Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Anything music related. Latest songs, good new bands, and blasts from the past.

Moderators: Buscemi, BarcaRulz, Geezer, W

User avatar
transformers2
John Rambo
Posts: 7731
Joined: October 23rd, 2009, 5:15 pm

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by transformers2 »

Surfer:
Even with the knowledge that that screechy vocoder was coming, it wasn't any less unpleasant and jarring than it was the first time around. I'm also still very indifferent to the latter half of the song when things on the vocal front mercifully settled down and the fine enough ambient instrumentation became more pronounced.

The divide in musical tastes that you and I have is by far the largest of anyone else that regularly participates in these countdowns. This was especially evident this year. Whether it's the vocal delivery, the production or the length of the track, there's usually something present in the work of the admirably deep roster of post/art punk and indie acts you enjoy that is at least somewhat off-putting to me. The only tracks that I can say that I really enjoyed were Be Sweet and Ritchie Sacramento.
BRING BRENDAN FRASER BACK TO THE BIG SCREEN DAMN IT
Check out my blog http://maitlandsmadness.blogspot.com/
Movies,Music,Sports and More!

User avatar
transformers2
John Rambo
Posts: 7731
Joined: October 23rd, 2009, 5:15 pm

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by transformers2 »

Shryke:
I could be convinced that this was written and recorded in 1982 if I didn't know otherwise, which is really the ultimate testament to how authentic their delivery of vintage new wave is. Still not my bag, but recreating that aesthetic so seamlessly is worthy of some kudos.

Aside from the god forsaken Future Islands song, your list mostly ranged from pleasant to quite good. Discovering that Volbeat had returned to their early form was an incredible surprise and How Not to Drown was one of my top discoveries from the entire countdown. My favorites aside from the aforementioned tunes were Oblivion and Seventeen Going Under.
BRING BRENDAN FRASER BACK TO THE BIG SCREEN DAMN IT
Check out my blog http://maitlandsmadness.blogspot.com/
Movies,Music,Sports and More!

User avatar
JohnErle
Snake Plissken
Posts: 2905
Joined: October 22nd, 2009, 4:01 am
Contact:

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by JohnErle »

transformers2 wrote:
February 8th, 2022, 6:28 pm
JohnErle wrote:
February 6th, 2022, 3:06 pm
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.
While I have no plans to seek out shouty demons on my own, I see no reason to filter your picks based on what you think the rest of us might like. I assumed everyone would hate Laurel Premo, but I posted it anyway and it got rave reviews. Death Metal usually has guitar riffs I can recognize as something vaguely resembling music, which is more than I can say for Tyler The Creator. And as for the shouty demons themselves, nothing could be worse than the shrill, screeching vocals of Low, which managed to evoke the sound of a cat in heat running its claws down a chalkboard whilst playing a bagpipe.

User avatar
numbersix
Darth Vader
Posts: 11545
Joined: October 21st, 2009, 2:34 pm

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by numbersix »

Shryke,

I'd say normally your taste is the one that is most different to mine on this. That was only proven to be true by your one-sentence shrug on my list! While I usually recall your lists to be full of pithy pop and cheesy "hard rock", this year's one was a little better. Either you've worn me down or the emphasis on nostalgic synthpop is more pleasing to my ears than other music. And particularly when they flirted with darkwave. And I did enjoy the Future Islands, Royal Blood, and CHVRCHES songs (on that, I'm hoping to finally see the Cure live at the end of the year)

Anyway, your #1 was retro and a tad derivative, but at least it didn't offend and was pleasant to have on in the background.

More importantly, thanks for setting this up and reviving the group a little. IT was good to hear from you all and exchange barbs!

User avatar
Leestu
Ratzo Rizzo
Posts: 1652
Joined: October 21st, 2009, 11:46 pm
Location: Western Australia

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by Leestu »

Ron,

Your list is the most familiar to me, knowing every song, and I love that familiarity, looking forward to what's next every day. Half are like a subset of my music taste of songs I like hearing on the radio but don't actively choose to listen to and the other half are songs and artists that I do. Your #1 fits into the first category, but it's quality. Which is what stood out to me in your list - all the songs are quality songs. No crossovers but three of your songs are in my top 100, and I love that Courtney Barnett song now. It's a real grower.

