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.