that failed gag. The chemistry between the leads is so strong – both should be in the running for Oscar nominations, and both scored Golden Globe nods already – that almost everything around the two of them melts away. Maybe there will be a director’s cut that spares us those objectionable scenes, because the rest of this movie is wonderful.

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→ December 30, 2021
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The Power of the Dog.

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is the closest thing we have this year to a Best Picture front-runner, although its status as favorite rests on the slimmest of margins according to Gold Derby. It appeared first on more critics’ year-end lists than any other film, and received more second-place votes than any other film received first-place votes except the acclaimed Japanese-language Drive My Car. Based on a 1968 novel of the same name, it follows a tense family drama on a ranch in Montana in 1925, with long, expansive shots of the landscape alternating with close-ups of characters, an auteur’s film that builds on several great performances and the slow burn of its plot.

Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) is one of the ranchers, a tough guy who refuses to use the bathtub inside the house he shares with his daintier brother George (Jesse Plemons), whom Phil thinks is soft and often derides as “fatso.” George falls for the widow who runs the local inn, Rose (Kirsten Dunst). Rose has a son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who speaks with a lisp, makes paper flowers, and generally acts and looks un-masculine, earning him the ire of Phil, who mocks and bullies the boy, a situation that only worsens when George marries Rose, moving her into the ranch while Peter attends boarding school. Phil bullies and torments Rose as well, driving her to drink, so when Peter returns from school, the situation threatens to boil over.

Campion directs the hell out of this movie. It cuts both ways; there are moments in this film when you just know it’s being directed, especially some of the lingering shots on characters’ faces (or sometimes hands) that last a few frames too long. It works for setting scenes, in the incredible landscape shots, or for framing segments like Phil’s awkward conversation with his parents and the state’s governor, shot from behind Phil with the other characters all facing the camera beyond him. There’s a solo scene with Phil on the side of the river that is so overwrought that it took me completely out of the movie. It may be the kind of direction that wins awards, but I prefer a subtler touch.

The acting shines across the board, starting particularly with Dunst, who does the most with a limited but critical role as a suicide widow who becomes the victim of Phil’s bullying, losing herself in drink and seeing her relationship with her son deteriorate in the process. Cumberbatch delivers, as he always does, although I found his American accent a little forced – but given some of the character details, that might be deliberate. Smit-McPhee may have the most to do, even though it’s a supporting role, as his character is the only one that truly evolves over the extent of the story, and the one we understand the least at the beginning, as Peter is far more than a weak, effeminate mama’s boy.

Much commentary on The Power of the Dog has revolved around the ambiguous ending – which isn’t ambiguous at all. You might argue that what comes next is uncertain, as is true in just about every movie, and the argument that what came before the film starts is now uncertain is even stronger, but there’s no doubt in my mind what happened at the end of the story. It simply casts what preceded it in a different light, and that is one of this film’s strongest attributes. You can see this ending coming if you watch carefully, but once it occurs, it should change your interpretation of the first ¾ of the film – and even some of what we were told about its prehistory. (If you want to discuss that part, throw it in the comments – I just don’t want to spoil anything here.)

I haven’t seen enough potential nominees yet to say what nominations the film and its people deserve, but it definitely feels like a movie that voters will support. It’s a movie that puts its movie-ness out in front of you, especially in the direction, for better and for worse. I think this is a very good movie, a B+ if I assigned letter grades (as my friends Tim Grierson and Will Leitch do on their superb podcast), but could have been an A- or better with a different director, someone whose fingerprints were less evident in the finished product. In hindsight, it’s the sort of film I should have loved – cowboy noir, in a sense – but that I respected and liked instead.

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→ December 29, 2021
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The Promise.

Damon Galgut’s novel The Promise won this year’s Booker Prize, beating a tough field that included Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro (whose Klara and the Sun made the longlist); Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers; and the delightful No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. It’s a fine novel, but I think without more knowledge of the recent history of South Africa, I didn’t get the full gist of the work.

The novel focuses on a white family in South Africa, the Swarts, whose matriarch dies as the novel opens. She made her husband promise her that he’d leave the family home to the Black woman, Salome, who helped raise their children and take care of the home, but he later denies this – except that Amor, their youngest child, heard it. She refuses to forget what she heard (or says she heard, as Galgut only gives us her assertions), even as it causes a break between her and her siblings, Anton and Astrid. The four chapters in the novel each revolve around the deaths of one of the family members, leaving only Amor in the end to reckon with the family’s legacy.