User avatar
Leestu
Ratzo Rizzo
Posts: 1652
Joined: October 21st, 2009, 11:46 pm
Location: Western Australia

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by Leestu »

Tranny,

Yours was one of my favourite lists. I love the variety in genres and styles, I never knew what we were going to get each day. Clearly a list of a music lover. I was stoked to see Blackout as your number one, and someone else having a King Gizz song made my day.

User avatar
Leestu
Ratzo Rizzo
Posts: 1652
Joined: October 21st, 2009, 11:46 pm
Location: Western Australia

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by Leestu »

John,

Your list was the perfect complement to Ron's for me. Whereas I knew all of his songs, every song of yours was new to me (except the Billy Bragg one), but like his they are all quality. Like his list they are mainly songs in genres I test out the waters a bit, but don't really do a deep dive into, so I really liked hearing some of the best from them. In fact I don't think there was a song I disliked. Matt the Electrician was a cool find. Might check the album out. Thanks for that one! I'll make a playlist of your bonus tracks and hopefully get around to it soon, but Jason Isbell's take on Sad But True is great!

As to Fandango, I loved it. Man that might be the most I have liked a Sparks song on first listen. I've still got that "do the fandango" hook in my head, and it was so effective as a familiar groove to return to after each trippy section in between, which were awesome in their weirdness by the way. Yes the video was cool too.

User avatar
Leestu
Ratzo Rizzo
Posts: 1652
Joined: October 21st, 2009, 11:46 pm
Location: Western Australia

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by Leestu »

Surfer,

You have a mood and style mostly consistent throughout the list. A lot of obscure artists I've never heard of that I see the potential of, and I appreciate that. I mean last time we did this you had Slum Of Legs (a band I had never heard of) at #1, and that album is now one of my favourite albums of 2020 (#11). I'm not sure who it will be from this time but there is a few albums I've added to my to-listen-to list from your list (Media Jeweller, FACS), so thanks for that! Great to see our Squid crossover, both in our top 10s, and BC,NR with different songs, Also great to see some songs from some of my favourite albums of the year from Lucy Dacus, Ovlov, Dry Cleaning, and Mogwai (Spirit Was just misses out but it was great to see them as it really is an interesting album worth hearing once). I'm still not into that Low song, despite hearing it a bit now, but that's what I've always been like with Low - like some, don't like some, a couple of great ones, some album fillers.

User avatar
Leestu
Ratzo Rizzo
Posts: 1652
Joined: October 21st, 2009, 11:46 pm
Location: Western Australia

Re: Top 30 songs of 2021 - The #1's

Post by Leestu »

Shryke,

i think we visit very different musical worlds. Even though we head off in similar directions we go different places and our paths very rarely cross, or even come close to each other. So a lot of new music to discover, most of which I appreciate more than actually like a lot. Softcult may end up being a good find, and I'm still quite liking your Cannons songs (I'm sure I did last time too) but am yet to check them out further myself. Great to see Chvrches, Sam Fender, UMO, and Royal Blood (even if that Royal Blood song isn't as good as the weakest song from their great debut album ;) ). I might have already mentioned to you I've already listened to the Gary Numan album because of you. Some ups and downs but overall a good listen.
I liked your Nation Of Language #1 song a lot. Maybe more than any other song I hadn't heard before on your list. I liked that sort of music whne it was happening at that time, so of course I am going to like it years later when it's done this lovingly well and better than anyone else. I really liked their debut and need to get around to this one. I still prefer the Nation Of Language song you posted on facebook though. Let me recommend City Calm Down to you. Another band who make music like this but are even better. Unfortunately they are no longer together but they have two great albums and many great singles.

Post Reply