Our Best Albums of 2021
Mdou Moctar – Victime Afrique
Mdou Moctar is the child of a conservative Muslim Tuareg family. As a child he enjoyed listening to the music of guitarists Abdallah ag Oumbadougou and Ali Farka Touré. When he was little, he built himself a guitar from a piece of wood and brake wires from an old bike, and developed his unique playing technique as an autodidact. At the age of 18, Moctar, like many Nigerien Tuareg, went to Libya to earn money for his family as a migrant worker. For three years he took various jobs including in projects searching for water in the Sahara and as a soldier in the army of Muammar al-Gaddafi. Poor working conditions brought him back to Niger in 2005, where he devoted himself to music more seriously.
Victime Afrique is fiery psychedelic funk-rock from a brilliant rhythm section and Moctar, one of the chef guitar slingers and his of the criminally exciting Tuareg desert-rock scene. United by the lust for playing and love of the desert, Josh Homme should immediately invite Moctar for the next part of his Desert Sessions, especially since Mark Lanegan already paved the way by collaborating with Tinariwen.
Damon Albarn – The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows
Albarn, officially crowned a Local King of Mali, bridges our way from Africa to Iceland, where he recorded his second solo album after gaining Icelandic citizenship. The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is a staggeringly beautiful and diverse album that by all its experimentiality is held together by a threat of recurring themes and sounds. The first three songs alone are an artistic revelation: I’ve written in-depth about the opening title song and why it’s nothing less than a cultural revolution (read here), “The Cormorant“ is pure Bowie in its vocals and distorted ballad quality, and “Royal Morning Blue“ is a glorious demonstration of Albarn’s enviable songwriting abilities, creating grand pop-melodies and hymns in a seemingly effortless way for over three decades now.
Anton Newcombe / The Brian Jonestown Massacre – 2020/2021 Demos
Anton Newcombe is one of the most prolific artists of our time, releasing constantly brilliant albums and songs at an intimidating pace. Newcombe has released 60 demos on his YouTube channel within the last year. The term “demo” seems succinct in connection with this music, as many artists would die for these otherworldly, psychedelic tunes. Newcombe’s YouTube drops during the pandemic years were a precious gift and more than once moved me to tears. Anton Newcombe is one of the very greats.
Rose City Band – Earth Trip
The question is: when will the newest Ripley Johnson album not make our year’s end list? Read Mark Lager’s review of Earth Trip here
Bobby Gillespie & Jenny Beth – Utopian Ashes
I initially ignored this album, and it ended up being on heavy rotation. ‘Mature’ is a term often synonymous to ‘pretentiously boring’ within music and art, but Utopian Ashes is an affectingly mature work that deals with fractured adult love relations beyond the peak emotional antipoles of falling in love and breaking up. This authenticity is backed by strong songwriting and a very tasteful production that avoids the well-trodden and thus often boring paths of noir. Utopian Ashes sounds like the love-duet album Mick Jagger never recorded while Gillespie and Beth make for a modern-day version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood with a heavy touch of straight-from-the-heart grandezza à la Marc Almond.
Graham Coxon – Superstate
Unexpectedly doubling the number of ex-Blur members on this list, this total ass-shaker of an album made it last minute into my best-of list, literally while writing it down. Weeks later I’m still dancing to Graham Coxon’s wild sci-fi-robo-prog-disco-funk double album that serves as soundtrack to the dystopian comic Superstate. Coxon: “Superstate is a story of escape… in a society where war rages between the forces of negativity and positivity, encouragement and discouragement… Where only the struggle from oppression, chaos and brutality leads to the fragile road to freedom. A road that burns its way through the far reaches of space to a planet called… heaven.”
The diversity of Superstate cannot be explained but must be experienced via a medley of songs like “L.I.L.Y.“, “I Don’t Wanna Wait For You“, “The Astral Light” or “Butterfly“. This is super cool- fresh, conceptionally interesting, total fun.
Rose City Band ~ Earth Trip
My Album of the Year. Read my interview with Ripley Johnson and my review of this record.