Galgut sets The Promise againsta backdrop of societal upheaval in South Africa, including the end of apartheid, the tenure of HIV/AIDS denialist Thabo Mbeki as Prime Minister, and his corrupt successor Jacob Zuma, who was in the news again this month when a judge ordered him to return to prison. Each of the Swarts family members dies in a way that could serve as a metaphor for one of those larger changes – one dies as a result of religious mania, a clinging to old and outdated ways; one dies in a carjacking, of which there are over 10,000 a year in South Africa. Without knowing a lot more about the recent history of South Africa, however, I can only guess at any deeper meanings here.

Lacking that context, the novel doesn’t have as much to offer the reader as the accolades imply. Amor is the only remotely interesting or sympathetic character in the book. The father, Manie, is two different messes in two different chapters. Astrid is shrill, materialistic, and selfish. Anton could have been a deeper character in his own novel, but he’s off the page enough in The Promise that we only see the surface, never getting at, say, why he deserted from the military, or what he did in the intervening years before he returns for the next funeral. Galgut keeps all of his characters, even Amor, at arm’s length, giving the whole text a feeling of emotional reserve and thus preventing the readers from getting to know any of the characters enough to connect with them. I’m only assuming that Amor is supposed to be the central character, or most central one; she is the moral compass, refusing to budge from her recollection of the promise or belief that the remaining family members should fulfill it, even when it leads to a rupture between her and her siblings. Her life away from the farmstead would appear to be more interesting, or at least a way to further develop her character, but instead she comes across as cold and remote even when she has the strongest feelings of any character in the book.

The Booker Prize has always felt more enigmatic than the Pulitzer Prize, even though they are often seen as analogues to each other; it’s easier to understand why a book wins the Pulitzer than why one wins the Booker, at least in more recent times. (I won’t even get started on the early Pulitzer committees’ apparent love for wildly racist novels.) In the case of The Promise, I’m assuming I just missed what they saw in the novel. If it won because it serves as an allegory for the last forty years of South African history, I plead ignorance. As a narrative, however, it was merely good – an interesting premise, with solid execution and a strong conclusion, but lacking the well-defined characters that might have elevated this novel to something greater, and something that I would associate with the sort of plaudits The Promise has otherwise received. For whatever it’s worth, I would have voted for No One Is Talking About This instead.

Next up: I’m between books but just finished Harold Evans’ Do I Make Myself Clear?, a wonderful book of advice for writers and editors by the former editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times and founder of Condé Nast Traveler. Evans died last September at 92.

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→ December 23, 2021
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Klawchat 12/23/21

It’s been too long, so let’s do one more of these before the holiday.

Keith Law: It was Christmas Eve (Eve), babe … in the Klawchat…

Joe: For the Eppler and Showalter hires, fair to say they are bad process, but good result?
Keith Law: Absolutely not. Eppler, maybe a bad process, but a great result. Showalter is a terrible process leading to a bad result. The owner saw the red flags, and ignored them. They may win a few more games this year, maybe even advance in the playoffs (although Showalter doesn’t have a great playoff track record), but the internal personnel cost will supersede that.

Hank: At what point in the lockout will we have to worry about a delayed season and/or missed games?
Keith Law: If the players can get in 3 weeks of spring training, we won’t miss regular season games.

Mac: If Carter Young cuts down on the swing could he go in the top half of the first round?
Keith Law: Cuts down on the strikeouts, yes. Right now, he’s Logan Davidson, at best, which is the very back of the round.

Evar: Best guess…who is the fastest player to even play in MLB?
Keith Law: Billy Hamilton.

Bruce: Is it feasible for the Phillies to use Stott at SS starting in 2022, both from the is he ready to hit in MLB side and also can he succeed as a SS long-term and improve their defense?
Keith Law: No.
Keith Law: On what evidence would you say he’s ready to hit in the majors right now? I mean, it’s possible that he is, but the evidence doesn’t seem to suppor that.

addoeh: Least favorite household chore?  Washing the dishes is the worst for me.
Keith Law: Don’t mind that. I hate chores that don’t produce a visible or tangible result. Wash the dishes? Clean dishes, clean sink, clean counters. That’s sufficient psychic reward for me.
Keith Law: Laundry, vacuuming, ironing – all produce a visible result. I don’t mind those. I actually like ironing. I get in the flow of that one. For least favorite … I mean, weeding produces a tangible result, but it’s endless.

