JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2021 LIST: THE MUSIC
Another year, another Best Albums list. Whoop de doo!
Three quick observations about this year’s haul:
1. There’s an awful lot of “lockdown” albums on it, as you would expect - it was probably harder to find an album that wasn’t either recorded in a lockdown environment or inspired by COVID-19’s impact on … well, everything.
2. There’s a surprising (to me) number of artists on here that have been around no longer than ten years. I’ve increasingly come to rely on the “old school” for good music, with new acts generally having little to offer that the old guard isn’t already providing. Then again, only one band on here is “new” in the literal sense - the others already have a few albums under their belts, and most of them tread familiar ground musically. That said, one “new” artist for me is one who’s been around since 1980 but whose work I only discovered this year. So “new” is relative, and who really cares as long as it’s good?
3. For all that, I’m back to a shorter list this year - I didn’t hear enough good albums to fill up a Top 20 list. But quality matters more than quantity, right?
PRODUCTION NOTE: I’m including a new section for EPs and singles this year, since that seems to be how a lot of artists are releasing music these days, and I’ve heard quite a few good songs that aren’t attached to LPs, so why not?
dEFROG’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2021
1. Willie Nile
The Day The Earth Stood Still (River House Records)
Willie Nile is one of those singer-songwriters that impresses the critics and who famous singer-songwriters namedrop but never hit the big time himself. Nile trades in a stripped-down CBGBs version of the kind of epic rock’n’roll that Bruce Springsteen does. His first two albums featured members of Television and Patti Smith Group as his backup band. And he might have been as big as both if he hadn’t been beset by “legal problems” that caused him to drop out of the music business for almost 20 years (apart from guest slots) until his career finally restarted around 2006. This is his 14th album, and it’s a cracker. No gimmicks, no reinventions, no innovations - just straight-up, well-written NYC rock’n’roll. With added Steve Earle. Klaatu barada nikto, indeed. Wonderful.
2. Shannon and the Clams
Year of the Spider (Easy Eye Sound)
Sixth album from Oakland’s Shannon and the Clams, who reunite with producer Dan Auerbach for a notably dark album informed by a lot of recent personal tragedy in Shannon Shaw’s life. I’ve known about SatC for awhile and liked the few songs I heard, but haven’t had a chance to try out their albums. I picked a good time to start - contrary to my expectations, Shannon and the Clams are one of those few “retro” bands that offer something beyond that genre label, with solid songcraft and a distinctive sound. Shaw’s seamless harmonizing with guitarist Cody Blanchard is often so spellbinding that I feel like I’m visiting a weird parallel universe when I listen to this.
3. NanowaR of Steel
Italian Folk Metal (Napalm Records)
If you’ve ever said to yourself, “You know what heavy metal really needs? More accordions, fiddles and bagpipes,” step right this way. NanowaR of Steel are THE metal parody band of choice, capable of mimicking everyone from Manowar and Iron Maiden to Pink Floyd, Shaggy and Backstreet Boys. Their latest album finds them blending Italian folk and pop music styles with various metal formats, featuring songs about robots, fish sticks and Vikings singing the praises of polenta. Like with most of their albums, the epic pomposity is dialed up to 12, and the music is so much fun that it doesn’t matter if you don't speak a word of Italian. Also, this is further evidence that in terms of musical chops and versatility, NanowaR of Steel is arguably the most underrated band on the planet - seriously, you have to be unbelievably talented to play and sing this stuff with such conviction and attention to detail.
4.The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Dance Songs For Hard Times (Family-Owned Records/Thirty Tigers)
I’m late to the Rev. Peyton’s BDB party - this is their 10th album, apparently. I’d heard the odd track here and there, but my vague impression was that they were just another old-timey Americana roots/blues band in a similar vein as Southern Culture On The Skids. Which might be true superficially, but musically it’s a different proposition, with Peyton’s playful finger-picking slide guitar and hollerin’ vocals packing remarkable power. I can't say how this album stacks up to their previous nine, but it's a joyous and rollicking racket, and its COVID-related themes make it possibly just the album 2021 needed.
5. Southern Culture On The Skids
At Home With Southern Culture On The Skids (Kudzu Records)
In this case the title is literal - their tour schedule sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic, Southern Culture On The Skids recorded this album in frontman/guitarist Rick Miller’s living room. Only opening track “Call Me” makes direct references to the pandemic - the rest of the album (which includes covers of Lee Hazlewood and Traffic) is SCOTS’ usual blend of rockabilly, surf, country and Americana. It’s a little understated by SCOTS standards, but no less fun. There have been a number of lockdown albums in the past year, but this is the one that makes home quarantine sound like a party in your living room.
6. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Carnage (Goliath Enterprises)
With the Bad Seeds on hiatus due to COVID-19, this has been billed as Nick Cave’s lockdown album, created with fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis (drummer Thomas Wylder also appears). Cave and Ellis have collaborated on their own before, usually for minimalist film soundtracks, but where those were mostly instrumentals deliberately separate from the Bad Seeds aesthetic, this is an album of proper songs that make liberal use of the unsettlingly weird and beautiful sonic innovations you find on the best latter-day Bad Seeds albums. Lyrically it’s familiar territory for Cave - death, love, loss, murder, God, with added references to the Black Lives Matter protests - but no less captivating. Musically … well, let’s put it this way - when I found out about this release, I went on Spotify to test drive a couple songs to see if it was worth listening to later, and 30 seconds later I was mesmerized and sucked into the whole album.
7. Czarface and MF Doom
Super What? (Silver Age)
This is the second collaboration between Czarface and MF Doom - and sadly their last, as Doom passed away six months after this was recorded. The album was mixed and done before he passed, but the release was delayed due to COVID-19. Anyway, it’s not radically different from the first one, with more raps informed by their mutual love of superhero comics and pop culture, but it’s a lot of fun.
8. Luke Haines
Setting The Dogs On The Post-punk Postman (Cherry Red)
Solo album #16 from the man who claims to have both invented and destroyed Britpop. While The Auteurs are the only “Britpop” band I still listen to occasionally, and I liked Black Box Recorder’s first couple of albums, I’m on and off with Haines’ solo career - the music is generally okay but his dark acerbic wit can be a bit much for me. But last year’s excellent collaboration with Peter Buck seems to have some kind of effect on him, because this is his most accessible album in a while, with plenty of great hooks and a little less of his usual spikiness. Then again, by Haines standards, “accessible” is relative - he’s still an acquired taste, but this album goes down surprisingly easy. Bonus points for the unexpectedly touching Ivor Cutler tribute.
9. Dry Cleaning
New Long Leg (4AD)
Debut album from London band that has been getting a lot of comparisons to The Fall - mainly because vocalist Florence Shaw speaks in non-sequiturs rather than sings. Maybe, but Shaw’s approach is more frosty understatement than dismissive sneer. Whatever the case, I found myself fascinated by this - Shaw’s monotone is somehow mesmerizing (and strangely fitting after almost two years of on-and-off lockdowns), as is the music, which leans closer to PIL’s first album or late-era March Violets than anything The Fall did. It loses steam in the final few songs, but there’s a number of standout tracks to make up for it.
10. Wanda Jackson
Encore (Blackheart Records/Big Machine)
Despite being the first female rockabilly star with a string of hits in the 50s, Wanda Jackson has only just recently gotten the recognition she deserves. That said, her recent “comeback” albums (one with Jack White, the other with Justin Townes Earle) never really worked for me. So imagine my surprise to find out that album #32 - recorded in 2019 before she announced her retirement and released this year - is a collaboration with Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna. It’s not quite Wanda Jackson and The Blackhearts, or The Blackhearts Go Rockabilly, but it rocks a whole lot more than the White / Earle albums, which I felt were far too polished and polite musically. Jett doesn’t really do polite, and it pays off here. It’s a mix of covers and originals - Wanda’s take on the Runaways’ “You Drive Me Wild” is worth the price of admission. It’s probably not the most essential album of 2021, but I keep coming back to it. And anyway, it should make more lists just for giving the Queen of Rockabilly a high note to go out on.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Altin Gün
Yol (Glitterbeat)
Psychedelic new wave covers of old Turkish folk songs! From the Netherlands! This is Amsterdam-based Altin Gün’s third album, and it’s a departure in the sense that most of it was recorded during lockdown with band members emailing ideas back and forth - with the result that they ended up messing with the formula somewhat. So whereas their first two albums had a distinct 70s psychedelic funk sound, this one leans closer to Europop and 80s bands like Tom Tom Club. It’s not something I’d listen to all the time, but on long drives, a lazy afternoon or a dancefloor, this is just the thing.
