it’s December 31 so i suppose i should post my albums of the year huh

GENRE: INDIE POP

i got into Milky Chance at the *very* beginning and honestly did not expect them to go anywhere. their second album was kind of disappointing i·m·o and they were always kind of… indie frat boy music??

anyway their third album came out in 2019 and it completely blew me away. now in 2021 they’ve released this album of (mostly) covers and demos and look. it’s a really good album of covers and demos. i’m a big fan of their renditions of both “Tainted Love” and “La Noche De Anoche”, and the remix of Colorado gets a shoutout for being much better than the original.

GENRE: ALTERNATIVE ROCK

wolf alice released a new album in 2021 and it’s *only* №9?? that should tell you something about the quality of music this year.

this is a perfectly cromulent album. i don’t like it *as much* as ‘Visions of a Life’, but ‘Visions of a Life’ is a pretty tough act to beat so no hard feelings there. the sequence from “Play the Greatest Hits” (just trust me on this one) onward is definitely the strongest point of the album, and “Feeling Myself” and “The Last Man On Earth” are probably my favourite songs.

GENRE: ALTERNATIVE R&B
BANDCAMP: https://serpentwithfeet.bandcamp.com/album/deacon

again. it’s a new serpentwithfeet album. in an ordinary year this would be like №3.

i don’t think this is the strongest work serpentwithfeet has done, but it feels very confident and sure of itself, which i appreciate. “Sailors’ Superstition” is my favourite track, and “Fellowship” is also very good.

GENRE: ALTERNATIVE POP

this album is a *bit* of a mixed bag, and billie definitely has a particular sense of humour, so if you don’t “get” it then you won’t get it, especially since this album is less dancey than the previous one. my favourite tracks are “Lost Cause” and “Happier Than Ever”.

GENRE: POP PUNK

this is an extremely lesbian album and i like it because i am extremely lesbian. it’s like early Avril Lavigne crossed with the Cranberries and singing about being gay for your girlfriend. “Tomorrow” might be my favourite track and “You Don’t Own Me” goes way harder than it has any right to with that title and chorus.

GENRE: NEOCLASSICAL
BANDCAMP: https://timlinghaus.bandcamp.com/album/memory-sketches-ii

i really liked both of Tim Linghaus’s previous Memory Sketches albums and this is more of the same, which i don’t think is a bad thing. it feels a little more polished which makes it hard for me to say anything interesting about it, because i just put it on and am kind of carried away. “Maybe More Than You Knew” is a great sample of what this is like.

GENRE: NEOCLASSICAL

this album reminds me a bit of ‘Night’ by Ola Gjeilo, which is a very good thing. it’s less “night” and more “morning”, though. put on “Promise of Sun” and you’ll see what i mean.

very good album for just chilling; has a Windham Hill vibe.

GENRE: ALTERNATIVE POP

my first real exposure to CHVRCHES was ‘Love Is Dead’, which some CHVRCHES fans think is too poppy, so i wasn’t sure how i would like this one. after a few listens: i really like it. “Lullabies” is probably my favourite track; “Killer” makes the director’s cut worth it.

GENRE: INDIE POP

this album sounds kind of like a romcom in a good way, and it’s just incredibly easy to listen to. i didn’t have particularly high expectations for it, and when i was still listening to it on repeat after a month begrudgingly had to admit that it might actually be really good. “Nicer” is a brilliant track, and “All Our Friends are Splitting Up” is a very more‐mature love song.

GENRE: Dance

look i hate that my top album is an incredibly poppy dance album but this one earned it. basically all the songs are about the world ending or wanting to die or some shit, and it is both incredibly 2021 and really good dance music?? “Alice” is a good sample of what they’re capable of, and “Yatzy” is probably the saddest track i’ve heard this year.

you thought i was done but NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE E·P’S!!!