Chris: What’d you think about Jerry dipoto’s comment about trying Julio in centerfield some this year?
Keith Law: Not out of the question. I don’t think he’s a CF long-term, but sounds like he could handle it on a part-time basis now.

Ethan: There was talk of Heaney having a Robbie Ray like breakout in LA. Buying it?
Keith Law: There is a lot of space between Andrew Heaney 2021 and Robbie Ray 2021. I’ll take something in the middle.

Molly: What should we expect from a full MLB season from Joey Bart?
Keith Law: 20+ homers, some walks, low average, OBP in the low .300s, plus defense.

Skrip: Is Ted Cruz actually serious about running for president in ’24? Or is this yet another blatant attempt to keep himself in the news as often as possible? I’d sooner vote for Big Bird as governor of Texas.
Keith Law: If you’d asked me in 2014 if Trump was serious about running for President in ’16, I would have said it was a blatant attempt to keep himself in the news, and he’d never win. I overestimated the country.

Johnny Utah: I really wanted to listen to your interview with Alton Brown but I boycotted your podcast because you gave Julie DiCaro a platform. She’s literally the worst. Literally.
Keith Law: I’ve never interviewed Alton Brown, and you’re a moron. Fuck off.

Dana: Can Gallo handle a season in CF if the Yanks sign/acquire a corner OFer?
Keith Law: I think he can handle the defense, but worry about him being healthy and productive if he’s playing 150 games there.

Aaron Rodgers Family: We told you he was nuts.
Keith Law: He’s about two webcast interviews away from endorsing Q.

Tom: What’s your Favorite Alcoholic Holiday Beverage?
Keith Law: I don’t drink anything different around the holidays, unless there’s homemade eggnog around, but I haven’t made that in years because no one drinks it from me.

Brenden: Critical race theory gets a lot of attention. But I haven’t been able to find a good read on what it actually is in practice that isn’t coming from a political angle. What is a good source I can learn more about it?
Keith Law: I’d go back to Kimberlée Crenshaw, who coined the term, for her definitions. She also gave a great interview with Vanity Fair this summer about the made-up controversy around CRT. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/how-critical-race-theory-maste…

Troy: Is Keston Huira fixable offensively?
Keith Law: Yes, but someone has to undo whatever the Brewers did to his swing. He looks like he’s swinging an axe, but upside down.

JR: Were you surprised how many deals were completed before the lockout? Wouldn’t both sides have an incentive to wait and see what new CBA looked like? Or the uncertainty made the existing rules more appealing?
Keith Law: I was – but your second question might be right. Maybe both sides just wanted to lock in what they could.

Matt: Why did free agents sign deals if they knew they were gonna be locked out? Aren’t they missing out on what’s probably gonna be more money in a new CBA?
Keith Law: We don’t know that. What if the minimum salary goes up by 80-100%, so there’s relatively less money going around for veterans.

Don: Do you buy that the Sox didn’t give the qualifying offer to Rodon as a favor to him? Or did they just mess up?
Keith Law: They know his arm better than anyone.

JR: You were about the only one I saw to note how little sense Thor’s signing was for both sides. Thor wants to rebuild value and stay healthy; LAA will push him hard to make playoffs and will have no incentive to limit his innings if they are in contention late. Seems like a potential for both sides to end up regretting it.
Keith Law: Agreed.

section 34: Who is the Carson Wentz of baseball?
Keith Law: I’m sorry, your question was intercepted on its way to the chat.

xxx(yyy): favorite Christmas cookie?
Keith Law: We make tricolor cookies, sometimes called 7-layer cookies (wrong, there should only be chocolate on one side) or rainbow cookies (wrong, unless your rainbow has three colors) or Italian flag cookies (I’ll allow it). They’re such an endeavor that we almost never do it any other time.

Brian: What’s the early timeline on offseason prospect list updates?
Keith Law: If you’re asking when my prospect lists will come out, we are aiming for January 31st.

Matt: Did you know the “War on Christmas” started when southern evangelicals complained to Ronald Reagan that they didn’t like people saying Merry X-mas, and not Merry Christmas. The Right ran with it for 40 years and here we are.
Keith Law: Anyone who falls for the “war on christmas” nonsense probably also thinks we’re teaching critical race theory in kindergarten and that vaccine mandates are communism. Also, the real threat to christmas is the inexorable decline of religiosity in developed nations. Good luck with that one!

xxx(yyy): 2021s best new cookbook?
Keith Law: Nik Sharma’s The Flavor Equation.

