The Best Records of 2021

This time they’re in ordinal order, as always! I used to be stingy with these, but I’ve stopped doing that. 100 records! Read it and, for preference, do not weep!

The Body – I’ve Seen all I need to See

Low – HEY WHAT

Grouper – Shade

Kowloon Walled City – Piecework

Big|Brave – Vital

Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime

Big|Brave & The Body – Leaving None But Small Birds

Nathan Salsburg – Psalms

Lingua Ignota – Sinner Get Ready

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & London Symphony Orchestra – Promises

SunnO))) – Metta, Benevolence

Midwife – Luminol

Vince Staples – Vince Staples

Pelt – Reticence/Resistance

Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt – Lucy & Aaron

Senyawa – Alkisah

Nick Cave – CARNAGE

Divide and Dissolve – Gas Lit

Year of No Light – Consolamentum

Angel Bat Dawid – Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1: Doxology

Nadja – Luminous Rot

Ka – A Martyr’s Reward

Jeff Parker – Forfolks

Weakened Friends – Quitter

Deafheaven – Infinite Granite

Moor Mother – Black Encyclopedia of the Air

Body/Dilloway/Head – Body/Dilloway/Head

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Haram

Yasmin Williams – Urban Driftwood

R.A.P. Ferreira – The Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures

BACKXWASH – I LIE HERE WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES

Colleen Green – Cool

Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams – Gandhi Loves Children

Irreversible Entanglements – Open the Gates

Matt Sweeney & Bonnie Prince Billy – Superwolves

Indigo De Souza – Any Shape You Take

Les Filles de Illighadad – At Pioneer Works

JPEGMAFIA – LP!

Sault – Nine

BADBADNOTGOOD – Talk Memory

Chris Brokaw – Puritan

Rachika Nayer – Our Hands Against the Dusk

Gnod – La Mort Du Sens

Theon Cross – Intra I

Arca – Kick (I’m just lumping them all together here, but I like iii the most)

Thalia Zedek Band – Perfect Vision

Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Un hiver en plein été

Zelooperz – Van Gogh’s Left Ear

Emma Ruth Rundle- Engine of Hell

Maxo Kream – Weight of the World

The Lasso – 2121

Black Twig Pickers – Friend’s Peace

Black Midi – Cavalcade

Xenia Rubinos – Una Rosa

Bell Orchestre – House Music

The Telescopes – Songs of Love and Revolution

Tyler the Creator – Call Me if You Get Lost

Mono – Pilgrimage of the Soul

Sally Anne Morgan – Cups

G Herbo – 25

Sons of Kemet – Black to the Future

Monolord – Your Time to Shine

Six Organs of Admittance – The Veiled Sea

The Lasso, Jordan Hamilton & The Saxsquatch – Tri Magi

Watchhouse – Watchhouse

Wiki – Half God

Ben Lamar Gay – Open Arms to Open Us

Jessica Moss – Phosphenes

Mach-Hommy – Pray for Haiti

Sarah Neufeld – Detritus

Mandy, Indiana – EP

Hutch Harris – Suck Up All the Oxygen

Kipp Stone – Faygo Baby

Marisa Anderson & William Tyler – Lost Futures

The Armed – ULTRAPOP

Mess Esque – Mess Esque

Bendik Giske – Cracks

Heart Attack Man – Thoughtz & Prayerz

Sarah Louise – Earth Bow

Chester Watson – 1997

Ben Chasny – The Intimate Landscape

Psychic Graveyard – Veins Feel Strange

Biitchseat – I’ll Become Kind

Marissa Nadler – The Path of the Clouds

Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble – NOW

Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark

Jaite – Lowlands

Gerycz/Powers/Rolin – Lamplighter

Fly Pan Am – Frontera

Skyzoo – All the Brilliant Things

Flea Collar – A Hole is a Hole

Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning

Chromesthetic – Intone

Fresh – The Summer I Got Good at Guitar

Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt – Made Out of Sound

Colleen – The Tunnel and the Clearing

Tele Novella – Merlynn Belle

Mogwai – As the Love Continues

Jazmine Sullivan – Heaux Tales

Human Impact – EP1

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