Top 5 New Albums 2021

Even through two years of plague, I'm still making my top lists for the year. Methodology is the same as it's been for the last few years: 

• Top 5 albums released 2020/21
  
• Top 5 albums I discovered older than that
  
• Top 5 songs not contained in the top 5 elsewhere

I'm glad to have largely avoided the live-over-zoom fad for this list. Lack of access to shows and record stores means that I didn't listen to very much new material this year, but the competition for old stuff was a little more heated. Anyway... to the lists:

5. Caithlin DeMarrais - What Will You Do Then?

Skeletal Lightning Records, 02/2021

Caithlin of Rainer Maria's 3rd solo LP.

This album sounds really modern and spacey. Even if I haven't kept up with the times, Caithlin has. These are some great songs. My favorite is "Good Luck Come Back" which was on last year's split 7" with Pohgoh. Worth a trip with headphones.

 

4. The Hold Out - Won't Be Leaving Here Today

Self-Released 12/2021
 

Rock solid rock and roll from Portland rock and rollers. Every album Andi and company have put out in the last few years has made this top-5 list, and this one is no exception. I'm especially a fan of "Non Grata" where guitar player Aaron steps up to the mic to vocally spar with Andi Camp's soaring lead vocals.

I feel like I'm not writing enough words about this band. It's tough, because I just want you to listen to them and rock out.

In fact, this is one of the bands I'm most looking forward to seeing again post-covid. Here's hoping.

 

3. Radiohead - Kid Amnesiae

Self-Released, 11/2021
 

2001's Amnesiac album was (at the time) billed as leftovers from 2000's Kid A. Now, 20 years later, we get a slight LP with leftovers from the two.

...Not that I'm complaining. First, I liked Amnesiac better than Kid A. Thought the songs were better. Second, it's just more of a good thing. This maybe should've been a triple album all along.

That being said, Kid Amnesiae has a lot of filler. There are some early versions (Fog, Fast-Track, Morning Bell, and another beautiful version of Like Spinning Plates), some weird instrumental interludes that sound like they're stitched out of other pieces of Kid A and Amnesiac,

There's the two completely new songs that Radiohead teased us with: Follow Me Around and If You Say the Word -- both are decent Radiohead songs. The world has room for more decent Radiohead songs.

 ...and then...

...and then...

An alternate version of Pulk/Pull with True Love Waits sung over the top. Pulk/Pull IS True Love Waits!!! 

(And if you're not a Radiohead fan, this doesn't make any sense. If you are, it's like saying "Revolution #9" was a jammed-out version of "Revolution" ... except I think everybody knows that already.)

 

2. Modest Mouse - The Golden Casket

Epic Records, 06/21

I keep waiting for Modest Mouse to make a bad album. They haven't.

Sure, I think this one and 2015's Strangers to Ourselves aren't quite in the same league as their earlier stuff, but this is still good, fun, listenable rock. I saw them live at an outdoor concert in August. Going among so many people was probably ill-advised, and there were too darn many people there-- it set off my fear of crowds something awful. Nevertheless, it was a killer show. 

I haven't seen Modest Mouse in concert (apparently) since 2004. What I didn't realize is that in the intervening years, they got popular. Well, I kinda knew they got popular, but I didn't realize that theirs is a certain type of popularity-- the kind that makes 30-and 40-something drunk women go absolutely nuts when they hear "Float On". (Similar reactions can be seen with "Baby Got Back", and maybe Bon Jovi with a slightly older crowd)

Despite the crowd reaction, it was a good concert, and the new stuff held up well. There seems to be a consistent theme with the songs-- "We Are Between", "Back to the Middle" -- a longing for less extremism and more focus on common ground. I can get behind that. After all, we're somewhere between dust and the stars.

 

1. Low - Hey What

Sub Pop Records, 09/2021
 

A companion piece to 2019's Double Negative, Hey What sees Low, almost 30 years into their career, breaking new ground and making new sounds. Nothing sounds like Hey What. Nothing.

Where Double Negative was 100% blown out and distorted, the sound of a band deconstructing their own sound, Hey What takes that distortion-- still heavy, but spares the vocals. Instead, the vocals are up front and clear-- some of Low's most elegant harmonies over a harsh, distorted soundscape that makes the vocals sound more porcelain and pristine by comparison.

The album's centerpiece (and Hit) is "Days Like These". I can't explain what's going on with the instrumentation on this song. It's almost a capella. The vocals hold up on their own-- but when Mimi sings her parts, loud, distorted instruments peek through. It's some weird side-chain limiter stuff. It makes it almost sound like a broken vocoder or talk box. You should listen to it. 