Jason: When are players no longer part of the union? When they officially retire? I’m mainly curious about retired players who now work for teams
Keith Law: You’re in the union if you’re on a 40-man roster. That’s it.

Adam D.: If the reports are true that the Giants are no enamored enough with the current free agents to hand out any nine-figure deals, do you agree with Farhan and company sticking to that process, or do you feel like a big-market team like the Giants owe it to the fanbase to make a splashy move?
Keith Law: I don’t agree with the idea that a team has to mollify a fanbase with a deal they think isn’t good from a baseball perspective.

Chris: Keith, have you had a chance to scout Boston’s Brayan Bello? Does he have the ceiling of a MLB Starting Pitcher in a system thin (barren?) on SP prospects?
Keith Law: Reliever risk there for sure. I don’t think he’s their most likely big-league starter.

Dave: True or False. Trump endorsing the vaccine will begin the MAGA backlash against him
Keith Law: Already has, no?
Keith Law: The cognitive dissonance around that one will be enough to cloud out the sun for weeks.

Joshua: As a Nats fan, is there any chance that Victor Robles becomes even close to the top 10 prospect player many thought he would become? Or is it time to maybe trade him and let him get a clean start? Thanks.
Keith Law: Not until he starts hitting the ball harder.

Don: Andrew Vaughn and Garrett Crochet for Matt Olson? Who says no?
Keith Law: Why would the White Sox do that? If Vaughn is what they believed him to be on Draft Day, he’ll become Olson or better.

Matt: If pitching velocities keep going up, doesn’t there reach a point where hitters can’t hit?
Keith Law: They can’t go much higher than they are now, but also, we’ve learned that hitters can hit 100 mph+ if they can figure out when it’s coming.

JR: Did you get to meet Lauren Mayberry in person when you saw her on tour recently (if so, you’re a lucky bastard)? Or did your podcast not result in an in person invite? PS – I caught the tour in Vegas, show was excellent. I was glad they didn’t have the guys sing a song, like they did last time I saw them live lol.
Keith Law: We did not, alas, but the show was still wonderful.

Joe: The Cubs keep saying they’re going to “spend intelligently,” which is probably a euphemism for “continue to be cheap.” But with their resources and lack of long term commitments, wouldn’t Correa be the most intelligent way to spend?
Keith Law: They spent on Stroman, so they weren’t cheap on that one.

Joshua: What type of ceiling do you believe Cole Henry has? He looked pretty good in the AFL (or so I’ve heard because I saw none of the AFL haha).
Keith Law: He’s had so many injuries already that his probability of staying a starter isn’t that high.

Grant: Do you see Congress enabling section 3 of the 14th amendment if Trump officially announces his intent to run?
Keith Law: I doubt they have the courage.

Cormac: Read Blood Meridian yet? Thoughts?
Keith Law: Yes, maybe 10 years ago. Great novel if you can stomach the violence.

Tom: D-backs will have a top ___ farm system after the 2022 draft.
Keith Law: Depends on who they take, no?

Appa Yip Yip: Rewild your lawn throw down clover and wildflowers. Grass is for suckers.
Keith Law: Better for the environment, too. Just not sure the neighbors would be cool with that.

JR: Toronto had Ray on their team for a year, so probably knew him better than anyone and essentially elected to give Gausman (a year older than Ray) the same money Ray got (OK, Ray got $5MM more), but does this alarm you at all? Obviously we don’t know Ray’s mindset (maybe he was adamant about not going back to Tor), but  wouldn’t you rather have Ray at 5/115, then Gausman at 5/110?
Keith Law: Would you? I’m not sure I would. It’s at least extremely close, to the point that I would not draw any conclusions from Toronto’s choice here.

Dude: Thoughts on Buxton signing? They do a good job of meeting in middle?
Keith Law: Yes, and I like the idea of him staying with the Twins, and the Twins potentially getting his MVP-level years, too.

Sedona: Did you get to watch Owen White at the AZL?  He was awarded as the best pitcher and seems like he has the tools.  Do you think he’s a legit rotation arm?  Ceiling?
Keith Law: Saw him, he looked good, and it’s great to see him healthy. Further than that, you’ll have to wait for the prospect rankings.

xxx(yyy): favorite Christmas movie?
Keith Law: Muppet Christmas Carol, obviously.

