I honestly don’t know why I keep doing these year in and year out. I mean, yes, obviously music plays a massive role in my life and, summarily, this blog, but at my relatively advanced stage of life, I’m not actively pursuing bona fide “new music” so much as “new-to-me” music. As such, most of the stuff I spent my year tracking down and enjoying wasn’t necessarily freshly produced, cutting-edge music just released in 2021. I could cite at least six or seven albums I acquired in the last twelve months that I slavishly enjoyed from top to bottom, but aren’t in any way recent. But, y’know, there were indeed a few new albums I got quite fired up about, so let’s concentrate on those, then, I guess.
But even much of the genuinely “new music” I seek out is often somehow couched in the past. This isn’t to say that there aren’t wholly new artists doing entirely different things that capture my attention and fire my imagination, but I find that stuff harder to discover and hear above the tinny buzz of mediocrity that — to my mind — dominates the rest of the music marketplace. I suppose it’s always been that way, but time was when I had more time and energy to pursue the credibly good stuff. I mean, if one Googles the "most-streamed" acts of 2021, up comes names like Taylor Swift, BTS, Drake, Justin Bieber and some ridiculous clown who calls himself Bad Bunny. I mean, seriously, FUCK all that awful shit.
But, again, that’s pretty much always been the case. Mainstream pop has pretty much always been shit (although it seems especially shitty, these days). And there’s great music made every year. It just takes more work to find it, sometimes.
It should also be noted that I also don’t always get to the new albums the second they’re released, rendering their citations ineligible for credible placement. I mean, I played the crap out of the new Secret Machines album this year, Awake in The Brain Chamber, but that was still from 2020. Other records I found myself spinning quite a bit in 2021 included, inexplicably, Our Love to Admire by Interpol (released in 2007), Retrovirus by Lydia Lunch (a super-crucial live recording from 2012, released in 2013, featuring Lydia backed by Weasel Walter of the Flying Lutenbachers on explosive guitar, Algis Kyzis from SWANS on bass and Bob Bert of Sonic Youth/Pussy Galore on drums), Big Heart/Live in Tokyo by the Lounge Lizards (released in 1986) and a compilation of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, released in 2018, but rife with selections from the early `70s. Technically, none of this stuff is new.
So, after unduly agonizing over it, here are my three favorite albums of 2021. I’m not going to put them in any ranking, nor should you read any hierarchy into this. I love each of these. Here they are….
Live - Friday March 15, 2020
The Art Gray Noizz Quintet
Yes, I realize I just wrote about them. Released in September of this year, this bristling live document — issued on fucking cassette in a limited edition of only 200 — was recorded in Brooklyn just as the apocalyptic shroud of COVID-19 was being draped over New York City. A suitably slovenly cocktail of clangy guitars, bludgeoning bass and roiling grooves over which Art Gray (formerly Stu Spasm of Lubricated Goat) exhorts like a possessed town-crier, it’s all gold from start to finish, honestly. For me the standout tracks are the ominous march of “A Call to You,” the constabulary-besmirching “Calling All Cars” and a noise-rock re-wiring of David Shire's theme to quintessential grimy New York City movie, “The Taking of Pelham 123.” As brilliantly summed up as “one last night of noise in a city on the brink of silence,” it is seriously worth your time. Go fucking get it and improve your miserable life.
Yeah, I know — cassette? A true testament to the band’s ballsy audacity to release music on a format most folks don’t possess the hardware to actually play, Live - Friday March 15, 2020 can be obtained via Bandcamp, who thoughtfully provide the option of downloading the music into more electronically manageable files for all you forward-thinking gadget-heads. As a fun coda, when I ordered the cassette from Bandcamp, I literally received the tactile artifact the very same day. Sometime around 11pm, someone — possibly bassist Ryan Skeleton Boy or Art Gray himself?? — showed up downstairs and dropped off a bag containing the cassette, a poster of the album art I also sprang for … and three tallboys of Modelo Especial Cerveza emblazoned with the band’s stickers. TRY GETTING BAD BUNNY TO PROVIDE THAT KINDA SERVICE!!!
Dark Matters
The Stranglers
I already spoke about the backstory here, but I genuinely think Dark Matters was the most astonishing album for me this year. It’s not necessarily that it was a huge departure from The band's established trajectory, but rather that it’s just such a brilliantly executed collection of songs. I mean, if you weren’t already predisposed to liking the music of The Stranglers, there’s no real reason you should necessarily care about this record, but given the band’s long history and their recent losses (most notably the tragic death of keyboardist Dave Greenfield), there was absolutely zero reason to believe this 18th studio album was going to deliver in any meaningful way. I almost picked it up just out of sheer loyalty. Put simply, though, Dark Matters is way better than it should have any right to be, showcasing the band’s signature assets, but with depth, nuance and a songwriting exuberance that is far from tired. I love all the singles (cited on that earlier post), but album cuts like “No Man’s Land,” “Payday” and “White Stallion” continually get my blood flowing. For a legacy band many were writing off as a fading self-tribute act, Dark Matters is a bracing reminder that the Stranglers will be the ones who’ll decide when they’re actually done, not the critics.
Crawler
IDLES
Upon hearing news of a new, impending album from IDLES, my first thought was “TOO SOON!” I felt like their third album, Ultra Mono had only just landed, and I was still kind of experiencing it. While not as immediate as their second disc (the one that hooked me in), that being the excellent Joy as an Act of Resistance, Ultra Mono provided several tracks I was still loving like “Mr. Motivator” and “Model Village.” But, I’m not gonna lie – as much as I was digging that album, there was indeed a bit of a feeling that they’d sort of thematically and stylistically run aground, somewhat succumbing, in spots, to almost self-parody. Along comes Crawler, then, and I was slightly trepidatious. My first encounters with this band had left such a massively positive impression on me that I was reluctant to immediately rush out for this one, worried it might further dim that initial rush I felt upon first hearing their musc.
As it happens, Crawler is a refreshing deviation from the previous trajectory. While, no, IDLES have not completely shifted gears and embraced a whole new sound, there is a nuance and …. dare I suggest … a degree of restraint to these new songs. The bendy, staccato riffs from the previous few records are more judiciously employed here. Songs arrive and slowly reveal themselves rather than simply detonate on command. This all said, … don’t get me wrong. Crawler is still a pounding, clangy ride, and vocalist Joe Talbot still exhorts like an apoplectic drill sergeant. The dichotomy between the band’s violent sound and vulnerable sensibility remains a bit of a tightrope that they continue to manage (although heavy-handed tracks on Ultra Mono like “Kill Them with Kindness” and “Ne Touch Pas Moi” really put that formula to the test), but this album has reigned in the preachiness. I’m still exploring it, but it has thus far rendered my concerns moot.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Human Impact – “Recognition”
Antidote – “Think For Yourself”
Saint Agnes – “REPENT”
The Horrors “Twisted Skin”
Low – “Days Like These”
The Armed – “All Futures”
Morly – “Dance to You”
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