The Top 50 albums of 2021 – 50-41
The best albums of the year – starting with numbers 50-41
50
Portico Quartet – Terrain (Gondwana)
“A suitably deep, cosmic and gently colourful take on jazz-funk shot through with musical spirituality… flits between dazzling, jazz-fired workouts (see ‘McEnroe’ and the similarly skittish, high-octane ‘The Winter Games’), laidback downtempo groovers (‘The Wad’, the deliciously deep ‘May as Well Be’), cuts smothered in vintage synthesizer sounds (‘Pop Stuff’, the drowsy ‘40.2’) and spacey, quick-fix bursts of energy (‘Ceegee’).”
49
Leron Carson – Under The Conditions (Sound Signature)
“Those who’ve previously encountered his work will know approximately what to expect here: raw, sincere, and deeply authentic machine music with discernible funk and underlying soul… Make no mistake, this is house music as it was intended to be heard.”
48
Fucked Up – Year of the Horse (Trankcrimes)
“Fucked Up continue to follow no rules apart from their own, continuously pushing the confines of their genre to ridiculous, ludicrous and (definitely) pretentious heights. Isn’t that what we should demand from our punk music?!”
47
DJ Loser- Illusion Hunt (Forbidden Planet)
“The breadth of Loser’s stylistic palette is so wide that it forms an obtuse angle; trance becomes gothic thunderstorm techno on ‘Everything (But The Rain)’, which is like a nega-Scott darkside version of Joy Kitikonti’s ‘Joyenergizer’, in all its grotty, warp-synth glory. “
46
Elbow – Flying Dream 1 (Universal)
“Gravitating towards the more experimental, complex composition of their earlier material aided frontman Guy Garvey to unpack ruminations of grief, the loss of his father and more challenging topical issues such as the Grenfell Tower disaster… The quick-witted poetics of Garvey weave through the expertly crafted arrangements, seemingly asking nothing of the listener in return, beyond patience. There’s that old cliché that every repeat listen turns over a new stone, unravels another mystery, but that cliché is where ‘Flying Dream 1’ floats, buoyed and undemanding yet pleading for understanding.”
45
Stone Giants – West Coast Love Stories (Nomark)
“All in all, it’s a heart rending but deeply mood swinging take on Tobin’s disorientating, post-electronica psychedelic sound, and arguably his best work for while. We’re also assured that a vinyl edition is in the pipeline too – check the Bandcamp page for details of the crowdfunding campaign. Love it.”
44
µ-Ziq/ Mrs Jynx – Secret Garden (Planet Mu)
Planet Mu main man Mike ‘Mu-ziq’ Paradinas and Hannah Davidson AKA Mrs Jynx have long been friends, though it took shared grief (both had a parent who succumbed to cancer over the last couple of years) to finally get together in the studio… highly emotive, picturesque tracks that mix bittersweet bliss and heart-aching musical melancholia with brief blasts of aural sunniness and rushing bliss.”
43
Seefeel – Succour (Redux)) (Warp)
“Seefeel continue to embrace the lush soundscapes that typify shoegaze and rooting things in deep sub bass, while bringing fascinating new blueprints to the table. Exquisite explorations so far ahead of their time they still sound new almost 30 years later.”
42
Spoon Fazer – Alternative Regression Therapy (OM Swagger)
“It does a great job in showcasing his distinctive sound, which combines his own mascara-clad new wave vocals and dusty drum machine rhythms with raw synthesizer sounds, ghostly electronics and, on occasions, the kind of low-slung, high-octane basslines more often found on punk-funk records.”
41
O.S.S – Enter The Kettle (Orbscure)
“The second LP on Alex Paterson’s label Orbscure, ‘Enter The Kettle’ features Alex and longtime Orb Sound System collaborator Fil Le Gonidec, showcasing a heavier, more industrial-slanted ambient house sound than traditional Orb productions.. It’s still every bit as deep and transporting as your classic Orb, only properly propelled by some headnodding, floor-slanted rhythms.”