Mike: Keith, what did you think of the Red Sox trade with the Brewers?
Keith Law: Yawn. Binelas does hit the ball very hard, at least.

Turner: You have mentioned in your system rankings that the Orioles need to be much better on the international signings, when is a realistic time to check in and see if they have made improvements on that front?
Keith Law: They’re not there yet, at least. That takes years, maybe 4-5 years after you first reinvest in that side of the business, since you have to strike oral agreements with players when they’re 13 or 14 years old.

Ml: Is Ryan mountcastle a good enough hitter to be valuable despite his lack of defense?
Keith Law: To be more than replacement level? Yes. To be consistently above-average? Given his lack of defense and lack of patience, no, not yet.

Uncle Aaron: Weren’t you on track to have a HOF vote at one point?
Keith Law: I’ve had one for three years already.

John: Do you see Triston Casas eventually developing significantly more power?
Keith Law: I’d bet on yes.

Dude: Haven’t seen any Jud Fabian talk on ‘22 draft boards. Is there ANY chance he goes higher than last year?
Keith Law: Slim chance. The guy struck out at an excessive rate and couldn’t make adjustments.

John: The Brandon Walter emergence is interesting.  Considering that he was in your backyard in college, was ever on your radar?
Keith Law: Never. Not a prospect out of HS, of course. Missed his junior year with TJ, and wasn’t throwing this hard as a senior at UD.

JJ: Jesus was never vaccinated!
Keith Law: I mean, he also died at 33, so perhaps that’s not the W you think it is…

R. Mann: Have you ever heard the NYPD choir sing “Galway Bay”? It. Is. Stunning.
Keith Law: Only the Bing Crosby version.

Pat: How worried should Mets fans be about Showalter’s track record with young pitchers. Granted, they’re trying to win now & it won’t affect DeGrom & Max,, but, if he pulls the same idiocy that he pulled in Baltimore, it’ll affect them down the line.
Keith Law: Do they have any young starters to worry about? The system is heavily weighted towards bats right now, they don’t have a young starter in the potential OD rotation right now, and by the time someone like Matt Allan is on the radar, Buck will either have won a WS or been fired.

Henry: Thoughts on Joan Didion? Saddened about her passing.
Keith Law: Likewise. I feel like she’s remembered more for her novels and memoirs and not enough for her feature writing in the 1970s.

Curious in Seattle: Best guess on Harry Ford’s long term position?  Enough bat for the outfield?
Keith Law: Catcher.

Bob: Will the IFA date be pushed back if the lockout is still in effect, as expected?
Keith Law: Shouldn’t affect that.

Fradog: Why are Jays fascinated with Biggio? Can he play 2B at MLB level?
Keith Law: 1. I don’t know. 2. Not well.

Matt: Do you think Schilling gets in? Im seeing an alarming number of public votes for him.
Keith Law: Don’t know. I didn’t vote for him.

Heather: Did you have a reaction to everybody and their dog getting into the HOF a couple of weeks ago?
Keith Law: That process has become a farce. It’s largely invalidated the writers’ votes. Jim Kaat was never a Hall of Famer. Neither was Harold Baines. The players and managers on the committees are just putting in their buddies.

John: As a lefty who loves to cook, how do you feel about the municipalities banning gas stoves in new construction?
Keith Law: Sucks for cooking, but the environmental damage wrought by fracking is no joke.

JR: Have/will you watch new Spiderman or Matrix movies? Or not your thing?
Keith Law: Zero interest in the Matrix movie. I only watched the first one and thought it was fine but incredibly derivative.

Fradog: Can Espinal be MLB avg for Jays? Love the glove but not sold on bat.
Keith Law: Great extra player. Not a regular for me. Same reason you said.

ChrisP: I had someone go off about “big pharma” and how it’s impacting society…and it just made me think that these people have no idea what the reason is behind people living longer today than 100 years ago. It’s just this big elusive “evil” thing to them.
Keith Law: It’s something they read on Facebook, not something they understand. There’s this sort of magical thinking about the human body that occupies most of the people who oppose Big Pharma … sometimes it’s a religious belief, sometimes it’s a false appeal to nature, sometimes it’s just ignorance, thinking the body is like a car or other machine that behaves predictably in response to treatments. We’re just not smart.

Sedona: Out of Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson and Brandon Pfaadt…. which ones has the best chance to be a mid rotation arm?
Keith Law: That will certainly be answered in the Dbacks top 20 in January.

