We may only be half way through 2021, but it’s already been a great year for music. In celebration of hitting the year’s mid point, we’re looking back at some of its musical highlights. While there are far more albums that could have made the cut (and plenty of albums we have not had a chance to spend time with that likely deserve a spot here), here are fifteen of our favorite things we’ve heard from the past six months, presented in roughly chronological order by release date.
Palberta – Palberta5000
In my mind, the trio of Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser are one of the foremost no wave bands of the last decade; the average Palberta track clocks in at under two minutes, filled with spindly riffs and dissonant harmonies. Their signature ramshackle charm is notably absent on their latest offering, which sees the band putting a pop sheen on their trademark sound. Rather than reinvent themselves as a pop group, they have managed to mould pop in their own image.
Styrofoam Winos – S/T
Styrofoam Winos, made up of longtime friends Joe Kenkel, Trevor Nikrant, and Lou Turner, originally formed in 2016; the band functions as a democracy, with each member sharing vocal and songwriting duties. Their debut album feels like a cozy jam session, putting the collective joy in music-making front and center throughout. It’s an album that manages to capture the ineffable feeling of creating music together, and that alone makes it one of the most joyous listens of 2021.
For Those I Love – For Those I Love
David Balfe began recording the electronica experiments that form the foundation of For Those I Love while playing in a band called Burnt Out with his best friend Paul Curran. Curran, who tragically passed away in 2018, casts a huge shadow over the album; it celebrates his life and grapples with the absence his death has caused. Throughout the album there is a special alchemy to the way Balfe combines words and sound; the elements come together as more a memory than a song, transporting you into late night drives and pub nites with Curran and Balfe. It’s a beautiful tribute to Curran as well as a heartbreaking work of art.
Sharkula x Mukqs – Take Caution On The Beach
Take Caution On The Beach is rap as viewed through the looking glass. The production from Hausu Mountain head honcho Max Allison plays it fast and loose with rap convention, which works perfectly with Sharkula’s improvisatory approach to writing. One of the beautiful things about Sharkula’s off the cuff lyrics are that you really get a picture of him as a person. There are struggles: the grind of making and selling music, the harsh realities of living through a pandemic. But there’s also a sense of unbridled positivity that pervades the album. It’s music that’s equal parts inspirational and nonsensical.
Genesis Owusu – Smiling With No Teeth
Genesis Owusu may be billed as a rapper, but his debut album is all over the map. From the slow jam “Waitin’ On You” to damaged art pop of “The Other Black Dog”, Owusu throws a little bit of everything at the wall and consistently manages to make it stick. The last time I heard a debut album this audacious and singular was Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid; if Owusu plays his cards right and keeps making music this good, he’ll soon be a superstar just like her.
Astrid Øster Mortensen – Gro Mig En Blomst
Astrid Øster Mortensen’s debut album defies easy categorization. She constructs delicate melodies on piano and guitar, occasionally singing above them, and then enrobes them in hisses, static and field recordings. A master sonic collagist, Mortensen utilizes these atmospherics to transform what otherwise may have been a set of delicate folk tunes into something far stranger. The album’s sonic world is so fully imagined that you can’t help but get swept up in it, only loosening its grip as its final notes ring out.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Uncommon Weather
Although a bunch of stellar records have come out of the San Francisco jangle pop scene this year (see Flowertown, The Telephone Numbers, Mister Baby), my favorite of the bunch comes from Glenn Donaldson’s The Reds, Pinks & Purples. Splitting the difference between Felt and The Television Personalities, it’s dreamy, pitch perfect pop music to soundtrack the coming long summer days.
McKinley Dixon – For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her
For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her is transportive music. The concluding entry in a trilogy of albums (which also includes Who Taught You To Hate Yourself? and The Importance of Self Belief) sees Dixon exploring history and telling stories of both trauma and uplift. It’s music that sounds absolutely massive, filled with orchestral bombast, jazz interludes and genre bending beats that come together to create a fully realized sonic universe.
Rosali – No Medium
Philadelphia musician Rosali Middleman’s third album is a song cycle equal parts introspective and heavy, at times feeling like a personal exorcism as much as an album. She tackles subjects like addition, death and loss, backed by a melange of classic rock, folk and country sounds. Although this might sound like a downer, what ultimately makes the album an uplifting listen is the sense of inner strength cuts though each song; no matter how hard things get, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. After the past year we’ve had, No Medium feels like a vital reminder of that fact.
Fiver – Fiver with the Atlantic School Of Spontaneous Composition
Simone Schmidt is a shape shifting musician, and their latest may be one of their greatest achievements yet. Although Fiver with the Atlantic School Of Spontaneous Composition is ostensibly a country record, it feels more apt to think of country music as a framework; while the sound of a steel guitar or a honky tonk rhythm might flit by, the band’s relaxed improvisations take the music into territories far beyond the confines of any particular genre. What these musicians have created is improvisational music of the highest order, music where each part works in service of a greater whole.
Mia Joy – Spirit Tamer
Mia Rocha says she wanted her debut album “to be like a friend you’re going to in a hard time,” and I think she’s largely succeeded. Spirit Tamer sounds instantly familiar and comforting, almost like wriggling into a favorite sweatshirt. Although Rocha’s pop instincts shine through on many songs (“Ye Old Man”, “Haha”, “See Us”), there’s a nocturnal, foggy atmosphere that envelops the whole album. Soundscapes slowly mutate before your eyes, moving with ease between pop structures, glistening vocal experimentation and pure ambience. It’s easy to get lost in its gentle, ever shifting sounds.
St Lenox – Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for our Tumultuous Times
“I’m not a religious man, but I can understand religion” Andrew Choi sings towards the end of Ten Songs of Worship and Praise For Our Tumultuous Times, the latest album from his musical project St. Lenox. Although religion looms large over the album, at their core these songs are about finding meaning and acceptance in life. While the album doesn’t offer any easy answers, its message is ultimately uplifting; we can find that meaning and transcendence in many places, including this music.
Devin Shaffer – In My Dreams I’m There
With her debut album, Devin Shaffer brings listeners into her mind. The Chicago based artist is a self-described constant daydreamer, and In My Dreams I’m There shuffles fluidly between physical and psychic planes. Utilizing field recordings, gently plucked acoustic guitars, and otherworldly vocals, Shaffer’s music hovers somewhere between ambient soundscape and traditional songcraft. It’s truly something special, an album that heralds the arrival of a huge new talent.
THE 尺口MP – It’s Ok
I don’t know much about THE 尺口MP; the entire description on It’s Ok‘s Bandcamp page is written in Chinese, and using Google Translate as a translator didn’t yield much additional info. But luckily the Fuzhou based band creates music that transcends linguistic boundaries. There’s a sense of sepia toned nostalgia embedded in the fibers of their music, whether in the sway of “Yan Shan Magpie Bridge”, the grand sweep of “The Grove” or the light disco funk of “The End of The World.” It’s a gentle and beautiful listen.
Michael Cormier – More Light!!
On More Light!!’s opening song, “Degregation”, Philadelphia musician Michael Cormier sings about the magic of getting up to new possibilities each morning, so that “waking up becomes an act of pure creation.” It’s an apt way to start an album where each moment Cormier describes feels so carefully observed that it constructs an inner world all its own. Built on top of a set of dreamy, country tinged instrumentals, it’s music that’s capable of warming your heart one minute and breaking it the next.