Deap Vally
Marriage (Cooking Vinyl)
This is the third album from duo Lindsey Troy and drummer Julie Edwards, and the first to make it on my radar (you can thank Chris Stein of Blondie for that), so I don’t know how it compares to their first two. At first glance this seemed like standard guitar-drums scuzz rock with ironic trashy visuals, but there’s way more going on here. Deap Vally put some serious groove in their songs, and have more than a few sonic tricks up their sleeves to elevate this beyond just another sleazy LA rock album. The cameo from Peaches is also welcome. In short, I liked this way more than I thought I would.
Sleater-Kinney
Path Of Wellness (Mom + Pop)
This is the third album of their “comeback” phase, and the first without longtime drummer Janet Weiss, who quit right after their previous album The Center Won’t Hold was released. How much of a difference this makes is hard to say - Weiss was always key to S-K’s singular approach to rock’n’roll, yet the band was already moving away from their old sound with The Center Won’t Hold, with Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein’s apparent obsession with 80s nostalgia dominating the sessions. Whereas last time their music was informed by peak Duran Duran, Path Of Wellness seems inspired by 70s-era Top 40 hits. Which isn't as bad as it sounds, since it’s all still filtered through the band’s MO of hard-hitting lyrics, unique guitar arrangements and tight harmonies. A few songs go for that old edginess, but oddly they’re the weakest tracks here.
Naked Raygun
Over The Overlords (Wax Trax! Records)
I liked Naked Raygun in the 80s, and a comeback in 2021 was the last thing I expected, not least since bassist Pierre Kezdy passed away last year. But here they are with this album -their first in over 30 years - which was recorded before Kedzy’s death. And while it’s welcome, it doesn’t really feel essential - at least not on first pass. But there were enough good songs and enough invention to warrant a second listen, and it seems to have grown on me. Is it as good as their classic stuff? Maybe not, but that’s never a fair comparison, is it?
Alice Cooper
Detroit Stories (earMUSIC)
I confess I’m not a huge fan of latter-era Alice, which has never really lived up to his classic 70s stuff. But I gave this one a chance, and it’s much better than I expected. This is his tribute to the Detroit music scene that was more welcoming of Alice Cooper’s brand of shock rock than LA in 1969-70. Wayne Kramer guests, as do fellow Detroit musicians representing Detroit Wheels, Grand Funk Railroad and others. Alice throws in covers of MC5 and Bob Seger songs for good measure, as well as a revised cover of Velvet Underground’s “Rock And Roll” that swaps out NY references for Detroit. Overall I like it - it's mostly enjoyable with more hits than misses, and Alice has fun with it. I think having a consistent theme to knit it together helps a lot. Having said all that, it's not going to be an album I'll spend a lot of time with compared to his classic stuff. He's done far better, but he's done far worse. And for now, this will do.
BEST EPs AND SINGLES
Voice of Baceprot
“God, Allow Me (Please) To Play Music” (12WIRED)
Voice of Baceprot are an all-female metal trio from Indonesia, which might smack of novelty value, except they’re really, really good, and they have something to say - in this case, a critique of the hatred and toxicity they’ve had to put up with everywhere they play for being Muslim women in hijabs playing metal. It doesn’t get much more metal than that. System of a Down is an obvious influence here, and an appropriate one, perhaps. Anyway, it rocks harder than most guy metal bands on active duty these days.
The Linda Lindas
“Oh!” single (Epitaph)
This is their first single for Epitaph, which signed them after their excellent song “Racist Sexist Boy” became a viral hit. Musically there’s nothing new here, but it’s an awful lot of fun. Also, I admit there’s something about four junior-high girls enthusiastically playing great punk rock’n’roll that just feels essential to me, and should be encouraged.
Kero Kero Bonito
Civilization II EP (Polyvinyl)
South London’s Kero Kero Bonito released an EP called “Civilization” in 2019 - this is the sequel. The band has been around ten years but I only came across them this year - it’s the sort of experimental synth pop that tends to fascinate me, and Sarah Midori Perry’s vocals are dreamy goodness.
K. Flay
Outside Voices EP (BMG)
Singer/songwriter/rapper K. Flay is a recent discovery of mine, and this is one of two EPs she released in 2021 - the first being Inside Voices, so this is a companion piece of sorts. Both are alright, but this gets the edge for the track “I’m Afraid Of The Internet”, which, let’s face it, is probably how a lot of us feel after two years of lockdown doomscrolling.
