Best Songs of 2021

As noted in 2020, this process has been getting more difficult with each passing year. That difficulty arises simply because my musical intake is so much less intentional than it once was. My CD and LP buying habits, while admittedly still higher than most in my age bracket, have essentially fallen off a cliff since about 4 years ago. Despite my streaming habits, my personal iTunes library (built, in large part, by CD and LP purchases) remains my number one source for music listening.

By the time summer turned to fall, I still had just 30 or 40 tracks I deemed worthy of this mix. What changed? It was not so much a cavalcade of new and wonderful releases that arrived in the latter part of the year so much as it was a concerted effort to commit, most often via single-song purchases on my new store of choice, Bandcamp, to tracks that had caught my ear in 2021.

So that’s what this list is. In a way, it is what it’s always been, year to year. But for a period of about 10 years or so, say 2003 to 2013, this exercise was as much a summary of my album-buying habits as it was a document of the hit singles and album cuts that stuck in my head. There is still some of that, here. I tried to encapsulate the few albums I did purchase with a nod on this playlist, just as I also endeavored to note those artists (with 2021 releases) that was lucky enough to see live and in person over the course of the year (man, I missed concerts).

As I have done for the past 7 years, I include, in brief notes, commentary on how I came upon these songs. I had fewer direct suggestions from friends this year than in the past, but I hope that 2022 will bring back those shared musical experiences in full. I am pleased that, despite my aging fandom, I did branch out more this year than I thought I would—a good chunk of tracks I had earmarked earlier in the year, which would’ve fallen under that “via past experience” banner, fell away late in the list-making process, in favor of newer (or new-to-me) artists, from a variety of sources.

Another thing about this particular list that has me feeling proud is the prevalence of women. At least in terms of primary artists and/or voices you will hear singing, women outnumber men on this list. I have consciously been trying to equalize my mixes in the past few years, but whether a result of a purposeful shift, a natural evolution, or somewhere in between, it was easier than ever in 2021 to divert my attention from male voices.

My last point of pride with this year’s list comes in the form of little in-jokes. I shall not spoil them for you here as you browse and listen, but I took great joy in juxtaposing songs in such a way that lets them be in conversation with each other thematically, as well as musically. These tiny moments of inspiration are emblematic of the entire process for me this hear, and have renewed my interest in continuing. One day—one year—I surely will peter out and not get to 100. But for as long as I can help it, I plan to keep procrastinating on the idea of quitting.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and Apple Music. Extended track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

January 16, 2022

Show Grid

I NEED YOU

Jon Batiste

WE ARE

Verve

via Fresh Air
A Wise Tale

Abstract Mindstate

Dreams Still Inspire

YZY SND

via Said the Gramophone
HB2U

Isaiah Rashad

The House Is Burning

Top Dawg Entertainment

via past experience
Lost One

Jazmine Sullivan

Heaux Tales

RCA

via All Songs Considered
If I’m Insecure

James Blake

Friends That Break Your Heart

Republic

via past experience
Latter Days

Big Red Machine featuring Anaïs Mitchell

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?

Jagjaguwar

via past experience
The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow

Flying Dream 1

Polydor

via past experience
Days Like These

Low

HEY WHAT

Sub Pop

via past experience
Prester John

Animal Collective

Time Skiffs

Domino

via Fluxblog + past experience
Always

Skirts

Great Big Wild Oak

Double Double Whammy

via ??
I See It Now

Bachelor

Doomin’ Sun

Lucky Number

via past experience (Jay Som)
Aquamarine

Hand Habits

Fun House

Saddle Creek

via past experience
Give It Hell

Yumi Zouma

Give It Hell digital single

Polyvinyl

via past experience
This Enchanted

Hatchie

This Enchanted digital single

Secretly Canadian

via Fluxblog
Helpless

Caveman

Smash

Fortune Teller’s Music

via past experience
Got Me

Laura Mvula

Pink Noise

Atlantic

via past experience
Please

Jessie Ware

What’s Your Pleasure (The Platinum Pleasure Edition)

