I love the idea of year end lists, but their execution often leaves something to be desired. What should be an opportunity to learn about great music that you missed often turns into a coronation for the same ten or fifteen albums by every major music journalism outlet. My personal favorites of the genre always represent a very focused viewpoint (whether that comes from a single person or a publication) for the simple reason that I always learn the most from them. I always want to come away from any year end list discovering something new.
In that spirit, here are Undrcurrents’ favorite albums of the year. The use of “favorite” and not “best” is intentional; the value of ranking art is dubious at best, not to mention the fact that it is impossible for any single person to have an authoritative view of the year. This list is shaped by personal listening habits, and in the end it is one thing and one thing only: a snapshot of one individual’s perspective on the past twelve months in music.
In July, I published a list of my favorites of the year to date. If you read that, you’ll notice both similarities and differences here. I still stand by and love all of the selections on that previous list, and the differences are merely a reflection of being a music fan: it’s a process of constant discovery and exploration, and your relationships to different music will inevitably change over time. I didn’t get a chance to cover some of the albums on this list before today, and I know there are still plenty of records I haven’t heard that deserve a spot here. If I were to look back five or ten years down the line this list would undoubtedly look different, and that’s to be expected. The story of music in 2021 may be written, but we’ll still be trying to make sense of it for years to come.
Before we get to the albums, I’d also like to thank everyone who submitted music to the site in 2021. I wish I had the time to respond to every email and write about everything that gets sent my way, but please know that regardless of whether we covered it your music was greatly appreciated. We’ll continue to listen to and cover as much music as possible in the coming year.
Finally, for more year end coverage check out some of our favorite labels of 2021.
As always, this list is unranked; albums are listed in roughly chronological order by release date.
Monokultur – Ormens Väg (Ever/Never Records)
The Gothenburg scene has always seemed to exist in its own insular universe; its particular brand of spectral, otherworldly sounds stands alone in the contemporary music landscape. Earlier this year my pick from it was the debut from Astrid Øster Mortensen (which is still a favorite), but this album from Monokultur continued to surprise and delight each time I revisited it. Across its ten tracks, the band conjures up alien landscapes posing as pop songs. Sparse, strange and yet somehow catchy, its haunted melodies will slowly worm their way into your subconscious.
Styrofoam Winos – S/T (Sophomore Lounge)
The latter half of 2021 saw members of Styrofoam Winos getting accolades for stellar solo projects, but I still found myself coming back to their debut album as a single unit. While each additional entry in the band members’ personal discographies allowed me to better tease out their individual voices on Styrofoam Winos, the music is much greater than the sum of its parts. 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 the year.
Black Country, New Road – For The First Time (Ninja Tune)
The new wave of British post punk truly arrived this year, with debut albums from buzzy acts (Dry Cleaning, Squid) and strong statements from established member of the scene (Black Midi, Shame, Goat Girl). Black Country, New Road’s debut album was one that I’d been anticipating since I first heard them years ago on Youtube, and I’ll admit that I initially found it disappointing; it sounded more like a Slint knockoff than the visionary set of music I expected. Despite this reaction, I found myself coming back to it again and again over the course of the year. The Slint influence is undoubtedly there (they even get namechecked on “Science Fair”), but there’s so much more: the eerie, atmospheric beauty of “Track X”, the slow build of “Sunglasses”, the strange klezmer influence that somehow doesn’t feel out of place. I’m now convinced I was wrong. It’s a flawless debut from one of the most exciting acts around.
For Those I Love – For Those I Love (September Recordings)
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.
Bruiser Wolf – Dope Game Stupid (Bruiser Brigade Records)
Danny Brown has long been one of my favorite rappers, and although we didn’t get the promised XXX sequel in 2021 he still delivered in a big way. Bruiser Brigade Records was one of the unexpected delights of the year, releasing a series of oddball rap records that follow in Brown’s irreverent footsteps while still allowing each rapper to carve out their own particular niche. Bruiser Wolf’s was a clear highlight because of his constant stream of one-liners, offbeat flows and lyrical prowess. Wolf boasts “Nobody sound like this / I got my own sound I’m an instrument” near the end of the album, but he doesn’t need to boast; it’s self-evident that he’s in a lane of his own.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Uncommon Weather (Slumberland Records)
Some of my fondest memories of living in San Francisco are foggy morning runs through Golden Gate Park. A picture taken in Inner Richmond, a neighborhood bordering the park, adorns the cover of Uncommon Weather, and the album’s songs perfectly embody the peculiar microclimate of that area of the city. Frontman Glenn Donaldson writes pitch perfect pop songs that sound like they’re being viewed through a haze; you can make out the individual parts, but they blur together at the edges to create something transcendent. Though the San Francisco jangle pop scene was on fire this year (see Flowertown, The Telephone Numbers, Mister Baby, The Umbrellas, Cindy and much more), Uncommon Weather stands out amidst its consistent excellence.
