The Best Albums of 2021

The long-awaited year-end list of the best music of the year.

It's the second year of the pandemic. This means that all of the art that was being planned out during the first year of the pandemic is finally being released. Being stuck inside for a year, while extremely damaging to society, has created an environment for artists to make some pretty cool projects. This is across many mediums. Books, movies, and music have all been better this year. In the coming weeks, I'll be publishing my favorite projects of the year. First, music. Here are the best albums of the year:

Honorable Mentions

J Cole - The Off-Season

Lil Nas X - Montero

Young Thug - Punk

Clairo - Sling

Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club

Nas - King's Disease II

Kacey Musgraves - star crossed

Snoh Aalegra - Temporary Highs in Violet Skies

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga - Love For Sale

Cleo Sol - Mother

10: Benny The Butcher - The Plugs I Met II

Benny The Butcher blessed us with one of the best albums in each 2018 (Tana Talk 3), 2019 (The Plugs I Met) & 2020 (Burden of Proof). In 2021, we saw that streak continue with The Plugs I Met II, produced by Harry Fraud. Harry has been on his own hot streak lately working with Larry June, Jim Jones, Curren$y, and Dave East within the last two years. His modern-day soulful beats give a smooth backdrop for Benny's retired-dope boy lyrics. "Real hip-hop" heads fell in love with this album upon release. Fat Joe, Jim Jones, and French Montana all deliver great guest verses. 2 Chainz gave us the star verse on "Plug Talk," which is a standout track on the album. 

9: Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

So it took me a little longer than I'd like to admit to realize that Japanese Breakfast and Michelle Zauner are the same people. Not only did she write Crying at H Mart, one of 2021's hottest literature releases, but she also released Jubilee, one of 2021's best albums. The range.  Jubilee is an incredibly ambitious project. It sounds joyus, maximal, grandiose. There are moments of the album that make you want to lie in the grass and watch the clouds pass, and there are moments that make you want to get up and dance. "Slide Tackle" sounds like a song that you play on a long car ride to pass the time and sing along to. "Kokomo, IN" unlocks your ultimate chill. "In Hell" is incredibly sad. "Be Sweet." the most popular song on the album is perfect for a good-vibes music festival. Jubilee is multifaceted and full of depth, but it's also just a joy to listen to.

8: Olivia Rodrigo - Sour

I was hesitant to throw this in the top 10 because this album was so popular this year that it could creep into the overrated territory. Ultimately, I decided that it belonged on the list. The ex-Disney Channel star came of age on this album about youth and heartbreak. Most of the break-up songs on this album are about her ex-boyfriend, Joshua Bassett. Admittingly I don't know who that is because I'm 27, but I'm happy that she made this great collection of songs. "drivers license" was the hit single that put her on the map for many of us millennials, but the album truly shines on the angsty teen anthem "brutal," the pop-punk anthem, "good 4 u" and the melancholic "deja vu." Rodrigo has an uncanny to display the gen-z zeitgeist through song. I can't wait to see what's next for this emerging superstar.

7:Vince Staples - Vince Staples

Vince Staples’ best project to date. Vince displays a level of vulnerability that he had yet to explore on his previous projects, all of which I’ve loved. He gives anecdotes about growing up in Long Beach. One of them even said that he was a few moves from going to jail for years on a weapons charge. He talks about gang banging, the pain of losing friends growing up, his refusal to leave his environment for places like Malibu and Calabasas. This is Vince at his most introspective, which is also Vince at his absolute best.

6: Dijon - Absolutely

The full name of R&B is rhythm & blues, which people don't often think of because it's morphed into its own genre over the last 25 years. When someone calls an album alt-R&B, it's because there are other elements that fall into it. This is where Absolutely comes in. Dijon’s debut album features a rock element, that I only became aware of when I saw him and his band perform at Outsidelands. The intro track, “Big Mikes” features psychedelic guitar riffs. The lead single, “Many Times,” feels like a true rock and blues crossover.

