100 albums of 2021 you shouldn’t miss, plus playlist

Chubby And The Gang – The Mutt’s Nuts (PTKF)

We said: If you want an album with classic punk nostalgia, great lines, amazing performances, and a tracklist that never feels stale or out of touch, then look no further than Chubby and the Gang’s ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’

Read the review in its entirety, here

Colin Cannon – McGolrick (Infrequent Seams)

We said: If ever you wanted to impersonate your thoughts during lockdown, this is the album to listen to. Critically acclaimed jazz composer and guitarist Colin Cannon delivers an odyssey of collage sounds inspired by his daily lockdown life in the tiny neighborhood facing McGolrick Park. The sounds are the voices of his community, fused with the anguish of the diversity of Brooklyn’s musical testament. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an album like this before, beginning with how seamlessly Cannon blends a plethora of musical genres to how deeply moving each and every track inspires you to face yourself, then ultimately, release your anxiety unto music. A true masterpiece.

Coma World – Coma World (Byrd Out)

What we said: It’s a fine, fully realised piece of work, built around the chemistry of their intuitive playing but with the foundation of a shared focus, having been inspired by a friend’s memories of being in a coma. That may sound dark and claustrophobic, and yes at times ‘Coma World’ dives deep into the atmospheric wave, but it’s a record that never drifts away. There’s plenty of wonky bass bounce and funk tight beats to keep you afloat and in tune with the unfolding soundscape from needle on to the run-off grooves. 

Coma World’ is serious but able to raise a smile, dark but able to shed some light, experimental but able to fill the floor, spontaneous, unpredictable but undeniably necessary. 

The Coral – Coral Island (Modern Sky UK)

we said: This is a magnificent and incandescent album. It shines and sparkles with life and a joie de vivre that celebrates childhood wonder in a fairy land of bright lights and chiming music. It is filled with a sense of compassion, too, for those that continue to exist after the blinding lights have faded – perhaps a fitting celebration of those that give us joy then are moved on by fate and circumstance.

Cast your eye over the review as a whole, here

Cory Hanson – Pale Horse Rider (Drag City)

We said: I came into Pale Horse Rider expecting to enjoy a really good record; I came out the other side having heard and written about a great one. It’s a record about LA written with all the perception and acuity of a Californian native; it’s also a record about the fringes, of the city, of the desert, of living today. It takes an established country-psych template and when it plays within it, it plays with grace and precision and blur; and when it shifts out beyond, it begins to play, as noted above, with the dynamics of legendary British exploratory rock. Which I didn’t see coming.

Above all that, it really works beautifully as an album, fully cohesive, all points covered, no minor tracks, no filler; perhaps its time to break out the ermine and sceptres, crown Cory the new Wolf King of LA. Buy.

Read more, here

David Lance Callaghan – English Primitive I (Tiny Global Productions)

We said: Seven tracks might initially seem short, but as an experience this album is anything but. This album will open before you gradually. You’re gonna have to work at it a little; no puppy of a record, eager to please, this. It’s the sort of record that one day ought to pitch up on social history syllabuses as a true reflection of a broiling, fracturing period in which it looks likely the humble populous may come off worst. What a time to be alive. Be glad that David can see clearly and crystallise it for us.

Read the whole review, here

Death From Above 1979 – Is 4 lovers (Everything Eleven Inc.)

We said: Never ones to disappoint, the Toronto duo have come back swinging. This record seems a slightly softer assault than before yet offers no less of a rush.

Read more, here

Dinosaur Jr – Sweep It Into Space (Jagjaguwar)

This is not an album that sits on its laurels or cashes in on the band’s past glories. Whether happily moshing along to ‘Hide Another Round’, deep diving into classic sunshine indie with ‘I Ran Away’ or riding soaring solos on ‘I Met The Stones’, there isn’t a misstep in sight. 

Quite simply, it’s as glorious as the first hug from a long-missed friend and who among us could want for anything more than that right now?

The whole thing is here to read

Djinn – Transmission (Rocket Recordings)

We said: Transmission perfectly commands an increasingly colourful palette, an enriching conduit to what could be termed DJINN’s equally chasmic sound (though really theirs is far too elusive and mercurial to be pinned down as such).

read more, here

Elaine Palmer – The Land In Between (Butterfly Effect)

We said: The album feels full of space as if it’s recorded in a huge hall and mostly live. Every note, every instrument, every voice is required, with nothing extra or over the top added. There’s a good variation to the tracks but the overall feel of simple and beautiful written songs with impeccable production and spot on performances makes this album a must. The Land Between is with out doubt Palmer’s finest work. The album she was always meant to write. 

The review in full, is here

Records 31-40