Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

[Leestu]

Six,

A great list of songs I enjoyed a lot. There is a lot of commonality with mine - a third of these songs are on my favourite albums of the year - but it's interesting we often have different songs from those same albums. 5 of your songs are in my top 100 though. The Folly Group song was the best new find for me, and I loved your #2 song which I hadn't heard before. I don't usually get into Jenny Hval but this was great, especially once the tribal drum beat kicked in, she started singing, and the song kicked in, it's spaciness never letting me go until it ended, and ended too soon by the way, which for a 12 min song is an accomplishment. I'm not sure about repeated listens of the talking intro although as a one off it was interesting. Also happy to find out about Gustaf.

Great description of Snow Day. Although it wasn't one of my favourites at first, it's growing on me more each time, and probably is now.

[numbersix]

Tranny,

Your list always consists of things I like and things I want to run away from, lock my door, hide in bed and hope that they don't come looking for me. So thanks for holding back on the screamy-shouty metal tracks. Most of the rest was good, and I always value your guidance through non-mainstream hip-hop. Some mutual love of Tyler The Creator and IDLES.

aas for your #1, if I didn't know these guys I would have just written them off as slightly melodic hardcore/emo and not given them a chance. But the breakout success of Glow On got my attention, and it's a very impressive album, with the band clearly stretching the limits of their sound in great ways. And very cool that you got to see them live early in their career.

[JohnErle]

Things are slow at work, and the boss isn't around, so I'm able to post my #1 after all. Thanks anyway, Shryke.

Before I post my #1, I wanted to throw out this bonus track. This is another song I heard after the countdown had started, and by the time I realized it was a keeper I had already finalized my list so I didn't have anywhere to put it, but if I'd heard it a few weeks earlier it definitely would have made the cut. Probably even in my top 10. The official video, which I saw for the first time moments ago, is nothing special, so I recommend closing your eyes and letting the song wash over you.

Adia Victoria - Magnolia Blues



Feel free to fix the link and make this video work properly, fearless leader. Posting videos here always gives me trouble.

There were a few other tracks I realized I'd forgotten about or which grew on me as the countdown progressed or would have made my list if I'd started earlier, so I'll list them here and anyone who wants to hear them can check out my Spotify playlist or search for them on YouTube.

Bonus Tracks:
Mighty Dollar – Hiss Golden Messenger
He Said I Can (live) – Sharon Jones
The Sticks (live) – The Budos Band
November – Phoebe Hunt
So Slowly – Beirut
Don't Overthink It – Aaron Lee Tasjan
Hangover Blues – Amythyst Kiah
Harlem River Blues – Steve Earle
Sad But True – Jason Isbell

20. Charles Bradley - The World Is Going Up In Flames
19. Jericho - Laurel Premo
18. Born At The Disco - Jennifer O'Connor
17. Dion (w/Billy Gibbons) - Stomping Ground
16. Plant/Krauss - Can't Let Go
15. Danger - AHI
14. Good For You - Houndmouth
13. Gov't Mule - Let It Rain
12. River Race - Jordan Tice
11. Sparks - She's Worth Her Weight In Gold
10. Crowded House - Whatever You Want
9. Buffalo Nichols - Back On Top
8. Billy Bragg - Mid-Century Modern
7. Matt The Electrician - Big Changes
6. Iron Maiden - The Writing On the Wall
5. Eels - Magic
4. Heartless Bastards - How Low
3. My Morning Jacket - Love Love Love
2. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - Love Don't

Now, time to enter the maelstrom...

#1

Sparks/Todd Rundgren – Your Fandango

One of the side effects of the Sparks Brothers documentary is that Sparks and Todd Rundgren decided to work together again for the first time since the band was known as Halfnelson way back in 1972. This song was released on a Todd Rundgren collaborations album, but interviews at the time revealed that the song was nearly complete when Sparks sent it to him and Rundgren then added some finishing touches. The end result definitely sounds much more like a Sparks song than anything I'd associate with Rundgren. 2021 was Sparks' biggest year since the 70s, so it's only fitting they should top my list.

And unlike Magnolia Blues or How Low by the Heartless Bastards, the video is a fantastic work of immense creativity that perfectly captures the tone of the song. Sparks have inspired a lot of wonderfully inventive videos over the years, and this is one of the best.

[Shrykespeare]

John, thanks for participating.