Cubbie Blue: Reginald Preciado, Kevin Alcantara, and James Triantos seemed to be getting a lot of buzz in short season ball.   You find them at least interesting as well?
Keith Law: I definitely answered that in the Rizzo trade writeup and Prospect of the Year columns.

John: This might seem like an odd question, but if you had a chance to do it again in the present day, would you go to Harvard again?  I hold the Ivy League schools in high regard, but depending on your major, I’d bet you might get a slightly better education at one of the top liberal arts schools.  (No bias — my alma mater is not in either category.)
Keith Law: Yes, because of the value of the name, and the power of the school’s network. But I agree I would have gotten a better education at a smaller school, and probably would have enjoyed it more.

Chris: What do you think about sports leagues shortening quarantine rules for vaccinated players who test positive?
Keith Law: As long as that’s based on the latest evidence, sure.

Chris: Just FYI I watched new Matrix last night and it was pretty terrible.  And I liked the first 3 (esp the first 2)
Keith Law: I’m not shocked. Fan service films/books usually aren’t very good.

Chris: i know youre usually *yawn* about the R5 draft, but im still having Whitlock PTSD, do you think someone could take Josh Breaux as DH/3rd C and I’d watch him bash homers?
Keith Law: Doubt that one.
Keith Law: I don’t think he’s that good and I don’t think he gets taken/kept.
Keith Law: Maria Torres wrote up a list of some Rule 5 candidates, and while I wouldn’t select all of those guys if I were a GM, there were some good names on there. Gilberto Jimenez is the best prospect who was left unprotected: https://theathletic.com/3020049/2021/12/16/a-rule-5-draft-candidate-fr…

Jenna: I know you have no interest in this whatsoever, but I’d seriously vote for you for president. Thoroughly impressed with your ideas, common sense, analytical abilities, virtually everything you opine. This country would be better off, I have no doubt.
Keith Law: Thank you, but that job would destroy me. I’m not cut out for that line of work, even assuming I could get more than my immediate family to vote for me.

Appa Yip Yip: My favourite thing (I hate it) about the people complaining about big pharma vaccines is that treatment is orders of magnitudes more profitable than prevention. Big pharma would love nothing more than to sell monoclonal antibody treatments in perpetuity to unvaxxed idiots.
Keith Law: Or a pill you have to take every day for the rest of your life. That’s the business model, and it’s why we have far more treatments for things like depression or high cholesterol or ADHD, even in the absence of clear evidence of efficacy, and fewer new antibiotics.

Jay: I watched the Veterans’ Committee HOF announcement on the MLB Network.  All of the announcers, without exception, acted like it was Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Satchel Paige finally getting the call.  Are the announcers told to keep it upbeat, and to keep any dissenting opinions of HOF unworthiness to the themselves?
Keith Law: State Television.

Yinka Double Dare: Less perturbed at getting rid of gas ranges now that there’s an alternative to the electric coils, which are horrid. Induction ranges do pretty well for changing your temp quickly more like gas, although you have to get compatible cookware.
Keith Law: Which is a big expense for most people.

Joe: A lot of HOF voters have tied themselves in knots making excuses not to vote for anyone they can loosely tie to PEDs in any way. Now the same guys are tying themselves in knots trying to explain why it’s not hypocritical to vote for David Ortiz on the first ballot. It’s almost like it was never really about PEDs, and was just about keeping out the guys they didn’t like personally.
Keith Law: No question. If you vote for Ortiz, and not A-Rod, you’ve dropped the curtain.

John: I learned from my aunt last night that there is an underworld of children being farmed for their adrenaline.  News you can use.
Keith Law: Do they do that in pizzeria basements?

CY: I know it’s early, but thoughts on Druw Jones or Elijah Green for the Rangers at #3?
Keith Law: There are a lot of other players in this draft class. Those are just the most famous ones.

Sedona: Do you think Mize becomes a #2 starter?
Keith Law: Yes. I’m still a fan, even though we haven’t seen what I thought we’d see from him when he was first drafted.

Nick: In reference to your Eric Davis response as to players you wanted to see without injury…is Buxton on that trajectory?
Keith Law: I certainly hope not.

Tom: Think with emerging SP’s bailey ober and Joey Ryan, that the twins can emerge to be competitive in 2022?
Keith Law: I don’t believe those guys are the answer.

Tom: Anything to Jon Singleton getting buff this offseason? Are you buying him?
Keith Law: Meh. He’d be a great story, but the odds are well against him.

