WIP

A selection of music I listened to enough to have an opinion about.

As the title suggests, my year seems to have featured a lot of throwbacks: a new Stereolab compilation of archival material; a glorious Helloween reunion of all things; Sleigh Bells actually making a great album again; and Pearl Charles channeling first ABBA and then Fleetwood Mac like it's 1977. (And that's not including the ABBA comeback which, unfortunately, won't make it to this list.)

At the same time, many great albums seem to be pushing the envelope or not quite sounding like anything: Low keeps reinventing themselves, Betcover!! is a delightful mix of influences hard to pin down, and when has shoegaze and emo sounded as fresh as the trio on Downfall of the Neon Youth and their respective albums?

Created by:

IronAngel | 16.11.2021

1.	Low - HEY WHAT (Ambient Pop/Glitch Pop/Slowcore. Not only have Low never made a bad album, they've also hit peaks steadily throughout their career: the flawless debut (1994), the ripened Things We Lost in the Fire (2001), the rocking The Great Destroyer (2005), the lush and exuberant C'mon (2011) - not to mention the best Christmas EP ever (1999). This latest stage in their career may be the biggest shift in gears, and it's a triumph. A lot like Double Negative (2018), HEY WHAT's celestial melodies are drenched in pulsating reverb. It's is harsher and louder than DN, and the clear vocals stand in stark contrast pretty high in the mix. Headphones mandatory. Highlights: White Horses, Hey, More. 4,5/5.)
2.	tricot - Jodeki (Math Rock/Indie Rock. One of the most exciting active bands, tricot just keep churning out great albums. Their blend of math rock with soaring pop melodies is inimitable. The album is a little less energetic this time, with several laid-back, midtempo indie rock songs and a lot of playful genre tourism. It’s still full of weird rhythms and meter changes, with banger after uplifting banger. Epic dog on cover too. Highlights: 言い尽くすトークします間も無 (Talk), 餌にもなれない (Walking), スーパーサマー (Super Summer), 上出来 (Jodeki) 4,5/5.)
3.	Circle - Henki [Collaboration] ([& Richard Dawson] Prog/Krautrock/Avant-Folk, or whatever. This is an excellent collaboration of one of the freakiest folkies and the most reliably interesting Finnish rascals. A concept album about plants, with Richard Dawson's laconic storytelling and hollering falsetto over Circle's pulsating, proggy groundwork. It is constantly engaging, surprising, and wonderfully organic. The opening track Cooksonia is a sombre ballad, and Ivy begins on a similar solemn note but soon grows bigger. More layers and dimensions get added, and the frantic Methuselah is a full-blown prog rock track. Bigger fans of Dawson have claimed it sounds more like his album than Circle's, but especially the last three tracks could be straight from some other Circle-related project, like Rättö & Lehtisalo or Eleonoora Rosenholm. The last track, Pitcher, is actually a reworked Circle song (Termostaatti) from a few years back. Unexpectedly, the collaboration seems to scale back both Circle's and Dawson's own eccentricities, making most of the album sound fairly normal, but it's no less effective for it. Fantastic songwriting all around. Highlights: Ivy, Methuselah, Lily. 4/5.)
4.	Pearl Charles - Magic Mirror (Soft Rock/Countrypolitan. The piano chords on the opening track, Only For Tonight, borrowed straight from Abba's Dancing Queen (1976), announce a shameless return to the late 70s. The rest of the album pays homage to Fleetwood Mac's holy trinity (1975-1979), and there's also echoes of Dolly Parton's pop/countrypolitan album Here You Come Again (1977). So it's a very specific sound, pretty much the opposite of cool in the popular music canon, with soft and clean guitar, lush strings and harmonising backing vocals. At first I thought the first track was a lucky fluke, but eventually the rest of the album clicked. None of it is as bombastic and in-your-face, but the songwriting turns out to be really good. It starts with a perfect 3-track run, settles into a comfortable pace with one or two weaker ballads, and finishes on a one-two-punch of excellent songs that reveal yet a new side to the sound. Grower of the year. Highlights: Only For Tonight, What I Need, As Long As You're Mine. 4/5.)
5.	Litku Klemetti - Kukkia muovipussissa (Art Pop/Synthpop. Litku Klemetti has been my favorite new Finnish artist of the last 5 years, and she keeps up her streak with a fifth great album in a row. What started as garage-inspired indie rock band and turned into anthemic schlager, The Doors-esque psychedelic rock and progressive pop, has now turned to synthpop inspired by Italo-Disco (and, it has to be said, the pop rock of legendary Finnish PMMP). The production is sleek, the songs are more straightforward than ever, but the inimitable sense for melody and quality lyricism is instantly recognisable. So far, the band peaked with Taika tapahtuu (2018) and Ding ding dong (2019), but this is still mostly as good as the first two albums. Highlights: Google Earth Rock, Kaikki mitä oon halunnut, Tour de France. 4/5.)
