Dec 31, 2021
Zach’s Favorite Music of 2021
Every December since 2008, I’ve prepared a meticulously crafted list of my favorite music from the past year, counting down the albums from 20 to 1. At some point about a decade into the endeavor, I decided to drop the rankings and just publish everything at once — as my music taste expanded beyond rock, it became too difficult to justify one genre over another.
It’s been a strange year, albeit one with a lot of thoughtful music that made the uncertainty a bit more bearable.
We finally got a taste of a return to live music, though of course safety is still a legitimate concern. But just like seeing a concert is communal in its experience, public health is communal in its obligation and it has made me so proud to see people at concerts comply with vaccination checks and mask reminders without question. That’s how we make it through to the other side when we can sing freely.
Disclaimer as always: there is too much music and I did not get to everything. Let me know what I missed or if you want to hear more.
Check out my Spotify playlist with tracks across these records plus several more.
— — — —
Albums
Ada Lea — one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden
Arlo Parks — Collapsed in Sunbeams
Asian Glow — cull ficle
Big Red Machine — How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?
Black Country, New Road — For The First Time
black midi — Cavalcade
Bo Burnham — INSIDE
Cassandra Jenkins — An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
Clairo — Sling
Deerhoof — Actually, You Can
Dry Cleaning — New Long Leg
Faye Webster — I know I’m funny haha
Floatie — Voyage Out
Geese — Projector
Genesis Owusu — Smiling With No Teeth
Goat Girl — On All Fours
Hand Habits — Fun House
Hovvdy — True Love
Japanese Breakfast — Jubilee
Jelani Aryeh — I’ve Got Some Living To Do
Katy Kirby — Cool Dry Place
L’Rain — Fatigue
Lightning Bug — A Color of The Sky
Lucid Express — Lucid Express
Lucy Dacus — Home Video
Magdalena Bay — Mercurial World
Men I Trust — Untourable Album
Mdou Moctar — Afrique Victime
Moontype — Bodies of Water
Nation of Language — A Way Forward
Olivia Rodrigo — SOUR
Ovlov — Buds
Parannoul — To See The Next Part of the Dream
Parquet Courts — Sympathy for Life
Pom Poko — Cheater
Shame — Drunk Tank Pink
Shanghai Qiutian— 家:革命
Spirit of the Beehive — ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH
Spirits Having Fun — Two
Squid — Bright Green Field
St. Vincent — Daddy’s Home
Subsonic Eye — Nature of Things
Surfbort — Keep On Truckin’
Sweet Trip — A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals
Turnstile — GLOW ON
Vanishing Twin — Ookii Gekkou
Water From Your Eyes — Structure
Wednesday — Twin Plagues
EPs
Arthur Moon — Chaos! Chaos! Chaos! Side A
The Claptraps — The Claptraps
Courting — Grand National
Kero Kero Bonito — Civilization
Yves Tumor — The Asymptotical World
Highly Anticipated for 2022
100 Gecs
Animal Collective — Time Skiffs
Beach House — Once Twice Melody
Big Thief — Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Black Country, New Road — Ants From Up There
Father John Misty — Chloe And The Next 20th Century
Jack White — Fear of the Dawn / Entering Heaven Alive
Mitski — Laurel Hell
Nilufer Yanya — Painless
Wet Leg — Wet Leg