Sedona: Trevor Story’s away stats are atrocious.  Especially last year.  How much will teams take this into consideration when offering what seams will be a long term deal
Keith Law: Most Rockies hitters have had large home/road splits that have closed at least partway when they left Denver.

Adam: Growing up did kids ever sing “ i fought the law and the law won”?
Keith Law: Not really. I’m the wrong age for that. Lot of “Breaking the Law,” though.

Dude: Hamilton’s faster than Gore?
Keith Law: I’ve timed both guys multiple times and Hamilton was consistently faster home to first.

Guest: Should the dodgers move will smith   off of catcher? If so, which position?
Keith Law: Why?
Keith Law: Like, did something happen with Smith that I missed?

Sedona: Do you have a favorite off the radar / non pedigree prospect?
Keith Law: I love seeing guys who weren’t high picks or big bonus guys come from nowhere to become real prospects. Someone mentioned Walter above. Matt Brash is another. Players do change in unexpected ways. That’s the fun way to be wrong.

Appa Yip Yip: Didn’t they drop the curtain when Bud Selig was elected to the hall?
Keith Law: Every Commissioner gets in, right? Except Fay Vincent, because he dared to go against the owners.

Will Smith: Cartaya is coming up and Smith’s bat plays at other positions.
Keith Law: Cartaya looks like a superstar in the making, but he’s not exactly MLB ready now.

Chris: do you agree with the Yanks’ plan of going stopgap til Peraza/Volpe are ready, given their massive long term commitments to Cole and Stanton aleady, w Judge possibly coming? (proviso obv they could do all of it)
Keith Law: It’s risky, but I understand it … at some point, you do have to decide THIS prospect is the one you’re going to let develop.

xxx(yyy): what is the story with Profar? was he just not able to recover after the injury? were folks too high on his floor?
Keith Law: I feel like it was the two lost seasons. That’s the most parsimonious explanation.

Matt: How did a guy like Mike Piaaza get drafted in the 63rd round? And as a favor to Tommy Lasorda more or less. Like, how do so many scouts miss that?
Keith Law: Scouts didn’t miss anything there. He was awful his first two years in the minors, too. He repeated high-A and suddenly had huge power, and that carried over as he moved up the ladder. He didn’t play at all as a freshman at U Miami, then went to junior college, so who knows how much he was even scouted as an amateur.

Brutus Beefcake: Apologies if I’ve missed it already, but do you plan to publish a column explaining your HOF votes?  I know in years past you’ve contemplated not voting at all but I take it from your mention of not voting for Schilling that you did vote this year.
Keith Law: I have voted every year, and I will absolutely reveal my ballot. The Athletic just wants us all to reveal ours at once, I think next week?

Appa Yip Yip: Is Nate Pearson the Jays closer for the next five years (or until his arm explodes)?
Keith Law: I wouldn’t give up on him starting yet. I understand the reason for the question, but consigning him to a 70 inning a year role really cuts off a lot of upside.

xxx(yyy): ballpark, how often do NPs actually make the major leagues? 1% of the time? 3%? 5%? less than 1%?
Keith Law: I would bet under 1%. One in a hundred sounds aggressive. If you’re calling 1 in every 50 future big leaguers a non-prospect, you need to adjust your bar.

Henry: I’ve always found Gary Sheffield to be an interesting HOF candidate, but his defense was beyond atrocious.
Keith Law: It was, but if he were a DH, he would have probably sailed into the Hall – or at least gotten in sooner. His WAR numbers would have been much stronger and enough voters lean on that now that I think it’s worked against him.

Joe: There’s one anti-vax meme I’ve seen that says something along the lines of “If the vaccine is free to keep the nation healthy, then why aren’t chemo and insulin free?” It’s a meme that just blows my mind that they think that’s an argument in their favor. The anti-vax voters are the ones who are electing Senators who refuse to address the cost of medicine.
Keith Law: That’s almost true, but there’s also a sizable chunk of anti-vaxxers on the far left too. Strange bedfellows etc., but not every anti-vaxxer is a Q-supporting nutjob. (they’re all nutjobs, though.)

Marani: Which is more irksome:  the HOF voter who doesn’t vote for Jeter, Seaver, Pedro, et al because “nobody deserves to go in on the first ballot”, or the guy who tosses a vote to Tim Salmon or Tony Phillips because they were super nice to reporters after the game was over?
Keith Law: The latter. Don’t care about unanimous votes. Mariano didn’t get a special plaque, did he?
Keith Law: But don’t cheapen the process by voting for a player who was nice. If that’s how unseriously you take it, don’t vote.