6.	Stereolab - Electrically Possessed (Switched On Vol. 4) (Art Pop? Fourth installation in a series of compilations that wrap up rare, sold-out or otherwise fragmentary releases of their back catalogue. Stereolab have gone through many phases in their career. The material on this compilation is all (I think) from the 2000s, sort of spacey, loungey electronica and art pop. It's not the band at its most visceral, and the quality is a little uneven, but there's an album's worth of stellar material here. Stereolab is a band that works well on compilations, the drawn-out, hypnotic jams bouncing from one style to the next in the background. It's hard to rate this as an "album," but it's almost two hours of Stereolab. Highlights: Solar Throw-Away (original version), Dimension M2, L'exotisme interieur, Outer Bongolia. 4/5.)
7.	Tokenainamae - タイムマシンが壊れる前に (Shoegaze/Noise Pop. Rerecording of their debut – I never heard them before, so I don’t know if it was necessary, but the result is a blistering, shimmering noise pop album with bloopy keyboards, guitars tuned low, and sweet j-poppy vocals. The opening track is among the year’s catchiest, and the second track is no worse. The rest of the album slows down a bit, but with a runtime of 36 minutes, you can just hit replay to get that rush again. Pretty, sad, nostalgic, euphoric. Highlights: 少女の官能基, 電気信号の妹. 4/5.)
8.	Parannoul - To See the Next Part of the Dream (Shoegaze/Emo. Not sure what exactly about this album made blow up the way it did: at the end of the day, shoegaze and emo revival bands are dime a dozen. And yet: Parannoul does his thing so well. The opening track has the oomph of Sunny Day Real Estate’s In Circles combined with the dreamy fuzz of a shoegaze nerd making music in his bedroom. I think there’s a nod to Fishmans there too, in the great synths. A bit on the long side. Highlights: Beautiful World, Analog Sentimentalism, Age of Fluctuation. 4/5.)
9.	Spellling - The Turning Wheel (Baroque Pop. Baroque also in the sense of sprawling abundance. I’ve seen so many names dropped as points of reference, but the album moves from style to style so rapidly that comparisons can’t capture it. Yes, there’s Kate Bush in the vocals of the title track, Tori Amos in the chorus of The Future, Vespertine-era Björk in some of the dramatic string arrangements and electronics. She is like Weyes Blood in writing ambitious anthems that deliberately tap into a formless nostalgia, and her plucky, whimsical irreverence is kin to Joanna Newsom. Her voice can be a bit jarring, and not all the experiments work as well, but the album’s treasure trove of fun ideas. Highlights: Turning Wheel, Awaken, Boys at School. 4/5.)
10.	Midwife - Luminol (Slowcore/Ambient Pop/Shoegaze. Desolate, fuzzy, minimalistic and gorgeous. The dreamy vocals and sparse melodies might appeal to fans of Grouper, but most songs are built around plodding guitar riff that rather reminds me of Codeine or True Widow. The riff on Enemy could, in fact, be on a classic doom album. There's not a lot going on in a given song, but it's not-a-lot with conviction. Highlights: Enemy, 2020, Promise Ring. 4/5.)
11.	Juçara Marçal - Delta Estácio blues (Vanguarda paulista/Experimental Rock. Solo album from Metá Metá's singer. Abrasive, rhythmic, exciting art rock. Despite some glitch and indistrual effects, it sounds grounded, even rootsy. The first six tracks are a non-stop banger cavalcade. Highlights: Ladra, Vi de relance a coroa, Sem cais. 4/5.)
12.	Squid - Bright Green Field (Experimental Rock/Post-Punk. Squid trade in experimental rock that owes to post-punk, math rock, even krautrock. Their angular riffs and almost spoken word vocals invite comparisons to fellow Englishment Black Country, New Road and black midi (below), but Squid have a clearer rock sensibility. I even saw them compared to late King Crimson, and it clicked: they do groove like Elephant Talk and sear like Indiscipline. While the aforementioned two bands have a sound I like better, in theory, the songwriting on Bright Green Field is just plain better. Highlight: Narrator. 4/5.)
13.	Fievel Is Glauque - God's Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess (Jazz Pop/Progressive Pop. A delightful and playful hodge-podge of influences. Clearly they draw from the same well of psychedelic pop and yé-yé of the sixties that Stereolab channel, but with a jazzier and catchier touch. There is something unfinished and amateurish about the whole thing, from the murky production to the short songs that are almost sketches of a single idea, which adds to the charm but makes me uncertain about its rating. Highlights: Decoy, Bring Me to Silence, Unfinding. 3,5-4/5.)
14.	Darkside - Spiral (Experimental/Art Rock. Another project from prolific Nicolas Jaar (aka Against All Logic). Where AAL is rooted in the clubbing scene and albums under Jaar's own name lean towards ambient electronic, this is an organic and ritualistic album, built around looping guitar riffs and vocals rooted in psychedelic art rock - but it's rock only in the sense that AAL is house, e.g. a deconstruction and reshuffling of the genre's core elements. Jaar's trademark is close attention to detail, and these tracks, too, are highly textured, hypnotic and abstract pieces. I'm torn between ratings: the songs themselves are 3,5, but the sound is well worth 4 stars. Highlights: The Limit, Lawmaker, I'm the Echo. 3,5/5.)