For the most part, I enjoyed your offerings that were bluesy, soulful, old-man rock. It's something probably would have appreciated less before I achieved old-fartitude myself. The addition of Crowded House and (gasp!) Dion were quite unexpected.

Your #1 was ... well, strange. It felt like part aria, part novelty song, part children's song. The Terry Gilliam-style animate didn't do anything to undercut this. As a whole, it was just four and half minutes of endless repetition, so I can't say I'm a huge fan.

The Adia Victoria song was just ok for me.

Always love to have you along for this right. Slightly more for the snark than for the music, but that's how I roll.

[transformers2]

Ron:
Definitely preferred this to your past Rufus Du Sol pick, but it's still relatively flat electropop that overstays its welcome by stretching out its runtime to nearly 6 minutes without changing things up in any noticeable fashion.

These issues carried over to the rest of your list. A bulk of the songs were either electronic or electronic-tinged songs that just didn't interest or excited me much. We did have a crossover with Buzzcut though and Happier Than Ever and The Beachland Ballroom are also great tunes.

[transformers2]

John:
Shit man, that may be the Sparkiest Sparks song you've picked across any of our countdowns. Congrats on touching the Sparks sun.

With the possible exception of surfer, nobody here sticks more to a certain musical territory than you (admittedly the inclusion of an Iron Maiden song was a bit of a surprise). This batch of Americana, country, blues and indie tunes had its high and lows per usual, but a good chunk of the tracks left with me some kind of positive takeaway (especially on the instrumentation front. Lot of really great guitar licks and solos present in these 20 tracks). My favorites ended up being Laurel Promo, Let It Rain, Back on Top and Love Don't.

Lastly, thank you for once again delivering hilarious commentary. Being accused of murdering 75% of the participants may have been the top highlight of the countdown for me.

[JohnErle]

Tranny,

It was very thoughtful of you to exorcise most of the shouty demons from your picks this year, but replacing them with hip-hop and pop divas was hardly an improvement from where I'm standing, so I say fly your freak flag and bring on the shouty demons next year if that's what you're really listening to.

The music on Bells In Santa Fe was good enough to make me ignore her voice and the lyrics for a while, but eventually I had to remove the song from my rotation. Nothing else on your list really intrigued me, including Turnstile. Frankly, I'm amazed they're considered hardcore. Based on the tracks you posted, they seem to have a slick, over-produced, radio-friendly sound that could have been a popular mainstream rock track at any point over the last twenty years.

On a side note, I enjoyed your no nonsense critiques of everyone's picks, so keep it up! Also, since you've publicly admitted to being able to tolerate a Crowded House song, you are now officially old and un-hip, so welcome to the club.

Being accused of murdering 75% of the participants may have been the top highlight of the countdown for me.

I would have thought the highlight was getting away with it.

[silversurfer19]

2021, much like 2020, proved to be a year which pushed musical artists to innovate and experiment. With what felt at times like a marathon of lockdowns stifling creativity as bands were unable to work in the same room as one another, bounce ideas off one another and collaborate on musical designs and then the limitations of live gigs preventing the development of songs and learning what works with a crowd and what doesn't, crafting a song must have been incredibly difficult. Yet, as has been proven by us all, musicians, like life, found a way. They adapted, working remotely and sending music across the globe via the cloud, they split and created a greater, more singular focus. Through these adaptations, artists continued to develop and create music which was both interesting and quite often very relevant to the experiences of its audience.

One act who thrived upon this are a band who have, through almost 30 years, continued to innovate, challenge and develop their abilities, pushing themselves and their audience in new directions at almost every turn. Once the icons of the slowcore movement, Low have, while stripped down to a two piece during successive lockdowns, amazingly become louder and more experimental than many would have ever anticipated. Exploration of sounds has always been a central theme in Low’s work but has taken on a new shape in the past seven years with the guiding hand of producer BJ Burton. Beginning with 2015’s Ones and Sixes, Burton helped bend Low's sound into new, more electronic-leaning directions, but not until Double Negative and their latest record, Hey What, did the partnership fully blossom. Crackling and dissipating from the depths of despair to the heights of heartbreaking beauty, Low blanketed their sound in distortion, creating a towering, undulating wave of sonic oblivion. Not even Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s voices were spared the destruction, folding themselves into the droning noise and emerging as entirely new instruments.