PMR

via past experience
Cry Your Heart Out

Adele

30

Columbia

via past experience
Boomerang

Yebba

Dawn

RCA

via ??
Wild Side

Normani featuring Cardi B

Wild Side digital single

Keep Cool

via Freegal Music
Foreign Things

Amber Mark

Foreign Things digital single

EMI

via past experience
More Than Ever

Durand Jones & The Indications

Private Space

Dead Oceans

via Alli Adamonis
Leave the Door Open

Silk Sonic

An Evening With Silk Sonic

Aftermath

via past experience (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak)
Promises

Cleo Sol

Mother

Forever Living Originals

via Said the Gramophone (ish)
Julia (Deep Diving)

Fred Again..

Actual Life (April 14 – December 17 2020)

Atlantic

via Stereogum comments
Only Love

Tycho & Benjamin Gibbard

Only Love digital single

Ninja Tune

via past experience
Coming Home

The Haunted Youth

Coming Home digital single

Mayway

via Kevin Cole on KEXP
Call My Name

Smile & Robyn

Phantom Island

Chimp Limbs

via John Richards on KEXP
I Hope I Never Fall in Love

The Reds, Pinks and Purples

Uncommon Weather

Slumberland

via Hans on KEXP
Amoeba

Clairo

Sling

Fader/Republic

via past experience
Hold U

Indigo de Souza

Any Shape You Take

Saddle Creek

via All Songs Considered
hold yourself.

Tune-Yards

sketchy.

4AD

via past experience
…At the Holiday Party

St. Vincent

Daddy’s Home

Loma Vista

via past experience
Valentine

Snail Mail

Valentine

Matador

via past experience
Chaise Longue

Wet Leg

Chaise Longue digital single

Domino

via Troy Nelson on KEXP
Across That Fine Line

Nation of Language

A Way Forward

Pias

via Kevin Cole on KEXP
Be Sweet

Japanese Breakfast

Jubilee

Dead Oceans

via past experience
California

CHVRCHES

Screen Violence

Glassnote

via past experience
I Don’t Live Here Anymore

The War on Drugs

I Don’t Live Here Anymore

Atlantic

via past experience
Last Train Home

John Mayer

Sob Rock

Columbia

via past experience
Somewhere in Chicago

Strand of Oaks

In Heaven

Galacticana

via past experience
In Another Life

The Killers

Pressure Machine

Island

via past experience + Andy Greenwald on The Watch
Before You Gotta Go

Courtney Barnett

Things Take Time, Take Time

Milk!

via past experience
Pawnshop Dollar Bills

The Dead Tongues

Pawnshop Dollar Bills digital single

Psychic Hotline

via past experience
Lost Futures

Marisa Anderson & William Tyler

Lost Futures

Thrill Jockey

via past experience
El Invento

José González

Local Valley

Imperial Recrodings

via past experience
That Funny Feeling

Phoebe Bridgers

That Funny Feeling digital single

Dead Oceans

via Bo Burnham’s INSIDE + Stereogum + past experience
Go Outside

Ratboys

Happy Birthday, Ratboys

Topshelf

via live in concert
Die Outside

Wild Pink

A Billion Little Lights

Royal Mountain

via live in concert
Other You

Steve Gunn

Other You

Matador

via past experience
Driver 8

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit featuring John Paul White

Georgia Blue

Southeastern/Thirty Tigers

via past experience
Wildflowers

Lucinda Williams

Runnin’ Down a Dream: A Tribute to Tom Petty

Highway 20

via past experience
Light of a Clear Blue Morning

Waxahatchee

Saint Cloud +3

Merge

via past experience
The Right Thing Is Hard to Do

Lightning Bug

A Color of the Sky

Fat Possum

via Cheryl Waters on KEXP
Black Dog

Arlo Parks

Collapsed in Sunbeams

Transgressive

via Kevin Cole on KEXP
TNT

Wye Oak

TNT digital single

Merge

via past experience
Summer Quarter

Madeline Kenney

Summer Quarter

Carpark

via past experience
4Runner

Rostam

Changephobia

Matsor Projects

via past experience
Price of Blue

Flock of Dimes

Head of Roses

Sub Pop

via past experience
Little Things

Big Thief

Little Things / Sparrow digital single

4AD

via past experience
I Ain’t

Dinosaur Jr.