Maxine Funke – Seance (A Colourful Storm)
Maxine Funke has released three full length albums over the past decade, all of which were named for different fabrics (Lace, Felt, Silk). Those titles give you a good idea of her sound: hushed, etherial folk music. Seance introduces a new naming convention to her oeuvre, but the sound doesn’t change radically; it’s an album filled with hazy dreamscapes that feel as if they exist somewhere between the physical and spiritual worlds. Although there’s plenty of detail to savor, I prefer to let her songs envelop me, letting my mind go wherever they take it.
McKinley Dixon – For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her (Spacebomb Records)
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 (Spinster)
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 two years we’ve had, No Medium feels like a vital reminder of that fact.
THE 尺口MP – It’s Ok (Shengjian Records)
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. 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 still some of the gentlest and most beautiful music I heard all year.
Devin Shaffer – In My Dreams I’m There (American Dreams)
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.
Michael Cormier – More Light!! (Dear Life Records)
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.
SPELLLING – The Turning Wheel (Sacred Bones Records)
Part of the appeal of Chrystia Cabral’s music has been her ability to conjure up worlds with little more than synths and her voice. The Turning Wheel reads like an about-face from this minimalistic aesthetic on paper: a sixty minute album recorded with an ensemble of thirty one other musicians, filled with expansive tracks that slowly build and develop. But perhaps counterintuitively, the expanse has actually sharpened Cabral’s artistic focus; each song renders an entire universe in miniature. Though some will consider The Turning Wheel a sonic departure from her previous work, to my ears it feels like the purest distillation of her artistic vision to date.
Les Filles De Illighadad – At Pioneer Works (Sahel Sounds)
Each entry in Les Filles De Illighadad’s catalog shows a new facet of the group’s talents; their latest paints a portrait of a powerhouse live band. Taken from a Brooklyn live performance in in 2019, the band stretches out songs from their back catalog, weaving tende drumming, guitars, and call and response vocals into extended, trance-like epics. Back in 2019 Amanda Petrusich wrote about the power of these very live performances in the New Yorker, and these intoxicating rhythms prove to be just as potent on record as they were in person that evening.
Territorial – Tlaxihuiqui (Die Jim Crow)
Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, more commonly referred to as Territorial, is the oldest prison in the state of Colorado, and Tlaxihuiqui is the first recorded music from within its walls to be heard in the free world; perhaps paradoxically, it sounds boundary-less. Incorporating folk, country, blues rock, spoken word and more, the album centers around the life experiences of the incarcerated musicians who tell those stories using their own musical language. Touching on everything from prison life to meditations on regret and redemption, it’s one of the most powerful listening experiences of the year.
Wednesday – Twin Plagues (Orindal Records)
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Twin Plagues was a long lost indie rock classic. Wednesday’s sophomore album takes the sounds of 90s alt-rock and put them into a blender; at different times you can hear the loud-soft dynamics of grunge, the drifting melancholy of slowcore, alt-country twang, the absurdist slacker rock of Pavement and much more. It could easily become pastiche, but the way the band melds these sounds together sounds utterly contemporary. Infused with an irrepressible sense of energy, it’s one of the best rock albums of the year.
Water From Your Eyes – Structure (Wharf Cat Records)
Water From Your Eyes have always been pop tricksters; this is, after all, a band who had their greatest success with an album called Somebody Else’s Song, and then subsequently released a covers album called Somebody Else’s Songs. On their latest album, Structure, the duo’s sense of humor, along with an attention to minute detail, takes center stage. The title refers to the album’s sequencing (which divides it into two perfectly symmetrical halves), but these songs stand on their own without any conceptual tomfoolery. From the swelling, cinematic instrumentals of “Monday” to the pulsing and disorienting vocal loop of “”Quotations””, Structure contains some of the year’s most thrilling musical moments.
Space Afrika – Honest Labour (Dais Records)
The early music of Space Afrika, the duo of Joshua Reid and Joshua Inyang, was indebted to the legacy of British electronic music and their hometown of Manchester. As the duo has developed their artistic practice, they’ve moved away from conventional forms into more nebulous sonic outer zones. The duo describes what they create not as music but as ‘overlapping moments’, and it’s a phrase that fits perfectly; the album’s fluid sounds mirror the way urban dwellers actually experience the city, myriad lives and personal dramas big and small playing out in its homes and streets. It both a tour de force and a love letter, not just to Manchester but to any urban sprawl and the life that teems within it.
Myriam Gendron – Ma délire – Songs of love, lost & found (Feeding Tube Records)
Seven years is a long time to wait for a follow up to a bona fide modern classic, but Myriam Gendron’s sophomore album didn’t disappoint in the slightest. While writing the album, Gendron immersed herself in the traditional music of Quebec, America, and France. Those songs served as a foundation for Ma délire, with Gendron using them as building blocks for her own musical vision. Just as she did on Not So Deep As A Well, Gendron breathes new life into old words and melodies, creating something that sounds both modern and timeless.