15.	Namasenda - Unlimited Ammo (Hyperpop. Namasenda is on the more conventional side of PC Music, with emphasis on sugar-coated melodies and a clean, glittering sound, rather than any abrasive experimentation. This is the utopian futurism that I like about early hyperpop: unapologetic focus on the essence of pop music. On average, it's a bit patchier than her 2017 EP hot_babe_93, but it's also over double the runtime. Great album that leaves room to improve. I think it's between Namasenda and Hannah Diamond to release the definitive hyperpop album that so many projects have teased but not delivered. Highlights: Steel, Unlimited Ammo, No Regrets, Shots Fired. 3,5/5.)
16.	Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Candy Rancer (J-Pop. Another solid album in a fairly consistent career. Really strong start with three hard-hitting, weird electropop tracks. The album settles into a more familiar, sugar-sweet J-Pop groove in the middle, does some new things toward the end: Jumping Up is straight up eurodance, and World Fabrication is mature jazz pop track. The album has fewer gigantic choruses or other immediately memorable hooks, but on average the songs feel more fully realized. Highlights: World Fabrication, Candy Racer, Gum Gum Girl, Kimigaiinekuretara. 3,5/5.)
17.	Helloween - Helloween (Power Metal. As good as you could reasonably expect from a nostalgic reunion album: it sounds like Helloween and has several cuts that could be on a best-of compilation. The collaboration of vocalists works really well. Especially Kiske is incredible shape, and Deris complements him. (Hansen is sadly past his prime, but we knew this already.) Out For the Glory opens the album with a riff and vocal melody that could be on Keepers, while some of the songs (Rise Without Chains) could be off The Dark Ride. The album is unquestionably too long, with some mediocre tracks (e.g. Down in the Dumps). If I listen to power metal these days, it's almost exclusively a few old favorites, but this just might make it into rotation. Highlights: Skyfall, Out For the Glory, Fear of the Fallen, Rise Without Chains, Robot King. 3,5/5.)
18.	Dordeduh - Har (Progressive/Black Metal. I guess there was no point trying to beat the debut in its own game, so they decided lean harder into modern prog. The sound is a little too sleek for my tastes, but the songwriting is still excellent. 3,5/5.)
19.	Kayo Dot - Moss Grew On The Swords And Plowshares Alike (Avant-Garde/Progressive Metal. Toby Driver returns to metal after a few spins at synth-laden art rock. It's got moments of straightforward metal, atmospheric passages and sweeping proggy melodies. At times it's as heavy as Hubardo, but just as often it's as pretty as Coffins on Io. 3,5/5.)
20.	Converge - Bloodmoon: I [Collaboration] ([& Chelsea Wolfe] Atmospheric Sludge. Not exactly the best of both worlds, but it’s more than the sum of its parts. I like that it sounds warmer and more down-to-earth than your typical massive, echoey atmosludge. It’s oppressive, but on an intimate scale. Bit overlong and uneven, but the highlights are absolutely crushing. Highlights: Viscera of Men, Crimson Stone. 3,5/5.)
21.	Khemmis - Deceiver (Epic Doom Metal. Catchy, clean doom with killer vocal melodies. On paper, they should sound really epic like Atlantean Kodex or While Heaven Wept, but something about their light touch and heavy metal riffage makes it sound like they’re not quite earnest and committed to the cheese (for better and worse). Harsh vocals are unnecessary but inoffensive. Highlight: every song is good, tbh, but let’s say The Astral Road. 3,5/5.)
22.	Hooded Menace - The Tritonus Bell (Death Doom/Heavy Metal. Always reliably great, this time with a slight twist. I don’t think I’ve heard a similar combination of death doom and heavy metal before, but it sounds comfortably familiar and makes sense. Highlight: Chime Diabolicus. 3,5/5.)
23.	Mabe Fratti - Será que ahora podremos entendernos (Experimental/art pop/electroacoustic chamber folk. Mexican/Guatemalan cellist and singer combining electronics and electric guitar with her core sound to create haunting edifices which veer into ambient, post-rock and dream pop territory. Sometimes it's a bit Slowdive, sometimes GY!BE, but often just itself. Despite the description, it's not flimsy or fey at all; there's a there's a looming anxiousness and dissonance that elevates the music beyond pretty. The album starts with fairly conventional and accessible songs, but dissolves as it progresses. Highlights: Aire, Hacia el Vacío. 3,5/5.)
24.	Bastarda & João de Sousa - Fado (Portuguese Folk/Chamber Music. Polish trio teamed up with Portuguese singer-songwriter to create intimate chamber music interpretations of traditional Portuguese songs. Guitar, cello, and various clarinets weave a gentle but dynamic foundation to de Sousa’s controlled, soft voice. A real grower, with expert mixing, too. Highlights: Livre, Gondarém. 3,5/5.)