Dijon sings - and sometimes screams - about the agony of love. There are songs on Absolutely that chronicle the different stages of a strained relationship, from the breaking point on “Many Times” to the pain of wanting to reconnect with a lost lover in “The Dress.” The standout track on the album, “Rodeo Clown,” is the modern-day love anthem about two people who are afraid to commit to each other. Dijon’s pain seers through the tracks and into our headphones. It’s beautiful and haunting all at the same time.

5:Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams

I start thinking about my year-end album list as soon as the ball drops in Times Square, so it's safe to say I was already on my toes when Arlo Parks released her debut album at the end of January. The British teenager used to be a poet before turning into a singer-songwriter. Her voice is soothing; her lyrics are deeply curated, calm, and collected. From the groovy thing owning track “Hurt” to the quarantine anthem “Hope,” this album just makes me feel good. It came as a reminder during the (what we know now as) middle of the pandemic that we’re all going through this together, and that’s comforting.

4:Adele - 30

A mega-star returned in 2021. Adele, fresh off a divorce in 2019, went back to the studio to do what she does best: create beautiful music. Adele is now 33 years old, removed 10 years from her smash hit "Rolling in the Deep," with a wealth of new life experience, for better or worse. Her music was already good, but with all of the experience behind her as well as the emotional intelligence that comes with maturing, she's making great music. 30 is Adele at her best. She gives us an intimate view of her personal world, her late-night thoughts, her dreams, and insecurities as she navigates a new world of singledom. She was with her ex-husband for almost 10 years, we know how much that hurts.  My personal favorite song on the album is "All Night Parking," which gives me early 2000's neo-soul vibes, one of my favorite eras of music. The musical peak of the album, however; is the 11th track, "To Be Loved," where she sings about the agony that comes with loving someone unconditionally.

Adele sings about raw human emotion, showing us that it's okay to feel the way we do because we all feel it at one time or another.

3: Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti

Front-to-back this is my most listened to project in 2021. I absolutely love it. Mach-Hommy is an elusive artist. Think Michael Fassbender in Frank, a talented musician whose face you never quite see. Pray for Haiti was in part A&R'ed by Westside Gunn, whose previous album, Pray For Paris, was coincidently 3rd on my 2020 list. Pray for Haiti feels like an extension of Gunn's best album to date. He ad-libs over Hommy's ferocious lyrics and clever punchlines.

I appreciate the references in this project a lot. He samples Michael Jackson's “Thriller” video, Taxi Driver, and many more. One interlude is just children speaking French, reminding me a lot of the first scenes in City of God. Some of the best lyrics of the year are on the album. “Lotta these rappers big 12 like March Madness" is a double and triple entendre.

Mach-Hommy's Pray for Haiti is complex, fascinating, and sonically exceptional. There's a je ne sais quoi about this album that you'll only understand if you've listened to it. Whatever it is, it just has me coming back over and over for more. I'd go as far as calling it an early candidate for albums of the decade.

2: Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

Tyler's growth as an artist has been nothing but remarkable over the last decade. From the grungy teenager who gave us “Yonkers” to the mature artists who gave us “Wilshire”. Tyler has never been a bad artist, let's get that straight now. He's always been incredibly creative, writing and producing all of his own music, but his creativity has improved in leaps & bounds in the last few years. Flower Boy was a major artistic leap from his previous work and Igor has often been hailed as a masterpiece. Call Me If You Get Lost picks up where Igor left off. All of the beautiful production that Tyler gave us on Igor he one-upped on CMIYGL. The music feels more realized, crisp. He nails the details. One of the common criticisms of Igor is that it wasn't a rap album. I never cared for that criticism because I thought Igor was amazing. CMIYGL is unquestionable a rap album. So much so that he brought on the world-famous DJ Drama to replicate his Gangsta Grillz mixtape era. He raps his ass off on the album while also choosing to sing like an R&B singer at other times. Tyler's guests also shine on the album. 42 Dugg has one of my favorite verses of the year on “LEMONHEAD” and NBA Youngboy sounds like a member of The Temptations on “WUSYANAME”. Lil Wayne, Uzi, and Pharrell also shine in their verses.

