albums @ 2021

what did you all listen to this year?

my favs:





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iā€™m at a point in my life where all i listen to is prince, harry hosono and depeche mode

a bunch of miharu koshi stuff got a 2021 remaster if that counts

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I really need to get back in the album saddle.

Mostly Gorillaz - Song Machine and the Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack.

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Yess. Love a thread like this, excited to sample peopleā€™s selections. Going to post a conservative amount of old music I got into this year as well, because Iā€™ve only heard a few technically new new albums ;_;

Springtime - Springtime (Garetth Liddiard of the Drones and TFSā€™ new side project)
Tropical Fuck Storm - Deep States
Mamaleek - Come and See (unplaceable SF metal band, jazz sensibilities i think)
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain (absurdly goth rock music)
Cindy Lee - Model Express (a glamorous sheen haunting 1960s heartache ballads)
Armand Hammer - Shrines (intense, imagistic hiphop with a grimey sample-ridden production)
also Grimes - Halfaxa, but she doesnā€™t need your money

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purity ring - womb
backxwash - i lie here buried with my rings and my dresses
mastodon - the hunter ( old but i just listened again this year )
bows - cassidy ( this is old i just think pple should listen to it )

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honestly mostly just tricot and some of Mitskiā€™s Be the Cowboy

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My number one favorite album I heard for the first time this year was Wolf MĆ¼ller & Cass - The Sound of Glades. Beautiful ambient music that sounds like a Donkey Kong Country swamp levelā€¦ What more could you want?

Thatā€™s a 2016 album though, so here are my top picks of stuff that came out this year:

The Weather Station - Ignorance (Kate Bush fans, listen up: this is the first album Iā€™ve heard that takes a STRONG, direct inspiration from Aerial. Itā€™s a little uneven, but when itā€™s on itā€™s really on; The Robber and Tried to Tell You are my favorites)

Alex Ho - Move Through It (ā€œbalearicā€ city night driving ambient groove)

George Riley - Interest Rates, a Tape (very jungle-inflected R&B, nostalgic in many ways but feels somehow totally cutting edge)

Tunng - Dead Club (One of my favorite bands, poppy folk with electronic and glitch production. Not their best work, but pretty good. Itā€™s a concept album about how various cultures handle death. Sometimes corny, sometimes interesting and provocative)

Chip Tanaka - Domani (From the classic nintendo composer. I think this is his best, most consistently strong album yet)

Kero Kero Bonito - Civilisation II (Fun little EP. The extended house track at the end is some of their best work IMO)

Howie Lee - Birdy Island (How do I even describe this album? A genre-bending concept album about a floating theme park where everybody worships birds. Blends jazz, ambient, club music, and Chinese folk)

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Current Value - The All Attracting and Deathmachine - Mutability (extremely high-production, distorted bass music with futuristic atmospheres)

both albums profoundly raised my expectations of either artist. probably not bad shuffled together; they are a bit like different sides of a coin, with the Current Value feeling more ethereal and abstract, while Deathmachine satisfies the more red-blooded, fist-pumping dance music drive

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Will be back with more later but right now the trans-anthem ska album from We Are The Union:

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havenā€™t listened to many 2021 albums as such, so thereā€™s not much to choose from.
Still, recommended:

Hania Raniā€™s new collab with Dobrawa Czocher Inner Symphonies (Track: Con Moto) is no funtime listening record, so ymmv.

On the other end of the scale, USAOs XTREME album (careful: hardcore) is ā€¦ well, not exactly in the same, new classical genre-bracket.

Somewhere inbetweenā€¦ from IU, Lilac (Track: Coin) .

Technically from 2020, but probably most replays this year (and really cheatinā€™, 15 minutes is no Album, jeez):

Jannabi: Small Pieces

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iā€™m not sure what to say about any of these thatā€™s like worth the effort of me typing it out, but here are some albums from this year i liked and a link to one song from each of them in no particular order. i may come back and add more? but probably not

grouper - shade

youā€™ll never get to heaven - wave your moonlight hat for the snowfall train

wednesday - twin plagues

cryogeyser - timetetheredtogether

magdalena bay - mercurial world

ovlov - buds

mr twin sister - al mundo azul

mannequin pussy - perfect ep

suzanne kraft - about you

julia shapiro - zorked

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iā€™ve listened to almost nothing that came out this year and the only one i was going to bring up was

which i canā€™t remember who recommended it - mighta been you!!

Oh, and Space 1.8 which was in the first post is also excellent

However, I have listened to a shitload of new-to-me albums that did not come out this year, here they are in no particular order with links to the full albums on YT

Hiroshi Yoshimura-Green*
Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Keyboard Fantasies*
Crying - Beyond the Fleeting Gales
Negative Gemini - Forget your Future
Virtual Boy - self titled
Various artists - Jungle Tekno 5 - The Deep Side

I strongly recommend all of these, but if I had to pick one it would be Green, since itā€™sā€¦weirdly lifechanging? I love love love it.

I will revisit this thread to get a bunch of new music later, thanks yā€™all

*I cried at least once listening to these albums

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oh yeah The Hunger came out this year, thatā€™s a fantastic gay yearning horror ballad album

i like this song, which is more of a rave banger:

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This album was new to me last year and yeah, is such a regular thing in my life. The liner notes on the vinyl release are great, because IIRC, Yoshimura says he doesnā€™t understand people sleeping to this album, but thinks it is great if it works for that. AND IT DOES! like this is literally teh best nap album, which sounds like I am being mean but no, it literally makes naps better. Also, if you havenā€™t watched Japan Sinks 2020, it has a fun role in that show.

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Yeah Iā€™ve fallen asleep a couple of times listening to this and it was extremely restful/meditative. It really seems to access a part of my brain that little else can. It rules.

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Hiroshi Yoshimura rules. Green is probably his most essential album, a perfect self-contained work. I have enjoyed a ton of his other stuff too, and my favorite is the underrated Quiet Forest, which occasionally hasā€¦ beats!? If you can believe that. But itā€™s still wonderful ambient music.

For more like this, check out this old thread:

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Koreless - Agor
Bicep - Isles
Vince Staples - Vince Staples
Dawn Richard - Second Line
Madlib - Sound Ancestors

(the long Japanese artist section of my list, I listen to a lot of modern Japanese music now i guess)

AAAMYYY - Annihilation
Ayano Kaneko - Yosuga
4s4ki - Castle in Madness
Take-M - The Takes
CHAI - WINK
GOODMOODGOKU - Purity
Miho Hatori - Between Isekai and slice of Life
millennium parade - The MILLENIUM PARADE
NTsKi - Orca

Kanye West - DONDA (sorry! itā€™s good)

Apologies, Iā€™m not going to add any links cos Iā€™m laaaaazy

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Leon Duncan - Fuck a rosseta stone for my brain waves

Voidhra - Sorrow guides us all

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

HHY & and the Kampala Unit - Lithium Blast

ė°•ķ˜œģ§„ Park Hye Jin - Before I Die

Just the ones that jumped to mind. If people want an exploration of any of these, just ask!

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