25.	Grouper - Shade (Ambient Folk. Haunting, fragile mood pieces with gently strummed guitar and almost whispered vocals. Musical ASMR, pretty much. This is Grouper's folkiest album for a while: there are actual songs, lightly drizzled with ambient sauce. In terms of songwriting, it's closest to Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (my favorite of hers), but the sound is much cleaner and nicer: sad, rather than ominous. It begins with the murkiest, most ambient track and ends with a pretty mainstream contemporary folk ballad, with clean production and a higher volume. I suppose there's some symbolism there, ending on an uplifting note of relief. 3,5/5.)
26.	Torres - Thirstier (Alt-Rock. Torres' debut was really important to me, with its combination of fuzzy indie rock, hearbreaking Americana and shimmering slowcore touches. The ferocious sophomore Sprinter was a more focused indication of where she wanted to go, but every subsequent album has moved farther from that first magic. As she's gained confidence and found her place and ballsy voice (musically, and in real life), some of the fragility has also gone. This is a cocksure, straightforward rock album and a sort of return to Sprinter-esque form, but not quite as good. Better than the last two, though, and some powerful rock anthems alternating with weaker tracks. Highlights: Don't Go Puttin Wishes in My Head, Thristier, Are You Sleepwalking? 3,5/5.)
27.	Sleigh Bells - Texis (Noise Pop/Electropop. Over the years, their debut Treats has evolved from a guilty pleasure to a cult classic that anticipated the PC Music/bubblegum bass fad by half a decade. It's still top shelf stuff for sticky, sweet and abrasive pop. Texis is more middle-of-the-road electropop (with distorted guitar), but the songwriting is finally almost up to the debut's standards and bursting with joy. Their second best album. Highlights: Sweet75, Locust Laced, Hummingbird Bomb. 3,5/5.)
28.	Natalia Lafourcade - Un canto por México vol. 2 (Mexican Traditional Music. Lafourcade has been on a streak of recording traditional Latin American music. (Well, I say "traditional", but I guess this is the equivalent of Tin Pan Alley in the US, i.e. early popular music.) There's strings, brass, accordion, acoustic guitar of course, and a bunch of collaborators. The arrangements, performance, recording, everything is top quality. I recommend the entire series (Musas vols. 1-2 and these two), but this is as good a place to start as any. Highlights: Nada es verdad, Tú sí sabes quererme. 3,5/5.)
29.	Virginia Wing - Private Life (Indietronica/Neo-Psychedelia/Art Pop. Found the band through a Broadcast fan group, and the lead singer does have a similar, simultaneously wide-eyed and innocent yet laconic and melancholy (and British!) sound that Trish Keenan was much loved for. The music is much kookier and more dancable though, with a fairly abrasive everything-and-the-kitchen-sink philosophy to collecting sounds. Funky horns, woodwinds, psychedelic synths etc. Surprised this hasn't gained more attention, it's really cool. Highlights: Lucky Coin, Soft Fruit, Moon Turn Tides. 3,5/5.)
30.	Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou (Psychedelic Pop. Tailor-made for fans of Stereolab - the lounge-inspired end of their spectrum, rather than the krautrock. My kids called this "moon music", and some of it (e.g. In Cucina) could be 60s Easy Listening/Space Age Pop like The Three Suns or Esquivel. The album opens with two really strong, groovy songs and ends on a highlight. The stuff in between is good, but it's more exciting for its style than its songwriting. I mean, my immediate reaction to Wider Than Itself is "awesome Broadcast vibes!", rather than "what a great tune" (it's nice enough though). But still, I love their style. Highlights: Big Moonlight (Ookii Gekkou), Phase One Million, The Lift. 3,5/5.)
31.	DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - The Makin' Magic II Album (Outsider House. DJ Sabrina continues her (his? no idea!) nostalgic house tracks that sample, or remind of, late 90s and early 00s popular music. It takes the cliché and the gauche and turns it into a warm hug. It's hard to rate two 2-hour albums that drop on the same day; this isn't music for attentive and analytic listening, but rather something to be submerged in. Highlights: Being Alone, Airplane Song (Welcome Home). 3,5/5.)
32.	DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - The Other Realm (Outsider House. The darker twin to Makin' Magic II, there's more cold synths (I think; didn't count) more male vocal samples in favor of female. But ultimately, they're not that different. I prefer the vibe of MMII, but the songs are equal. Highlights: Sabrina Makes Me Feel, We Go On. 3,5/5.)
33.	Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature (Singer-Songwriter/Chamber Folk. The album opens with some contemporary Americana, a comfortable thumping riff on electric guitar. Strings and piano enter, but Michelangelo remains a pretty vanilla, if beautiful, song. The second track, New Bikini, promises more: it's a floating, melancholy song with sophisti-poppy saxophone flourishes and surfy guitar. The third track has a long spoken word passage, gradually growing into a song as instruments come in. The final track is a 7-minute ambient piece with sax, drones and chirping birds. The album has an identity crisis: half the time it wants to be an atmospheric post-rock album (I imagine Talk Talk is an influence, although it sounds nothing like that), but then it sounds like vanilla singer-songwriter stuff again. It is such a gorgeous, serene album, but could have a few more great songs. Highlights: New Bikini, Ambiguous Norway. 3,5/5.)