Thematically, the album is told from Tyler's perspective. He falls in love with a girl who is dating one of his friends. On “Wilshire”, we learn all about the details of the relationship that he had been hinting at the entire album. It's beautiful and heartbreaking. Tyler's ability to elicit such emotions over such crisp production is a talent in itself.

CMIYGL is a triumph of an artist reaching a new peak, one that we didn't know was there. Tyler, the Creator is on top of the world. Everything he touches turns to gold. With the world at his fingertips, Tyler's continuing to bless us with his gifts.

1: Kanye West - Donda

I'm sorry. I wish it didn't have to be like this, but it couldn't have been anything else. Donda is the album of the year. In fact, it wasn't close. In a year where we saw artistic peaks from many artists, one stood above them all.

Donda rumors started rumblings in mid-July, setting forth an unpredictable chain of events that led to Beats commercials, three listening parties, a reignition of Kanye's beef with Drake, delayed releases, and finally, the best album of the year.

For all of the drama that Kanye has put us through over the last 5 years, it felt like this was the year that the media was no longer going to support him. I'm not even going to say that they were wrong. Between supporting Trump, and standing with Marilyn Manson on stage at his third listening party, I didn't want to like the album. I wanted to let Kanye go. In many ways I have. I was a child with The College Dropout came out, a junior in high school when My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released. Our idols don't stay hot forever. In fact, many of them have a drastic fall from grace. In recent years, we saw Kanye's (at least in the public eye).  While I don't support a lot of the things that Kanye says and does outside of the studio, I was forced to partake in the difficult task of separating the artist from the art. I don't think a lot of media outlets did when it came time to evaluate the album. Many people said that Donda was a symbol of a genius in decline. They said that Kanye was being too repetitive. He was making an overwrought album that should have been only 10-12 songs. It's true that at 27 songs and 100 minutes it's a long album, but we didn't hold that against All Eyez on Me or The White Album. At a certain point, they just stopped liking the artist, so they punished the art. It currently has a 53 on Metacritic. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has a 94.

Ye's 10th studio album is arguably his darkest. Donda is of course the name of his late mother, who he lost back in 2007. A lot of the songs tackle faith in the face of loss and adversity. Every guest feature - and there’s a lot- touches on the same topics. Unlike Jesus is King, this isn't a Gospel-Rap album. It's a Rap-Gospel album, and there is a difference. Every song works faith into the discussion in one way or another. Ye makes songs that are for fans of “Old Kanye” like “Believe What I say,” “Heaven and Hell,” “New Again,” & “Keep my Spirit Alive”. He also has tracks to appeal to the new hip-hop crowd. “Praise God,” “Off The Grid” & “Junya” sound like high-end trap & drill rap. Then we get introspective, moody songs like “Moon” & “24.”

The best song on the album (in my opinion. I truly don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer) is “Come to Life,” a song a shed real tears the first time I heard it. “Praying for a change in your life, well maybe it’s gon come tonight” hits home every time. It’s arguable Kanye’s greatest song ever with “Runaway,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” “Ghost Town,” & “New Slaves.”

I’ll leave you with this. The black man’s trauma is commercialized in this country. Rappers can get on a song and rap about deceased family and friends and the critics will turn around and give it a terrible review. For what? They will never understand where these people are from and what they had to go through. That’s my issue with artistic criticism. There are people who should not be critiquing specific works, yet they do anyway. Artists pour their souls out on a song. Maybe some works are above criticism, and they should just be experienced. How can you listen to a song where someone is talking about pain, guilt, and loss and then call it trash? Call me righteous, but I have a moral objection to that.

Kanye’s pain is expressed on all of the nearly two-hour projects. It’s poignant. It hurts. It makes us think. You can feel him trying to figure it all out and find the meaning in it all. You can feel him desperately trying to find his way to happiness. On top of it all, the most influential musician of the last century, shows us he’s also capable of producing the hell out of a track. It sounds damn good. Maybe you didn’t listen to it all because it’s a lot to get through. Maybe the length threw you off. It can be daunting. Every minute is worth it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime album. A masterpiece.

“He’s done miracles on me.”

Peace and love.