Through this series of collapsing melodies and rousing harmonies, we get Days Like These, which, as the lyrics linger on the concept of the world lurching from crisis to crisis, finds the couple crafting a song which is actually quite stirring. The melody, which strides through explosions of frazzled sound, somehow evokes a feeling of calm and resolution. This is balanced against the slabs of distortion which crash down at each verse, and as the pair repeat the phrase, 'again' over and over, with the break down becoming more exhausted on each turn, it leads to an astonishing conclusion.

It almost feels strange to think that a 90s band were making music like this in 2021, yet perhaps, ONLY a band like Low could create this. Low have used their learned experience in an uncertain world and continue to push boundaries and provoke new ways of making music. They were pioneers back in my youth, and they continue to innovate now. And in days like these (heh), their ability to bring hope in this form is essential.

Low, Days Like These




My top 30.

1. Days Like These – Low
2. A Woman – Qlowski
3. Stuck – Media Jeweler
4. Track X – BCNR
5. Ritchie Sacramento – Mogwai
6. Make Kin – Nightshift
7. Narrator – Squid
8. Corncrakes – Anna B Savage
9. Hypnotized – Tune-Yards
10. Be Sweet – Japanese Breakfast
11. Spike – Pardoner
12. Thumbs - Lucy Dacus
13. Control – Mannequin Pussy
14. UVVP – Illuminati Hotties
15. Guiding The Worm – The Cowboy
16. Oh Sinner – The Body/Big Brave
17. Pain Without A Touch – Sweeping Promises
18. Crossing Over – Sour Widows
19. Unsmart Lady – Dry Cleaning
20. St. Tropez – Spread Joy
21. Sea Song – Pozi
22. Second Sight – Buck Meek
23. Reasons To Be Anxious – Pinch Points
24. Eat More - Ovlov
25. The Guest – Flat Worms
26. Prester John - Animal Collective
27. Olive Branch and Brown Dove – Spirit Was
28. Silvertongue – Packs
29. Strawberry Cough – FACS
30. Eyes Conversing – Smirk


Thanks to you all, and especially Shryke for setting this up again. I apologise I haven't been around to comment but I appreciate the effort you all put in to crushing the songs I have loved so much this past year. Looking forward to it all again in twelve months!

[Shrykespeare]

Surfer,

So happy to have you along for this ride, as always.

Your list had a lost of stuff that I liked, but very little that I loved. Lucy Dacus was really good (natch) as was Ovlov. Nothing I'd really return to, sadly, but I'm happy to have delved into your hindbrain for a solid month.

I'll say the same thing about your #1 that I said when it was Six's #4 - The vocoder was a little too grating for me at the beginning, but by the end it had evened out to a point where I felt myself humming along.

[Shrykespeare]

First, a bonus track. If 2022 to end right now, this would EASILY be my #1. I’m going to post it now just as a marker. I’m curious as hell as to where it will end up eleven months from now. It just might be the funkiest song I’ve heard this millennium, and easily one of the coolest, most badass videos I’ve seen in that same time period.

Khruangbin feat. Leon Bridges, B-Side




30. Gary Numan, Intruder
29. Clan of Xymox, All I Ever Know
28. Night Traveler, Dreams You Don't Forget
27. Dayglow, Medicine
26. Johnny Marr, Spirit Power & Soul
25. Morrissey, Knockabout World
24. Softcult, House of Mirrors
23. Volbeat, Heaven's Descent
22. Joe Satriani, All My Friends Are Here
21. Gary Numan, And It Breaks Me Again
20. Unknown Mortal Orchestra, That Life
19. Morrissey, Once I Saw the River Clean
18. Grouplove, Deadline
17. Roosevelt, Feels Right
16. LP, Goodbye
15. Volbeat, Temple of Ekur
14. The Maine, Sticky
13. Nation of Language, The Grey Commute
12. David Gahan & Soulsavers, The Last Time
11. Weezer, The End of the Game
10. The Happy Fits, Hold Me Down
9. Future Islands, The Painter
8. Royal Blood, Oblivion
7. ONR feat. Carina Jade, Sober
6. OVERWERK, Resonate
5. Sam Fender, Seventeen Going Under
4. CHVRCHES feat. Robert Smith, How Not to Drown
3. Gunship, The Drone Racers
2. Cannons, Bad Dream


Shrykespeare’s #1

If you’re paying attention (and especially if you’re Surfer…paying attention), this pick shouldn’t surprise you. When Surfer chose “Rush & Fever” for his list last year, I wasn’t sure where his recommendation would take me. And it took me straight to heaven.