DEF: No question, just wishing you and yours a happy holiday.
Sedona: Glad to have you back for chat after a few weeks off.  Happy Holidays!!
Keith Law: Happy holidays to all of you as well. I’ll try to get back on a regular schedule with these as we approach prospect rankings – and then I’ll do several around the launch of the rankings too. Have a safe holiday, everyone. Thank you all for reading.

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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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→ December 22, 2021
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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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→ December 18, 2021
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Stick to baseball, 12/17/21.

My big item this week was my annual ranking of the top board games of the year for Paste, which runs 15 titles deep (plus a bonus for the best reissue). My music rankings will go up here next week, and I’ll have a PAX Unplugged recap at Paste next week too.

Nothing new at the Athletic from me, as I work on prospect rankings and there are no transactions to cover. I’ll do a chat next week, though, even if it’s mostly non-baseball stuff.

On The Keith Law Show, I spoke with Nik Sharma, author of the great cookbooks Season and The Flavor Equation, about those books, underused ingredients, and his unusual career arc. You can subscribe and listen on iTunes and Spotify.

I will also send out another edition of my free email newsletter this week, although I have a feeling with baking plans and the kids home I am already setting myself up for failure. And one last time, here’s another reminder that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.

And now, the links…

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→ December 17, 2021
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The Luminaries.

Eleanor Catton won the 2013 Booker Prize for her massive novel The Luminaries, becoming the youngest-ever winner of the prize, all the more remarkable for how much the novel sounds like the creation of a much older mind. It’s part mystery, part historical fiction, a dash of picaresque, and at times a bit of a mess, with one of the most untidy endings I can recall in a novel of this magnitude.

The Luminaries takes us to 1866, to New Zealand’s South Island, and walks us into a gold-rush town called Hokitika with the newly arrived prospector Walter Moody, who is there to pan for gold, and instead wanders headlong into a series of interconnected mysteries in the town involving a corrupt sea captain, a missing goldpanner, a dead hermit, an opium-addicted prostitute, a possibly-bogus will, a vendetta, Sinophobia, a M?ori miner, and more. The twelve men he meets are all caught up in the web of mysteries in some way, with their connections forming an elaborate tapestry that puts Moody (and the reader) well into the weeds before any resolution appears. The mysteries are gripping, but they’re far better because of the strength of all of the characters Catton has created; if anything, Moody is this novel’s Nick Jenkins, the observer character who is himself not all that interesting.

The central mystery revolves around that dead hermit, Crosbie Wells, and his unknown relationship to the conniving captain Francis Carver, and their shared connection to Anna Wetherell, the prostitute who was found unconscious, possibly as a result of a failed suicide attempt, on the side of a road the same night that Wells was found dead in his hovel. That question drives the plot, but the way Catton unfurls it, character by character, shows incredible plotting for such a young novelist, and allows her to give the reader a cornucopia of fascinating and often weird characters, most sympathetic, a few decidedly not so. You come for the mystery, but you stay for the weirdos.

Catton did make two significant structural choices in the novel that didn’t quite work for me. She used the signs of the western zodiac and other astrology tidbits to title the chapters, and the twelve men are supposed to correspond to those signs. Astrology is woo, and if there’s a real connection between the zodiac signs and anything in the book, I missed it, and I’m not terribly sorry about it. She also concludes the novel’s main narrative somewhat abruptly, and then jumps back in time to provide a mostly linear narrative of what actually happened before Moody arrived, an answer key of sorts at the back of the book. Doing so is not an inherently bad choice – every mystery needs its solution – but the switch was sudden, and after the climax of the main story, which has an unexpected event that triggers the end, we get very little resolution or explanation of what happened or how the main characters react to it.

I’ve read plenty of 800+ page novels, but few are actual page-turners. The Luminaries flew by, with prose that evokes the 19th century without sounding like it was written in the 19th century – there’s some formality, some nods to colloquial English of the time, but the majority of the prose reads like it was written more recently. That central narrative gripped me from fairly early on in the story, and Catton increases its complexity (and thus the reader’s confusion) quite well before the gradual revelations of different characters’ parts in the overall drama. The Booker Prize winners’ list is a real mixed bag, but this is one of the better ones I’ve read – and one of the most readable, too.

Next up: I’m partway through this year’s Booker Prize winner, The Promise, by Damon Galgut.

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