Stice – Stice’s Satyricon (Ramp Local)
Stice, the duo of vocalist Caroline Bennett (aka Crab) and producer Jake Lichter (aka Jark) began making music together in 2018, building a cult following with their frenetic songs and low budget music videos. Take the intensity of Death Grips, the sleazy energy of early Peaches and 100 Gecs’ blown out sense of pop, throw them in a blender and you’ll start to approximate the madness that is Stice’s Satyricon. The album is a sonic house of mirrors, with Crab’s stream of consciousness rants riding over frenetic instrumentals built out of throbbing beats and chirping synths. It may be some of the most vile, demented music I’ve heard this year, but it’s also some of the best.
Juçara Marçal – Delta Estácio Blues (QTV Selo / Mais Um)
Juçara Marçal has had a decades long musical career in Brazil, but Delta Estácio Blues is only her second solo album ever. It’s also one of the most ebullient and wild sets of music to come out this year. We need to start with the arrangements, which seem to have a life of their own; tracks don’t unfold as much as they writhe, sigh, stutter, flail, or slither. While a lesser vocalist might get lost in this sonic wonderland, Marçal delivers a commanding performance that showcases her range and versatility as a vocalist. It’s a triumph in every sense of the word, an essential listen for fans of adventurous pop.
Parannoul / Asian Glow / sonhos tomam conta – Downfall of the Neon Youth (Longinus Recordings)
Parannoul, Asian Glow and sonhos tomam conta each released stellar solo albums this year, but this three way split feels like their crowning achievement to date. Each artist exists somewhere at the intersection of shoegaze and emo, mixing blown out textures with anthemic choruses. While Parannoul’s sparkling melodies and intricately layered sounds might be my favorite contributions, the dialogue between these artists’ sounds truly animates and elevates the whole record. It’s the rare split that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Ilai Ashdot – MAXIMAL LIFE (Orange Milk Records)
It’s tempting to brand the songs on Ilai Ashdot’s debut album with the nebulous term “hyperpop,” largely because it shares the maximalist, throw everything at the wall tendencies of artists associated with the term. However, the complexity of his compositions align him more with the experimental spirit of his label’s roster; choruses and melodies rarely repeat, decaying and reconfiguring themselves over and over in the span of a few minutes without ever feeling busy or cluttered. I still don’t know whether it’s experimental music fronting as pop or visa versa, but it’s far and away one of the most audacious debut albums of the year.
Pal Hwang Dan – 2013 – 2021 Seoul (Chinabot)
Pal Boche, a Seoul based musician, works as a composer for advertisements and video games by day, but he also writes and records warped pop music under the name Pal Hwang Dan. His third album heralds Dan as a major pop talent, melding catchy hooks and avant-garde textures together into something effortlessly listenable. Tracks like lead single “Usadan-ro” are immediate earworms, while others like “Insect” or “19800 Won” function more as strange, drifting synth landscapes. All told, it’s some of the best, most ambitious pop music of 2021.
The Chisel – Retaliation (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)
The most important ingredient of punk has never been a particular sound or political message, it’s always been attitude. The Chisel’s debut album may be a manifesto about the ills of contemporary society and the struggles of the working class, but it’s also a masterclass in punk attitude. The whole album feels like something the band had to get off its chest, a lifetime of anger and passion materialized into just under thirty minutes of sonic rage. If you want to hear what vital punk music can and should sound like in 2021, look no further.
+ 26 more albums I thoroughly enjoyed in 2021
Fax Gang – Aethernet (No Agreements)
Editrix – Tell Me I’m Bad (Exploding in Sound Records)
Parannoul – To See The Next Part Of The Dream (self-released)
Talons’ – new nightmares (self-released)
Renée Reed – Renée Reed (Keeled Scales)
Prabh Deep – Tabia (Azadi Records)
Índio da Cuíca – Malandro 5 Estrelas (QTV Selo)
The Buildings – Flesh and Code (Call and Response Records)
Body Meπa – The Work Is Slow (Hausu Mountain)
Mia Joy – Spirit Tamer (Fire Talk Records)
St Lenox – Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for our Tumultuous Times (Don Giovanni)
Backxwash – I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES (self-released)
Mega Bog – Life, And Another (Paradise of Bachelors)
NTsKi – Orca (Orange Milk Records)
Mike and the Moonpies – One To Grow On
Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective – Ngủ Ngày Ngay Ngày Tận Thế (Subtext Recordings)
Flowertown – Time Trials (Paisley Shirt Records)
Various Artists – Sounds of Pamoja (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
The Body & BIG|BRAVE – Leaving None But Small Birds (Thrill Jockey)
Dummy – Mandatory Enjoyment (Trouble In Mind)
Macie Stewart – Mouth Full of Glass (Orindal Records)
Soumbalgwang – Happiness, Flower
dltzk – Frailty (deadair)
Natalie Jane Hill – Solely (Dear Life Records)
Fuubutsushi – Shiki (Cached Media)
Doran – Doran (Spinster)
If you’ve made it this far, happy new year and thanks (as always) for reading. We hope you discovered something new.