BEST REISSUE
Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come
Eternal Messenger - An Anthology 1970-1973 (Cherry Red)
The best reissues for me are the albums I didn’t even know existed. I was familiar with The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, but not his next project: Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come, which made The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown seem sane by comparison. This collects all three Kingdom Come albums: (1) Galactic Zoo Dossier (1971), a concept album in which humanity is living in a zoo and being controlled by cosmic, religious and commercial forces, 2) Kingdom Come (1972), with water as a recurring theme, and (3) Journey (1973), a space rock album with a Bentley Rhythm Ace drum machine instead of a drummer. There’s also two discs of bonus material, including early loose jam sessions and a variety of BBC recordings. It’s as fascinatingly weird as spacey prog rock ought to be. It’s also solid evidence that there was far more to Brown than being the God of Hellfire, etc. For my money, Galactic Zoo Dossier is the best of the three, but the other two are worth checking out as well.
BEST COMPILATION
Various artists
Habibi Funk 015: An Eclectic Selection From The Arab World, Part 2 (Habibi Funk Records)
If I had a category for “Most Interesting New Reissue Label I Discovered In 2021”, Habibi Funk would probably top the list. Co-founded by DJ Jannis Stürtz, Habibi Funk specializes in music from the Arab-speaking world, and their catalog is pretty interesting. This particular comp doesn’t have a particular theme, apart from a focus on singles from more obscure artists. Otherwise it’s the kind of stuff Habibi Funk deals in: Egyptian organ funk, Moroccon disco, Libyan reggae, Algerian soundtrack music, etc. Eclectic indeed. And while some people may listen to this and just hear musicians emulating Western dance music, I always find it interesting to hear “Western” music interpreted via local culture filters.
BEST KARAOKE PROJECT
Elvis Costello and The Attractions
Spanish Model (UMG)
Not a tribute album or a covers album so much as a tribute karaoke project, Spanish Model is literally Costello’s 1978 album This Year’s Model with new Spanish vocals supplied by a long list of Latin artists representing Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Puerto Rico and the US. What you make of it will probably depend on your opinion of the original album and karaoke in general. For me, on the one hand, it lacks the risky adventure of re-interpretation that you get with cover projects. On the other hand, the song quality and musicianship of the original is a solid foundation on which to lay a variety of new vocal styles. And frankly, pretty much everyone on here is up to the challenge. So while it’s a relatively risk-free project for Costello (who came up with the idea in the first place), it’s far more than a novelty item.
BEST ROCK OPERA
Fucked Up
Year of the Horse (Tankcrimes)
Canadian hardcore outfit Fucked Up periodically releases 12”s covering the animals of the Chinese zodiac. This year they did Year of the Horse as an epic narrative concept double album with four songs (or “acts”) taking up one side each. It’s equal parts exhausting and exhilarating, and not something I would play regularly (although I am insanely in love with “Act III”, which is furiously beautiful), but it’s impressive there are still bands out there with this level of ambition. I admit I prefer it when bassist Sandy Miranda is singing, as opposed to Daniel Abraham’s screamo vocals, but the interchange works wonders, and man do those guitars pack a sonic punch.
BEST MIKE WATT COLLABORATION PROJECT
The Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt
The King Is Dead (Hound Gawd! Records)
Mike Watt apparently managed to keep busy during the pandemic, because he dropped several LPs this year, all of them collaboration albums. Hifiklub’s I Mean Alarmed is two 20-minute tracks of jazzy improv, while Three Layer Cake’s Stove Top is a slightly more controlled affair that spans rock, jazz and experimental noise. The Cutthroat Brothers are literally two brothers (who are also barbers) playing stripped down blues-punk - with Jack Endino production and art by Raymond Pettibon! Nothing innovative here, and Watt doesn’t add much apart from some very reliable bottom, but sometimes that’s all you need for a good time. And for me, it's the one album of the bunch that invites repeated listens, albeit with diminishing returns, though maybe it depends on my mood.
THE PLAYLIST
Well, of course I have prepared one.
DISCLAIMER: I didn't include a track from the Fucked Up album because its formatting on Spotify doesn't work well with playlists, and it's even worse if you don't have a premium account. Also, because each song was initially released as a standalone EP, they're still separate on Spotify. Anyway, Act III is here if you want to check it out.
Same time next year,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1664902.html. Please comment there using OpenID.