8 years ago, I was convinced that Low was entering their Dad-rock, late-career downward coasting slope of their career arc. Instead, Low have put out their two most challenging records and are still making music that doesn't sound like anything else. That's high praise.

These songs seem to alternate between the domestic ("Don't Walk Away", "All Night") and the universal ("Days Like These", "Disappearing"). It's a rollercoaster of a listen, ending with the epic "The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)". 

Give this one a listen. It's pretty great.

Top 5 New Discoveries 2021

​ 5. Autoclave (Self-Titled)

​
Dischord Records. 
EP Released 1992
LP Released with bonus tracks 1997, reissued 2019.

Solid DC Grrl-punk-pop cuddlecore. Precursor to Slant 6 with Mary Timony of Helium on guitar. This record shreds in all the best ways.

This year's "Best Old Albums" category was hot competition, but Autoclave is very deserving of the #5 spot.

 

4. The Jealous Sound - A Gentle Reminder

   
Music Is Subjective Records, January 2012

It's taken me a while to get into Jealous Sound-- I was sort of aware of their existence throughout the 2000s, but that's it. I had a few Knapsack CDs (frontman Blair Sheehan's previous band), but I didn't know what I was missing. Too bad, huh? 

So it turns out Nate Mendel guests on bass on this album, knocking the Foo Fighters into 5th place in the list of Best Bands Nate Mendel Has Played In (don't forget Juno!)

This record keeps returning its pink self into my player, so I'm glad I finally caved and got this.

 

3. The Appleseed Cast - The Fleeting Light of Impermanence

 
Graveface Records, 06/2019

I first heard the band when they were called December's Tragic Drive (named after a Sunny Day Real Estate lyric). Their Marigold and Patchwork demo is amazing and outshines their first proper album. Can we be so old?

This record is synthy in places, but it works OK. The songs are still epic. The emotions are still longing, and the LP packaging is flat out beautiful, with a black matte case opening up to beautiful blue waves with a clear LP. I have tickets to see them live next month. Don't screw this up, Corona.

2. Helium - The Magic City / No Guitars

​
Matador Records.
No Guitars EP 04/1997
The Magic City LP 09/1997
combined reissue 2017 

I somehow missed Helium's second album the first time around. These are some fantastic 90s rock songs with Mary Timony's sense of melody and lyricism. Recently, I can't get enough of Mary Timony. Somehow she manages to twist a melody into something unexpected and...magical?

Please give a listen. Then buy the reissue from Matador here.

 

  1. Zak Sally's Fear of Song

Nero's Neptune Records, 2010

I ordered this record before the pandemic. The world has changed.

In the before-times, I lived astride the great Columbia River tax divide. Living in Washington, which has lower housing costs and property taxes, and commuting daily into Oregon, which has no sales tax. It was quite common for me to mail-order things to my work, in Oregon, where I wouldn't have to pay sales tax on the mail-orders.

I still live within sight of Oregon, but it's a rare day that I cross the bridge. I spent more than a year without reporting in to my office. At some point, I returned, and this Zak Sally LP was sitting in cardboard, still waiting for me at my desk. How strange. In retrospect, how sad that I spent the first year of the pandemic without this record.

Zak Sally was the bassist for the band Low from 1995 - 2006. This album is sonically similar to his final album with Low, The Great Destroyer. After listening to this album, you can hear the direction that Zak was trying to push the band.

In some press, Zak described his album as "The sound of one man clanging." The sound is appropriately minimal, but it doesn't let minimalism get in the way of a good squally noise. It sounds like broken fixtures and frayed wires. Songs are stripped to their bare bones, and something is always buzzing in the background.

This album is 9 songs that are over far too soon. Some of the sounds are loud, some are soft, but all are harsh. Song titles like "Corpsegrinder!" and the B-side "When I Said I Missed You I Just Meant My Aim Was Off" betray a sense of humor not found in the music.

In hindsight, if you combined this album with Low's first, I Could Live in Hope, you would get The Great Destroyer. 

It looks as if Zak hasn't been making much music lately-- focusing on raising kids and making comics. Here's hoping he sees fit to clang out some more...

Buy this LP at Nero's Neptune.

Top 5 Miscellaneous Songs 2021

(The best five songs that didn't make the other lists. Not necessarily new, but new to me.)

