My 21 Favorite Records of 2021
It’s been ... a year. Another year, in fact. Contrary to how things may seem at the present, we are not actually closing out the 24th month of an interminable 2020. 2021 came and went, and thank sweet baby jeebus that it brought a ton of great music with it.
For those of you who might be new here. I try to get out and run 3-5 days a week, listen to something new (to me), and share it with you on Instagram. It’s been great -- I get to listen to new music, share it with people who appreciate it, and get some exercise in the process. I can’t really express how beneficial and life-transforming the combination of a steady influx of great new tunes and hypnotic morning runs has been for me. Doing something repetitive enough to get your heart rate up to the point where your brain can kinda idle, and then filling that buzzing grey matter with music is magical. Maybe that something is cycling, rowing, throwing heavy things around at the gym, or just walking -- whatever will give you the space to fill your head with music. IT RULES. 10/10. Highly recommended.
A couple things before we get to THE LIST.
I’m not gonna rank any of these records, because: a) who cares, and b) I’ve done this enough over the past couple decades to know that my rankings changes literally every time I look at it. (I’m not very good at knowing when things are Actually Done.)
There will also be no blurbs for each album this year because I ran out of adjectives by doing those record recommendations on Instagram. I’d encourage you to just LISTEN to these artists instead of reading about them and then decide whether or not you dig it. Spin my 21 For 2021 Playlist or click on an album for song samples and needle-drop through a record, whatever it takes. I’d hate to discourage you with the wrong pile of words, and don’t want to overhype anything. It was was pretty damn good year for music (all things considered) and whittling my picks down to a Top 21 was as hard as it’s ever been. There’s a good chunk of these records that I’m certain I’ll have in heavy rotation for the remainder of my days on this rapidly decaying orb. Good job, music!
And now ... let’s do the damn thing.