34.	Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Hip Hop. My relationship to hip hop is really ambivalent. Now and again I get excited about an album, but I never seem to know how to judge it. Many highly praised albums do nothing for me (e.g. Kendrick Lamar). I guess I'm looking for a good sound, something that sets a mood and works on the background, and a rapper with a pleasant inflection and flow. It's all here. Simz' British intonation feels instantly familiar and comfortable (my gateway drug was trip hop, and specifically Martina Topley-Bird on Maxinquaye). The lush, cinematic, funky backing tracks would work on their own, too. Highlights: Introvert, I Love You, I Hate You, Little Q, Pt. 2, Protecting My Energy. 3,5/5.)
35.	Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises (Third Stream. Mostly a Floating Points album, with Sanders providing sax improvisations (I imagine) and LSO bringing, well, the orchestration. The album is a single piece separated into movements, all connected by a childlike piano motif that repeats throughout while other instruments develop the theme and come into dialogue with it. The arrangements are top notch, the sound is pristine. Ultimately, I feel like the composition is little bit ho-hum and drawn-out: it works well enough both on the background and on closer inspection, but if it wasn’t Pharoah Sanders on the album, I’m not sure it would have stood out among all the ambient, modern classical and jazz hybrids out there. Lovely album, but no Journey in Satchidananda. 3,5/5.)
36.	Portico Quartet - Monument (Nu Jazz. Based on their s/t (2012), I associated the group with jazz-flavored downtempo chillout music. I wasn't wrong, but this time they're clearly jazzier. Superficial for hardcore jazz fans, maybe, but it's very pretty and well produced. There's always interesting percussion work going on, so the album doesn't feels more engaging and energetic than ambient, but it's got that background music quality (for better and worse). Highlights: Impressions, Monument, A.O.E. 3,5/5.)
37.	Portico Quartet - Terrain (ECM Jazz/Post-Minimalism. A more cohesive work than Monument, with three longer tracks and mostly acoustic instrumentation. Closer to ECM jazz than downtempo/electronica. Hard to say which I prefer: I like the sound of this better, and the best moments I think are better, but thanks to the repetitive, minimalist approach, there's fewer good ideas over the runtime. The second part is really good. 3,5/5.)
38.	Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee At State's End! (Post-Rock. I mean, it’s more GY!BE. It… does all sound pretty similar, doesn’t it? Expect the usual drones and field recordings before getting down to business. That said, this feels more memorable than the last few albums, once it gets to the small transitional piece, Fire at Static Valley. It’s gorgeous (although I swear it’s plagiarising Find Your Way from Final Fantasy VIII). The rest of the second half is great too, but the first half is boring. Highlight: Fire at Static Valley. 3,5/5.)
39.	Skepticism - Companion (Funeral Doom/Death Doom. Sounds like Skepticism, and ain't nothing wrong with that. The opener is surprisingly majestic, the second one is as crushing as the best of them, and the sprawling closer is quite interesting. Solid, fun doom that's easy on the ears. Highlights: Calla, The Intertwined, The Swan and the Raven. 3,5/5.)
40.	Ophis - Spew Forth Odium (Death Doom. Ophis are one of the best pure death-doomsters of the 21st century. They are very no-nonsense, traditional without being retro, with enough melodies to evoke emotion but not feel prissy. Compared to the their first two albums (I missed the next two), this feels more melodic and melancholy, less dirty - but it's not like they reinvented themselves. 3,5/5.)
41.	Black Country, New Road - For the First Time (Experimental Rock/Post-Rock. Creeping and angular music clearly inspired by Slint, but that skeletal frame is layered with horns, satisfyingly crunchy guitars, and a bombast and dynamism foreign to the math/post-rock pioneers. Sound is fantastic, while the songwriting falls slightly short of greatness. Highlight: Opus. 3,5/5.)
42.	Danny L Harle - Harlecore (EDM/Trance. This a ridiculous concept album: four fictional DJs with their own styles host their own rooms in the Harlecore club, and they’re all playing some kind of unironic 90s re-enactment. I never thought I’d feel nostalgic for eurodance and Scooter, but fuck this is good. This is exactly the kind of stuff I’d hear as kid in the 90s or turn of the millenium. Highlights: like half of the album, but On a Mountain, Do You Remember, and the hilarious Car Song. 3,5/5.)
43.	Circuit des Yeux - -io (Neoclassical Darkwave/Art Pop. Unusual in that it has a very theatrical, darkwave-influenced sound on the surface, but the songs can be quite bouncy and uplifting. Reminds me a little of Anna von Hausswolff's best album Ceremony, before she went all spooky. I spotted some Scott Walker comparisons, and her vocal style is actually quite similar; Walking Toward Winter could be on Scott 3. Fascinating album that needs more spins, but rating on gut-feeling for now. Highlights: Sculpting the Exodus, Neutron Star. 3,5/5.)
44.	Needlepoint - Walking Up That Valley (Canterbury Scene Progressive Rock. Old-school prog rock. It’s not flashy or overly ambitious, going rather for the small-form psychedelia of the late 60s. One of the best-sounding albums of the year: organic, soft and warm. Highlights: I Offered You the Moon, Walking Up That Valley, Web of Worry. 3,5/5.)