The early 80s is when I hit my teen years, and it’s when I developed a strong appreciation for music. Though most of the radio I listened to was 80s pop and rock, it wasn’t until my high school years when I started to branch out into synth-pop and alternative. Bands like The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and OMD had a sound that completely fascinated me, and bands that used synth summarily took over two-thirds of my regular rotations (on my boombox tape-deck, don’t’cha know).

Fast forward four decades, and I’m at the point where any band who creates a sound that reminds me of my formative years is one I’m predisposed to like. But maybe no artist or band in the last decade has hit that nostalgic sweet spot for me than Nation of Language. The quirky, sometimes minimalistic synth riffs they pour into my ears are the musical equivalent of the sweetest, richest Godiva chocolates, making me hit for the Replay button again and again.

They put out their latest full-length album, A Way Forward, late last year, and it’s phenomenal. They also just recently made their national TV debut on The Stephen Colbert Show (thanks for telling me about that JohnErle!), and it does my heart good to see them getting the exposure they deserve. If they can keep putting out quality music like this, I’m likely to be a superfan of theirs until the day I leave this earth. This song is not only my favorite of 2021, but it may be one of my favorites of all time.

Nation of Language, Across that Fine Line

[numbersix]

Trying to catch up on the #1s

John, your list in general was very pleasant. Lots of bluesy rootsy stuff. At times it felt too reliant on the originals to really work on their own, but nevertheless they were nice to listen to. Charles Bradley was a particular standout. And of course your #1. I may not be a massive Sparks fan, but I have been listening to them a bit this year, and while some may find their obsessive repetition grating, I actually find it to be fascinatingly quirky. So a great way to end the list.

[JohnErle]

Surfer,

Your obsession with finding bands that are more indie than indie means your lists always seem limited in scope. Many of these bands draw from the same pool of influences and follow the same trends, so looking at your list as a whole much of it seems to blend together and I can't even remember which one was which. There were exceptions, though. Track X inspired me to check out the full Black Country, New Road album, and I also really enjoyed the opening instrumental, which sounded like an indie band channelling Santana. Much of the album left me cold, and the singer doesn't really appeal to me, so his leaving might actually make them a better band from where I'm standing. Let me be the first to call them Black Country, New Singer. I also really liked that new Tune-Yards track, and Oh Sinner has grown on me.

Luckily, your indie brother from another mother has already posted your #1, so I won't have to subject myself to that one again. The nearly ambient music was fine, but the vocals were pure auditory torture.

[JohnErle]

Shryke,

The 80s nostalgia, radio-friendly production, and simple pop hooks in your picks were a bit much at times, but there were some standout tracks. That Future Islands song is the one that most manages to sound distinctive, largely because of the singer's voice. Sober would either make Ultravox very proud or very litigious, depending on Midge Ure's mood. As for your #1, it's a fine line between having influences and simply regurgitating what's come before, and too many of your picks fall on the wrong side of that line for me, including this one.

Thanks for cracking the whip organizing the whole show once again.

[numbersix]

Surf,

Ah, glad to see us finally cross over. What a beautiful song, and if the others can't see that well they can head off and party in happysville, as I'm perfectly content living in Low's quiet despair. It's an incredible song that's the highlight of a stunning album, particularly from a band in their 4th decade of making music, and even more so because I had written them off until this and their previous album came along.

Your list was almost always excellent, with plenty of discoveries - Spready Joy for example. And plenty of acts I do love and was delighted to hear them here - Squid, Mogwai, Pozi, Sweeping Promises, etc.

[transformers2]

Tranny,

It was very thoughtful of you to exorcise most of the shouty demons from your picks this year, but replacing them with hip-hop and pop divas was hardly an improvement from where I'm standing, so I say fly your freak flag and bring on the shouty demons next year if that's what you're really listening to.

There were only 3 omissions (if you care to give them to give them spin: they were Animal by Brand of Sacrifice, Never Seen/Future Shock by Between the Buried and Me and Martyrs by Pupil Slicer), so I wasn't really inaccurately representing what I was listening to. I viewed it as simply choosing to feature a few songs that I loved a bit less and happened to be far more agreeable to the ears. That being said, I'll definitely reconsider this approach for next year.