Sweep It Into Space

Jagjaguwar

via past experience
Free Drop Billy

Enumclaw

Jimbo Demo

Youth Riot

via Cheryl Waters on KEXP
No Mutuals

Fake Fruit

Fake Fruit

Rocks in Your Head

via Said the Gramophone / Bandcamp
Homo Sapien

Parquet Courts

Sympathy for Life

Rough Trade

via past experience
We Are Between

Modest Mouse

The Golden Casket

Epic

via past experience
Low Era

Geese

Projector

Partisan

via Evie on KEXP
Fit to Burst

Ducks Ltd.

Modern Fiction

Carpark

via Andy Greenwald on The Watch
Clay Pigeon

binki

MOTOR FUNCTION

self-released

via Atticus on KEXP
That Life

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

That Life digital single

Jagjaguwar

via past experience
Year of the Crab

Bad Bad Hats

Walkman

Don Giovanni

via All Songs Considered
Someone Else

Colleen Green

Cool

Hardly Art

via past experience
In or In-Between

Claud

Super Monster

Saddest Factory

via Alli Adamonis
jealousy, jealousy

Olivia Rodrigo

SOUR

Geffen

via Fluxblog
Less Like

Hollis

Less Like digital single

self-released

via past experience
Cooped Up

Josie Dunne

Episode 3: Cooped Up digital single

self-released

via Said the Gramophone
I Miss You, Don’t Call Me

Alessia Cara

In The Meantime

Def Jam

via past experience
Go Away

Omar Apollo

Go Away digital single

Warner

via past experience + KEXP Song of the Day
Don’t Worry

Leon Bridges featuring Ink

Gold-Diggers Sound

Columbia

via past experience
I Won’t Let You Down

Curtis Harding

If Words Were Flowers

Anti-

via past experience
Call Me a Fool

Valerie June featuring Carla Thomas

The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

Fantasy

via past experience
Sweet Revenge

Margo Price

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows Vol. 2

Oh Boy

via past experience
Diamond Studded Shoes

Yola

Stand For Myself

Easy Eye Sound

via ??
Parking Lot

The Weather Station

Ignorance

Fat Possum

via past experience
Faith Healer

Julien Baker

Little Oblivions

Matador

via past experience
Good Woman

The Staves

Good Woman

Nonesuch

via past experience
New Person, Old Place

Madi Diaz

History of a Feeling

Anti-

via All Songs Considered
Thirstier

TORRES

Thirstier

Merge

via past experience + Kevin Cole on KEXP
Cheers

Faye Webster

I Know I’m Funny haha

Secretly Canadian

via ??
Love Love Love

My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket

ATO

via past experience
Heavy Covenant

The Hold Steady

Open Door Policy

Positive Jams

via past experience
First Time

Lucy Dacus

Home Video

Matador

via past experience
Broken Horses

Brandi Carlile

In These Silent Days

Low Country Sound

via past experience
Mine Forever

Lord Huron

Long Lost

Whispering Pines

via live in concert + past experience
Like I Used To

Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen

Like I Used To digital single

Jagjaguwar

via past experience
Watching Cartoons

La Luz

La Luz

Hardly Art

via past experience
Dealer

Lana Del Rey

Blue Banisters

Interscope

via past experience
Virginia Beach

Hamilton Leithauser & Kevin Morby

Virginia Beach digital single

Glassnote

via past experience
Follow Me Around

Radiohead

KID A MNESIA

XL Recordings

via past experience
Play It Right

Mountain Man

Made the Harbor (10 Year Anniversary Edition)

Psychic Hotline

via past experience
Love More

Fiona Apple

epic Ten

Ba da bing!

via past experience