45.	Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine Of Hell (Singer-songwriter. Ballads stripped down to piano, guitar, and voice. There is some obvious Tori Amos worship here, which I appreciate (Body is better than anything from Tori in years). Never noticed before, but Rundle's nasal whine also sounds like Thom Yorke. The album is very understated and lacks the dynamics which gave ERR her crossover appeal, but the songwriting is really solid. Highlights: Body, Dancing Man. 3,5/5,)
46.	Asian Glow - Cull Ficle (Lo-Fi/Emo. I don't know if the band name is a pun, because many have remarked this sounds like The Microphones' The Glow Pt. 2. Only, it rocks harder and has the moving beauty of emo at its best. Big, noisy, murky and warm sound, can't help loving it. I think it might grow on me more with further listens, but right now seems front-loaded and a bit too long. Highlights: 3,5/5.)
47.	Parannoul/Asian Glow/sonhos tomam conta - Downfall of the Neon Youth (Shoegaze/Emo. A split between three bands who all released great albums this year, this is showcases the state of the art of where emo and shoegaze is going. Parannoul and sonhos tomam conta offer pretty much more of the same, but Asian Glow drop the lo-fi folkiness of Cull Ficle in favor of harsher (post-)emo, sonically closer to the other two bands. For a split, the album is amazingly cohesive, with a natural flow and a shared cold, almost shrill sound. Highlights: Insomnia (Parannoul), one May Be Harming (Asian Glow). 3,5/5.)
48.	Erika de Casier - Sensational (Contemporary R&B. This is one of the sleekest, classiest, most consistent and collected chillout R&B I’ve heard. It feels silly to criticise de Casier for showing too much restraint, because that’s clearly her thing. The songs are all very similar, and that’s part of the charm. Still, I’m left yearning for a rough edge to latch on to, some cross-genre curiosity, a moment of letting loose. Trying to analyse the album, I feel like I should rate it lower, but I’ve listened to it a LOT. Clearly it fills a niche. Highlights: Someone to Chill With, Better Than That, Make My Day. 3,5/5.)
49.	Moin - Moot! (Experimental Rock. An instrumental album of slow, lurching deconstruction of post-punk or post-hardcore. It's highly atmospheric and menacing, with vocal samples played over murky and menacing creeping riffs. Highlights: No to Gods, No to Sunsets; Right Is Alright, Wrong Is to Belong. 3,5/5.)
50.	Nite Jewel - No Sun (Electronic/Ambient Pop. A sparse, delicate but cold album of meditations on divorce and life thereafter, backed by minimalist synths and plenty of silence in between. It picks up some jazzy elements towards the end. Highlights: When There Is No Sun, This Time, #14, Anymore. 3,5/5.)
51.	Kacey Musgraves - Star-Crossed (Folk Pop/Singer-Songwriter. Kacey Musgraves' wholesome girl-next-door country pop has been well-loved by music nerds and (I suppose) the mainstream alike since 2013. Which, in itself, is surprising, but I suppose is thanks to her excellent songwriting - and despite the conventionality of her music, she's always been critical of the conservative attitudes of the country scene. Golden Hour (2018) flirted with modern, synthetic sounds (even a disco track), but this time Musgraves moves even further from Americana. It's a heartfelt and heart-wrenching divorce album. Beautiful and wistful. I almost want to rate this higher, because there are a handful of great tracks, and the rest is pretty good, but it's still weaker than her previous albums. Highlights: Breadwinner, There is a Light, Star-Crossed, Cherry Blossom. 3/5.)
52.	Yukika - timeabout, (K-Pop/City Pop. On this 19-minute EP, the Japanese singer living in South Korea continues the successful fusion of modern K-Pop and 80s J-Pop. It's not quite as good as the debut, losing some of the City Pop inspiration in favor of straight-up dance pop (on Secret), but it still sounds classy and breezy. It's short, but every track is good. Highlights: Time Travel, Insomnia. 3,5/5.)
53.	La Lá - Mito (Nueva canción latinoamericana. A slightly jazzy, folky Peruvian singer-songwriter with a light and melodic touch and some MPB/tropicalia vibes. Highlights: Morir Soñando, Amistad, Amada. 3/5.)
54.	Marisa Monte - Portas (MPB/Baroque Pop. Soft and relaxed Brazilian popular music, with the typical influences from folk, samba, bossa nova etc. Montes’s first album in a decade, and this could pretty much have been released at any point in the last four decades. The production is almost too clean, and some songs are safe to the point of parody (e.g. Calma), but it’s too pretty to really be an issue. Highlights: Você não liga, Espaçonaves, Vagalumes. 3/5.)
55.	Marissa Nadler - The Path of the Clouds (Singer-songwriter/Contemporary Folk. This is somewhat stranger and more going on instrumentally than on Strangers (2016), her last album I heard. But it's still the same lush, dreamy folk, Marissa's voice moving upon the face of the waters. A bit too consistently pretty and mellow to really grab me. Highlights: The Path of the Clouds, If I Could Breathe Underwater. 3/5.)
