Top albums of 2021

Top albums 2021 2020 saw some incredible new music, including Commoners Choir’s Untied Kingdom, an album I find difficult to listen to as it tugs, pulls, batters and soothes at my emotional core. I haven’t found anything to compete so far, but there have been albums which really tap into the modern world.

Bob Vylan’s We Live Here has become the banger of the year for the UK scene, and they were brutally brilliant in York at the Fulford Arms. Though the album’s titular song will always been the most breath-taking song on the album, the other tunes are still like a much-needed vocal heabutt. The rallying against racism is complete with a wider blare against a toxic Britain. Anti-racist music is part of of the DNA of alternative music scenes in the UK, but Bob Vylan’s album doesn’t feel reformist. It’s not a hopeful album, it’s tracks that want to drag the whole fucking thing into the sea.

We Are Lady Parts by Lady Parts is only 11 minutes long, but it represents a fantastic TV show about music, friendship and rebellion. The songs are so well-crafted, they don’t feel manufactured for a sitcom, they feel genuinely like an ace band you’d catch at Manchester Punk Festival. The TV show and EP reminded me of gigs and scenes and communities…something I’ve really missed in 2021.

Fuck These Fuckin Fascists by The Muslims is just non-stop anthems for a post-Trump America. Like Bob Vylan, the titular song is the song I played over and over again, but still the rest of the album feels so painfully urgent. I assume ‘Unity’ is an attack on Democrats who demand conciliation for being in power, when really the problems of racist police and racist borders are still crushing the people. It’s low-fi and full-on punk rock but unlike so many other guitar bands makes me want to get up and move.

Spotify Is Surveillance by Evan Greer is a little bit haunting. Her voice is so fresh and she plays with the ‘lightness’ from her folk sound but with a jagged punk sound. The album is a hopeful one about refusal, about survival, about celebration. But again, this album feels so modern as it looks at algorithms and, like The Muslims, attacks liberals on ‘Emma Goldman Would Have Beat Your Ass’. This was my most-played song of this year, are you surprised? It’s an explosive love letter to the no-compromise of Anarchism through the spirit of Emma Goldman. But there's also the warmth of 'Willing to Wait' and gentleness of 'Back Row' making this a diverse album of loss and hope.

Back to the UK sounds: I came to Sam Fender late in the game after various Facebook groups and articles sang his praises. I think his vocal style reminded me of the ladrock bands of my 00s youth I couldn’t click with. But there’s some real blunt poetry to his lyrics on Seventeen Going Under and he’s not afraid to rail against the Tories and State in his interviews. I think over time, he’s really going to get into my head. This is grey, post-Brexit cynicism, loaded with snarls and shrugs which will hopefully help many bedraggled lads something that articulates their bleakness in Tory Britain.

Albums I’ve also really loved this year:

Open Mouth, Open Heart - Destroy Boys

Reincarnate EP - Witch Fever

Going to Hell - Lande Hekt

Sometimes I Might be Introvert - Lil Simz

Our Hell Is Right Here - Drones

A Northern Coastal Town: Hull In The Blitz - Joe Solo and Rebecca Findlay

Connectivity - Grace Petrie

A Million Things That Never Happened - Billy Bragg

Noise Noise Noise - The Last Gang

At War With The Silverfish - Laura Jane Grace

1집 - Slant

Amigo The Devil - Born Against

Jeff Rosenstock - Ska Dream

Grand Collapse - Empty Plinths

Turnstile - Glow On

Nice One - Catbite

Comfort To Me - Amyl and The Sniffers

Protest Songs 1924-2018 - The Specials