Israel Nash ~ Topaz
From his Plum Creek Sound studio in Dripping Springs, Texas, Israel Nash’s country rock has been constructed with more complexity on each of his releases. Lifted was my album of the year in 2018 because of its ambitious arrangements and its cosmic psychedelic textures. On Israel Nash’s newest record Topaz, the singer-songwriter gets grittier, especially on the epic opening track “Dividing Lines” with its background choir of soulful vocalists (reminiscent of Gene Clark’s masterpiece No Other) and its lyrics about the United States splitting apart. The penultimate track “Sutherland Springs” is a powerful song about a sad tragedy, one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history (November 5, 2017). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBvy2f9Tdr8
Fuzzy Lights – Burials
If you were a fan of Heron Oblivion’s self-titled debut (Meg Baird’s “Seventeen Landscapes” was one of my favorite song of this past decade), then you must hear the album Burials by British band Fuzzy Lights. Acid folk lyrics/singing from violinist/vocalist Rachel Watkins, psychedelic guitars (Xavier Watkins and Chris Rogers), and a doom/post-rock rhythm section (Daniel Carney on bass and Mark Blay on drums). The seven songs on this record range from the melancholy miscarriage story on opening track “Maiden’s Call” to the Miltonian “Songbird” to the eerie “Graveyard Song” to the environmental lament “Under the Waves” to the otherworldly, spectral “Sirens” to the tempestuous closing track “Gathering Storm”.
Marissa Nadler ~ The Path of the Clouds
Beginning her career with acoustic folk, Marissa Nadler began expanding her sound starting with July in 2014 (featuring Phil Wandscher of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter on guitar and Randall Dunn on production) and moving on to Strangers (2016) and For My Crimes (2018). Her newest record is the most satisfying of her career, containing her most haunting vocals, her most memorable lyrics (the opener “Bessie, Did You Make It?” and the title track both concern vanishings, the former in 1928 and the latter the D.B. Cooper disappearance on November 24, 1971), and her most mesmerizing soundscapes (Amber Webber of the band Black Mountain contributes ghostly background vocals to “Elegy”, Jesse Chandler of Mercury Rev plays piano and woodwinds, and Mary Lattimore’s aquatic harp adds to the atmosphere on “If I Could Breathe Underwater”).
Adia Victoria ~ A Southern Gothic
Beginning with her fierce debut in 2016 (Beyond the Bloodhounds, one of the best records of that year), South Carolina born and Nashville, Tennessee based singer-songwriter Adia Victoria has written tracks that boldly and courageously explore both her own identity as an African American woman and the struggles faced by black citizens in the turbulent turmoil of U.S. society. Produced by T Bone Burnett, A Southern Gothic is the strongest set of songs in her career.
Beautify Junkyards ~ Cosmorama
Ghost Box has consistently remained one of the most experimental record labels of the 21st century (Julian House’s artwork, his Focus Group, and his collaboration with the band Broadcast; the hauntology of the Advisory Circle, Belbury Poly, Pye Corner Audio, etc.) Beautify Junkyards, a Lisbon, Portugal band, are adventurous and genre-defying on this magical album, encompassing ambient electronic, dream pop, folk, psychedelia, tropicalia, and world music.
Black Country, New Road- For the First Time
For the First Time is the phenomenal debut of the English post-rock/experimental band Black Country, New Road. The group is composed of seven members, each with their own instrument. We have guitar, bass, drums, vocals, violin, keyboard, and a saxophone. This amalgamation magically comes together and works in perfect harmony. The result is a fantastic show of creativity and musicianship.
Wolf Alice- Blue Weekend
Beautiful shades of pop, punk, surf rock, shoegaze and neo-psychedelia can be heard in Wolf Alice’s stunning third album “Blue Weekend”. Ellie Rowsell’s voice is as alive and emotive as ever. Furious moments are combined with dreamy and ethereal melodies.
Spirit of the Beehive – Entertainment, Death
With this album, Spirit of the Beehive solidify themselves as one of the most unique and strange acts of recent years. ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH covers a wide amount of genres: plunderphonics, electronica, neo-psychedelia, noise pop, dream pop, etc. Despite the somewhat experimental nature of the record, it remains catchy and everything just flows together despite going in 10 different directions.
Squid – Bright Green Field
The debut LP from Squid is a quite enjoyable and innovative blend of new wave, jazz, post-punk, and dance-rock. The echoes of Talking Heads, Miles Davis and LCD Soundsystem are present here.
Xiu Xiu – Oh No
Following the DNA of the weirdest genres in alternative music, experimental US band Xiu Xiu has amassed a cult following and a huge discography over the recent years. Oh No is one of their most accessible albums. A strange art-pop statement that moves between heavenly dream pop and strident noise. Xiu Xiu pairs with a great cast of alternative artists such as Liz Harris, Chelsea Wolfe, Alice Bag, Sharon Van Etten, and Owen Pallett. Perhaps, this is the best introduction into the band’s surreal universe.