56.	Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready (Neoclassical Darkwave/Avant-Folk. Lingua Ignota at its most approachable, musically. Moody organ drones and neofolk touches, fantastically expressive vocals, neat contrast between the beautiful and harsh bits. It is overly dramatic, which might bother some. For me, lyrics don't really add much value to the experience, so I'm not the ideal audience. Clearly, Nico is a major influence; the first track could be off of Desertshore of The Marble Index. Maybe also Soport Aeternus (on Repent Now Confess Now) and Diamanda Galas (see her Saint of the Pit). The most conventional song here, Pennsylvania Furnace, is also the best: a timeless piano piece that could be from any era. Man is Like a Spring Flower is neofolk tune that, in the context of the album, is almost catchy. Overall a bit uneven, and songs drag on too long. Highlights: Pennsylvania Furnace, Man is Like a Spring Flower. 3/5.)
57.	IOSONOUNCANE - IRA (Post-Industrial/Darkwave. Really dramatic and melancholy Italian music rooted in art rock songwriting, despite the brooding and abrasive sounds. Mandatory comparisons: first track could be Ulver on Shadows of the Sun, the jarring second track is like a less dense, more haunting version of Swans, and the third takes a turn toward the noodling of Radiohead’s Amnesiac. Goes in many directions from there. It’s almost two hours, though. Probably much better than I had time and energy to recognize. Highlights: Hiver, Nuit, Piel. 3/5.)
58.	Heimat - Zwei (Minimal Wave/Art Pop/Post-Punk. Darkwavey, vaguely ethnic-sounding minimal synth tunes with vocals reminiscent of Dead Can Dance and some martial industrial beats. Highlights: Ita, Unterwegs. 3/5.)
59.	Zutomayo - Gusare (J-Pop/Rock. Bright, heartfelt and joyous pop-rock with a handful of other influences, a bit like Polkadot Stingray, Gesu no kiwami otome, or even Sheena Ringo (though not as bluesy or rocking). Some cool rhythms, funky riffs and top tier vocals, if a little too long and uneven. Highlights: uh, well the third and fifth tracks? 3/5.)
60.	Pom Poko - Cheater (Noise Pop/Indie Rock. Noisy and upbeat Norwegian pop/rock with punk energy and a mathy edge. The songs move somewhere between Charly Bliss (Like a Lady, My Candidacy) and Sleigh Bells (Andy Go to School, Look), and the girly vocals also invite those comparisons. Highlights: Like a Lady, Look. 3/5.)
61.	Yoo Doo Right - Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose (Psychedelic/Space Rock. With a band named after a Can song, you would be right to expect swirling cosmic jams. It merges loud post-rock build-ups, some pummeling post-punkish drums and occasional vocals, and shimmering ambient passages and some classic psych/krautrock riffs. Highlights: Presto, Presto, Bella’s Dream, 1N914. 3/5.)
62.	Sturle Dagsland - Sturle Dagsland (Experimental. Possibly the weirdest album of the year. Vocals that are equal parts intriguing and off-putting, a blend of genres from avant-folk to electronica. The first track could be Igorrr, and the second might be sampling Enigma for all I know! There's also some Björk and Sámi joik. The tracks are mostly too short and it lacks some cohesion or central push, but there are highly moving moments amid all the novelty value. Highlights: Harajuku, Waif. 3/5.)
63.	otay:onii - 冥冥 (Míng Míng) (Post-Industrial/Electronic. Ominous pieces of abstract horror and frustration, otay:onii features influences of Chinese traditional music, droning ambient and mechanized industrial passages, and fragments of actual songs. No single comparison could explain it, but I can see fans of late 90s Swans or Lingua Ignota digging this. The dark ambient/post-industrial is nice, but it's the most successful with the "proper" songs. Highlights: Child No.22, Blackheart Breakables. 3/5.)
64.	Betcover!! - 時間 (Art Rock. A unique combination of buzzing (post-)punk guitars and pounding drums, a lo-fi production, and plenty of jazz (rock/pop) influences. It's mixed so that although it should be loud and raw in theory, the end result is fuzzy, warm and soothing. Highlights あいどる (that riff!), piano. 3/5.)
65.	Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8 (Nu Jazz/Avantgarde Jazz. A bit like that Floating Points/Sanders album, sax over some ambient backgrounds. Very beautiful, although I like it best at its most jazz and least ambient. Highlights: Space 2, Space 4. 3/5.)
66.	Fuubutsushi - Setsubun/Yamawarau/Natsukashii (ECM/Chamber Jazz. Three albums in a seasonal quartet. (The first, fall album titled Fuubutsushi, dropped in 2020.) As you might expect, the albums get progressively livelier and lusher as the year progresses to summer. If you’re into the ECM-style jazz drawing on classical and fusion in equal measure (e.g. Pat Metheny and Eberhard Weber), you could do worse than this series. Where ECM acts are often very cool and urban, this series is (as you would expect, thematically) more organic and closer to nature, whether due to nature samples or just the instrumentation (violin, guitar, different brass and woodwinds, and spare vocals). Each album is a holistic experience, difficult to pick highlights from. 3/5.)
