2021 wasn’t my favorite year, both in terms of music and in terms of things that happened during it (mostly the first half, things are better now). I guess I’m being a little unfair about music here, because I spent a lot of this year too stressed out and anxious to listen to much of anything beyond podcasts. Still, tradition is tradition, and there were some things I listened to in 2021 that I genuinely loved, so I thought I would cobble something together to commemorate another year gone by. Due to not really listening to or liking many 2021 releases, this playlist is by no means limited to very recent past, although it does somehow include more 2021 tunes than throwbacks.
As with having less interest in new music this year, I also have had less and less time (read: tolerance) for music writing, but my attempt at explaining what these 21 songs meant to me in 2021 is after the cut. Cheers, and may 2021 be kinder to us all!
1) The Leather Nun - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (1986). Earlier this year, I watched Nicholas Winding Refn’s sort of frustrating, sort of incredible series Too Old to Die Young, which featured the (very rude) Leather Nun song, “F.F.A.” Following in that vein, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” is a suitably sleazy rendition of my favorite ABBA song. While a Swedish punk band covering ABBA may seem like a lazy move, The Leather Nun really excel at bringing out the song’s underlying desperation here.This is also a reminder to myself to listen to the new ABBA record that came out this year.
2) Iceage - Vendetta (2021). Also sleazy but in a more try hard kind of way.I’m a little dismissive of Iceage in general, but this song was stuck in my head for seven months straight so it’s obviously doing something right. Also, Sonic Boom.
3) Ought - Desire (2018). It may be three years old, but Ought’s Room Inside the World was easily the record I listened to the most this year -- probably because, like myself this year, it’s jittery and nervous and vaguely uncool but does it all so passionately and with great (ugh) relevance. “Desire” isn’t exactly indicative of the album as a whole, but it has the most incredibly evocative lyrics -- such as, “you’re like the moon in a basket of wheat / You rose out of the roses / Right under my mouth” -- that I could just fixate on forever. Sad I slept on this record for so long, but grateful it’s so special to me now.
4) Lana Del Rey - Violets for Roses (2021). Just an elegant, perfectly rendered sigh of relief after a year of suffocation, but also:
5) Low - All Night (2021). Like somebody left a Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles song out in the sun for too long and then finger painted with the remains. I mean this in absolutely the greatest way possible.
6) Lingua Ignota - MAN IS LIKE A SPRING FLOWER (2021). I once had a co-worker who was actively involved in a sacred harp choir. Little did I know this form of sacred choral music would serve as the key ingredient in what is possibly the most staggering piece of music this year. Please also check out this excellent consideration of SINNER GET READY on Reddit.
7) Jarboe - Not Logical (1995). Solidified my opinion that Jarboe-era Swans was the best era. If you’re watching a horror movie, and the soundtrack to someone discovering a body and / or evil entity isn’t as eerie as this, then turn that movie off because it’s doing it wrong.
8) Bloodslide - Trap Door (2021). Nancy Sinatra’s daughter + guitarist from Protomartyr + drummer for Preoccupations = I can’t believe this is an actual band that released an EP this year and not something I dreamt up as a coping mechanism for the year. Lots more of this, please.
9) Winkie - This Place is Death (2021). One of our favorite live acts we’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with in the before times. This tune is tough, noisy, and could easily beat up any other song on this list. Also, please don’t sleep on the awesome Prima Primo-directed video for it!
10) Doja Cat feat. SZA - Kiss Me More (2021). A bit of a throwback pop song that doesn’t overstay its welcome and comes with a super lush video to boot. Also, when was the last time you heard a top 40 song with the word “rubbish” in it?
11) Bunny X feat. Don Dellpiero - Perfect Paradise (2021). Like “Holiday”-era Madonna with a dreamwave twist. Wonderfully liminal in its bridge between eras but in a blissful, non-uncanny kind of way. Will turn every room in your home neon pink, purple, or blue.
12) Earth, Wind, & Fire - Let’s Groove (1981). From LA to Philadelphia, we’ve heard this song so many times while out and about this year. Probably further proof that the algorithms are taking over, but if that means hearing “Let’s Groove” where ever I go, then I guess I surrender.
13) St. Vincent - Down (2021). Not the biggest St. Vincent fan but Daddy’s Home worked more often than it didn’t. I could also go either way with producer Jack Antonoff, but his efforts here and particularly on “Down” are pretty stellar accomplishments of achieving the album’s intended sound. That may seem a bit of a dry description, but listen to that electric sitar and you’ll get what I mean (maybe?).
14) Bodega - Doers (2021). Had the pleasure of hearing the upcoming Bodega record and I humbly believe it betters Endless Scroll in just about every way. “Doers” is a fine taster but by no means the record’s biggest treat. As is the band’s signature style, this is a great commentary on breakneck NY ambition and also most certainly a blazer live.
15) Veda Rays - Strange Anniversary (2021). Of course I’m putting my own band on here. This is my favorite tune from the album we put out this year, and probably the one I listened to the most, as it took some time relearning it for a couple of really fun live gigs we played this year. If you like Echo and the Bunnymen, then you might like this too. But also please listen closely ‘cos it’s not just that.
16) Flossing - Add to Cart (2021). Flossing’s debut EP Queen of the Mall is one of those releases that expertly distills its clear cut influences into something revitalizing and refreshing. A clever commentary on consumerism delivered with icy confidence, I’m sure many others will find themselves submitting to Flossing’s charms in the near future.
17) Scam Avenue - Jailbird (2021). Played a gig with Scam Avenue a few years ago and have been wowed by their unpredictable synthpop ever since (in their words, “If Brian Eno wrote the soundtrack for a John Hughes movie, it might sound like Scam Avenue.”). “Jailbird” lulls you in with Devery Doleman’s crystalline vocals, subtly raising the anxiety with perfectly placed synth pulses, before raising every hair on your body with a blistering sax line. This is the beginning of Lost Highway as a dark synthpop song and I am 100% here for it.
18) Aldous Harding - Revival (2021). I could have just as easily put the equally brilliant “Old Peel” on here, but inventive covers are my weakness. Harding’s breezily creepy reimagining of this Deerhunter tune is nothing short of masterful.
19) Skeeter Davis - The End of the World (1962). Became obsessed with this song because -- why else? -- Brett Anderson covered it. But really, it’s just a perfect 10 of a pop song in any iteration. Perennial despair at its finest.
20) Caleb Landry Jones - Yesterday Will Come (2021). CLJ is easily one of my favorite actors currently working, and it’s a relief that his music feels too genuinely weird to be written off as a vanity project. Gadzooks Vol 1 follows up his Sacred Bones debut The Mother Stone, and is quite a bit more focused, perhaps most notably in this slice of warped chamber pop.
21) Alice Coltrane - Galaxy in Satchidananda (1972). Like a cluster of stars embracing you in a cloak of brilliant light In the middle of a cold, uncaring, and chaotic universe. This is really more about World Galaxy as a whole (and also Journey in Satchidananda), but I can’t think of a more transcendent piece of music to listen to as we cast off the old year and greet the new with trepidatious hope, restoration, and love.
Head over to The Deli Magazine NYC for the premier of our 'Shadow Side' video! Thanks to Dave Cromwell (DaveCromwellWrites) for the words. Thanks to Matt Rosenbaum for the photo and Derek Daniel Reformat for artwork.
The track is out Oct. 6, visit our store for pre-sale. Show announcements coming later this fall.