5. Landing - Home

 

From the Landing 2021 Monthly Subscription Series (July 2021)
Also available on the Landing 2021 Monthly Subscription Series Cassette

Self-Released, 07/2021

Dick Baldwin was a regular member of Landing from 1998 through 2005. His guitar lines were always the looping, arpeggiated counterpart to Aaron Snow's washes and drones. His solo releases, Dragon and Magicorn are magical and worth tracking down in their obscurity. Apparently, Señor Dick has been growing as a songwriter since 2005, and came back and contributed this absolute gem to Landing's 2021 monthly series. 

Shout-out to Landing for soundtracking an epic summer road trip as well. We trained our kids to fall asleep to the sounds of 2004's Sphere at obscenely early hours (6 PM on a sunny day!) so we could wake up and hit Yellowstone before the crowds every morning. They were often asleep before "Fluency of Colors" was finished.

Landing appears with regularity on this year-end list, but this song is absolute peak Landing.  I've linked the short, poppy version, but the soaring 8 minute version is worth tracking down as well.

 

4. Men Without Hats - Head Above Water

   

From the album "Love in the Age of War"
Self-Released (?) 05/2012 

A washed-up 80s relic. I saw Men Without Hats on tour in (about) 2012 and they put on a heck of a show. Overheard at the show:  A:"I only know one of their songs" B: "EVERYBODY only knows one of their songs!"

I've had the privilege of knowing more than one of their songs-- I've had a tape (later CD) of Men Without Hats since I was a teenager, and they have SEVERAL jams, each one better than the next. The show was high energy, joyful, self-deprecating, and one of the funnest happenings I remember in our sleepy town of Salem, Oregon. 

I picked up this 2012 album ("Love in the Age of War") with pretty modest expectations. I mean, this album was obviously made 30 years past its sell-by date. Those expectations were completely exceeded. This album is all about appreciating what you are (and if what you are is a 1980s throwback, own it!) 

So, the whole album is a nice set of earworms, and this song is the earwormiest. Highly recommended for anyone who doesn't get driven berserk by The Safety Dance. 

 

3. Primal Scream - Come Together

From "Screamadelica"
Creation Records, 1991

I realize I'm a bit late to the party with Primal Scream, 30 years...but I got there. For those who don't know, Primal Scream were a baggy, vaguely dancy british band from the late 80s/early 90s, often mentioned in the same breath as The Stone Roses.

The story with this song-- Primal Scream recorded a song that sounded vaguely like this called "Come Together". Then, as they were putting this album together, they brought some remixers in, presumably for 12" dance remixes and whatnot. So, Andrew Weatherall remixed Come Together. Took out the melody, the lyrics, and just kept the groove. And it grooves for DAYS. So, this remixed version is the one on the album, and the original ended up as a B-side. Good choice.

I could play this one on a loop in my head for hours.

2. Fairport Convention - Meet on the Ledge

 

From the album "What We Did on Our Holidays"
Island Records, 01/1969

2021 was the year I finally checked out Fairport Convention. I've heard several bands covering them (including Meet on the Ledge), and I've gotten into Richard Thompson, who was the guitar player for Fairport for their first 5 albums. Speaking of their first 5 albums, I picked them up on Amazon for a steal. 

This song is just one of those perfect hippy-dippy 1960s sing-alongs (like The Weight!). I think I need to learn the chords and words so that I can sing along too.

Apparently, Fairport Convention has reached the level of fame, etc. (at least in Britain) that they play one show a year-- they put on a festival in their hometown, and lots of famous bands come play as well, and Fairport plays about two sets, one weekend per year. That's the kind of musical retirement I want. I want to skip the hard parts and go right to the one-awesome-show-per-year phase of my musical career.

 1. Mission of Burma - This Is Not a Photograph

 

From the "Signals, Calls, and Marches" EP
Ace of Hearts Records, 1981

I'm probably 15 or 20 years too late to recommend "Our Band Could Be Your Life" by Michael Azzerad. Let me echo everyone else and say "go read it." (that means you, Jen.)

Again, 2021 is the year I finally got to hear Signals, Calls, and Marches. It's just as crucial as everyone says.

This song is a post-punk banger. Start to finish. I love the little Martin Swope touches throughout, but really noticable about 1:03. I assume that's Martin Swope. I love the idea of having one band member whose sole job it is to deconstruct the band's sound. I want to be that, except my band is a duo, and it just ends up as a fight.

I don't have as many words to say about this song, but it's #1 because I like it the most. Short, and sweet, and direct. Who needs more than 2 minutes?