Favorite Albums 2021

My favorite albums of 2021:

• Cassandra Jenkins, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature: this was brought to me by Pitchfork (which named it one of the best of 2021), and I loved it from the first listen. This second pandemic year really begged for a comforting, mellow, introspective record, and this was it for me. 
• Lana Del Rey, Chemtrails Over the Country Club: a singer I didn't take seriously until her last record (Norman Fucking Rockwell), Lana Del Rey totally won me over with this, her seventh full length album (she also put out a second good one later in the year, Blue Bannisters). Another quiet, introspective soundscape that seems to create a world you can climb into. I guess Jack Antonoff isn't all bad, after all. 
• Lucy Dacus, Home Video: every Lucy Dacus album has made it into my annual favorites list. This one took some time to grow on me, mostly because the songs seemed mostly to be about memories of high school, while I'd love to hear more about Lucy's adulthood. But, either way, the song-writing is fantastic, and her rich, alto voice is like no other in mainstream indie pop. 
• Alexander Biggs, Hit or Miss: brought to my attention at the very end of the year (thanks Michelle!), this Australian singer-songwriter lays a plausible claim to being the second coming Elliot Smith. 

Overall, however, it was a pretty uninspiring musical year for me. I couldn't come up with more than four that I expect to still be listening to in 5 years time (I mean listening to the whole album -- there were lots of individual songs I loved, collected here). Nothing this year made the impact that last year's Phoebe Bridgers or Nick Cave album did. 

Many of my favorite artists put out perfectly good albums (including Julien Baker, Nick Cave, St. Vincent, James Blake, Billie Eilish, and Lorde), but none were better than their previous records. And if I were reaching for an entire album to listen to, I'd pick one of those previous albums before reaching for their 2021 efforts. I liked and respect the new Low record, but like the Fiona Apple album from last year, I don't see myself regularly returning to listen to it for pleasure. 

Reissue and archival releases, however, continued to burn bright this year, with demo releases for three PJ Harvey albums (Is This Desire, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, and White Chalk), reissue of Joni Mitchell's 1969-1971 Reprise albums, and the accompanying volume 2 of the Joni Mitchell archival releases. 

The year also brought the remix/remaster/reissue of The Beatles' Let It Be. Yes, the remix sounds great, and yes, there are a few interesting tidbits among the many, many unreleased materials. But overall, it just can't hold a candle to the 2019 remixed Abbey Road release. But I am looking forward to seeing the Peter Jackson documentary.

On the jazz front, special honorable mention for this year's Vijay Iyer's album, Uneasy.