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

Kilbey / Kennedy – Jupiter 13 (Foghorn Records)

We said: There are many corpuscles in the blood running through the veins of this album – the psychedelia of Pink Floyd, the archness and theatricality of David Bowie and a whole generation of shoegaze and dream pop – from (obviously) The Church through to Ride, Cocteau Twins and The Verve. And at the heart, graceful melodies that tighten the throat and flutter the heart.

This is a magnificent album – an enormously successful collaboration between two maestros of composition and exposition. ‘Jupiter 13’ is packed full of stadium-filling anthems with melody and poise while at the same time creating something alien, unnerving and wonderful in its shimmering sci-fi psychedelia.

Read it in depth, here

Lightning Bug – A Color Of The Sky (Fat Possum Records)

We said: The record is composed of quite reassuring songwriting pieces, but not in a negative way – they are simply the result of the way the record was made, in isolation in the Catskills. The warmth of the trio playing together in that setting exudes from the record, as a result, channeling a sort of therapeutic aura which is appreciable only in the greatest slowcore records (“The Right Thing Is Hard To Do”).

Read in full, here

LLYR – Biome (Mesh)

We said: What to say about Llyr’s debut album that doesn’t merely resort to admiring expletives? Crikey, it’s intelligent. I can’t begin to conceive of how may hours it took to reify such a fascinating proposition and make it not just absolutely immersive, but also danceable. It’s a future music, ibrings that wide-eyed wow of hearing something fresh. Also, and most importantly, it envelops, it enthralls, it exhilarates, it downright bangs. Best electronic album of the year? Pretty much bet your house on it. Best electronic album of many a year? Nailed on. Best electronic album of any year? You know what? I can see no way that Biome won’t take its place alongside Amber, Music Has The Right to Children, Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1 et al. That bloody good. Essential. Bloody essential.

More here

Loathe – The Things They Believe (SharpTone Records)

Arguably one of the most difficult challenges an instrumental album faces is making the listener feel something. Without the inclusion of a human voice, a song’s meaning is very much open to interpretation. However, it has to be said that this album is ultimately successful in achieving a sense of emotional gravitas. The record is not only drenched in reverb but also soaked in feelings of melancholy. The album is encapsulated by its closing track ‘The Rain Outside…’ which manages to sound both heart-breaking and optimistic.  

It’ll be interesting to see how this record is adapted to a live setting. Will these songs serve as palette cleansers between the band’s more frantic material? Or perhaps allow Loathe to venture off into different musical territories? With how good this album is, it would be a shame for the band not to further explore and build upon these ideas in the future. 

Read the whole review, here

Lorde – Solar Power (Universal Music)

We said: After all of this isolation, Lorde sat down next to me and did not force any interaction, but sat in loneliness alongside me, providing reassurance that this is weird (“Thank you for flying Strange Airlines”). The deeply-rooted organic aesthetic cohesion of the album grounded me, healed me, and provided a space to cherish the little moments. 

Find out more, here

Lucid Dream – The Deep End (Holy Are You)

We said: The Lucid Dream have themselves joked that they are ‘psych traitors’ with the direction they have taken, but is it not better to see them as musical pioneers who are brave enough to venture into such waters? Make your mind up for yourself by listening to The Deep End loudly, more than once.

Delve into the review, here

Madlib – Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invazion)

What we said: I’ll say that while a track-by-track synopsis is a way to wrap a brain around Sound Ancestors, a purchase on the soundworld, it can only partly tackle the sampledelic dynamism within. Sure, there, on this level, tracks; but look closer and many of those tracks shift lightning-quick through moods and movements and components, may be broken down within themselves – and each of those again, sourced and crate-dug and part of other wholes; its an iterative album, that is, the further you focus in, the further you pull back, you’ll always catch a similar image – like, if you will, one of those solarised Mandelbrot set posters from back in the days of acid house. 

Furthermore, and as in the old adage about the wood for the trees, you really need to pull back, marvel and swim through the whole, as Kieran indicates; it’s a journey, and also a salute to a like mind and a fellow traveller. I’m gonna throw a score rating on it, as tradition demands; I’d caution that that score will elevate in weeks to come, as the true depth and weave of this album reveals it itself. It’s a breaks great that’s also gonna be a real grower, you can tell, revealing the whole of itself over many deep listens. I’m looking forward to that.

The review in full is here

Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O – Umdali (Mushroom Hour Half Hour)

We said: An exceptional record on which Jiyane embraces roots and traditions in all directions while inspiring his ensemble to explore the possibilities of what they know with integrity and invention. There is no room for packaged sentiment or histrionics here, UMDALI stands as a refreshingly honest, poignant and genuinely moving statement that deserves celebration. 

Read more on this, here

Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks Of God (Loma Vista Recordings)

We said: The Million Masks of God is a weighty and complex offering that may seem to play out like an album of two distinct halves on first listen, but as its watertight sequencing would suggest, it’s all connected: a sumptuous offering that is unquestionably their most daring record yet, haunted by the spectre of death yet created by a band who sound more thrillingly alive than ever before. If you thought you knew Manchester Orchestra, think again.

Read it all, here

Maple Glider – To Enjoy Is The Only Thing (Partisan Records)

We said: To Enjoy is the Only Thing’ is magnificent collection of pieces of Maple Glider’s life in exile – torn between the adventures of another life yet constantly drawn to the anchorage of home. It perfectly captures in the delicate vocals the sense of introspection and alienation in a strange place, and yet throughout there is antithetically a close and enveloping sense of comfort and self expression, as well as a sense of connection.

Delve into our review, here

Records 61-70