67.	Green-House - Music for Living Spaces (Ambient/New Age. As the name suggests, this calm background music for plants and plant-lovers, a sort of modern take on Mort Garson's Mother Earth's Plantasia (1976). Could also be some JRPG soundtrack for villages and peaceful exploration. Lovely for what it is. 3/5.)
68.	Andy Stott - Never the Right Time (UK Bass. Pretty cold and sparse, nocturnal mood music. Elements of ambient and dub, with ethereal female vocals. Highlight: Hard to Tell. 3/5.)
69.	Rochelle Jordan - Play With the Changes (Alternative R&B/UK Bass. Burial meets Aaliyah. Clearly, this should be dance music for sexy London clubs, but something about its mood calls for headphones and night time. There could be a 4-star EP in here, but half of it is filler. Highlights: All Along, Dancing Elephants, Love You Good, Next 2 You. 3/5.)
70.	Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant (Neo-Soul. A bit psychedelic and a bit jazzy, this album is all about its smooth but slightly unsettling mood. Highlights: Chilvary Is Not Dead, Red Room. 3/5.)
71.	Greentea Peng - Man Made (Neo-Soul. Very trippy, laid-back and psychedelic soul album. If Hiatus Kaiyote flirt with jazz, Greentea Peng goes for trip hop. Fairly long and uneven album, but perfect background music for a variety of pleasurable activities. Highlights: Kali V2, Jimtastic Blues, Nah It Ain't The Same. 3/5.)
72.	CFCF - memoryland (Electronic Dance Music/Indietronica. An eclectic melting pot of 2000s indie music tropes: there's fuzzy alt-rock guitars, house, techno, indie pop and whatnot. It all comes together in a pretty chill, urban-sounding dance music album you probably wouldn't dance to. Highlights: Night/Day/Work/Home, Self Service 1999, Life is Perfecto. 3/5.)
73.	Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World (Synthpop. I did not care for their EP last year, but Magdalena Bay's debut album is much better. Extremely well-produced synthpop that sounds pretty timeless rather than a 80s throwback. Light, sweet, ethereal (ugh) yet cool. I like their style more than I like their songs, though. It's only 46 minutes but starts feeling samey, Highlights: You Lose!, Hysterical Us. 3/5.)
74.	Laura Mvula - Pink Noise (Synth Pop/Dance Pop. 80s-inspired, bright and stadium-sized pop anthems. Sort of a bad bitch vibe. Mvula's powerful voice exudes confidence; even when there is sensuality and sexuality in there, it is a challenge issued. Visual references to Grace Jones, but musically closer to Dua Lipa. The album feels coherent, from musical style and production to visuals and lyrics. Doesn't quite cross the treshold of greatness, but a worthy addition to the recent 80s pop/disco revival. Highlights: Remedy, Magical, Got Me. 3/5.)
75.	Marina Sena - De primeira (R&B/MPB. A modern, sexy, R&B-infused take on Brazilian pop. Highlights: Me Toca, Por Supuesto. 3/5.)
76.	Clara Luciani - Cœur (French Pop/Disco. Second album. A few highly dancable, cooler than-you disco bangers, and some filler. Highlights: Le reste, Respire encore. 3/5.)
77.	Portrayal Of Guilt - We Are Always Alone (Screamo/Black Metal. Some pretty vile, crusty screamo that sounds like sludgy black metal. They do their thing pretty well, and already released another album this year (but half an hour is enough for me, to be honest). 3/5.)
78.	Kayoko Yoshizawa - Akaboshi aoboshi (Art Pop. Jazzy chamber pop for grown-ups. Great voice, a few very nice songs, a few too many that don't stand out. Highlights: Service Area, New Hong Kong, Oni. 3/5.)
79.	Sweet Trip - A Tiny House, in Secret Speeches, Polar Equals (Dream Pop/Indietronica. Catchy sonic candy. For all its apparent futurism (glitchiness, cross-genre exploration), it feels a bit like something that could have been done 10 years ago. It's got that same twee, hipster nostalgia that M83 (Saturdays=Youth) and Beach House trade in. I'm usually not one to complain about this (because I'm a twee hipster), but something about the aesthetic feels dated. A few brilliant upbeat bangers though: Tiny Houses, Chapters. 3/5.)
80.	Kero Kero Bonito - Civilisation (Synthpop/Indietronica. Two EPs in one release, plays essentially like an LP. KKB at their most mature (and IMO best), it’s classic melancholy/twee synth-electropop with occasional winks to bubblegum bass. Highlights: The Princess and the Clock, Well Rested, Battle Lines. 3/5.)
81.	GFOTY - Femmedorm (Bubblegum Bass. GFOTY may never make a great album. After GFOTYBUCKS (2017), it has been disappointment after disappointment. This album has nothing on the level of Tongue, Friday Night or Paper Boyfriend. There’s still something arresting about her aesthetic; she’s the musical equivalent of shitposting. She’s funny, kooky and catchy in a way that seems hard to criticize – even when it fails (ugh Brand New Bra). This album has the best (worst?) ratio of how (not) good it objectively is to how much I’ve listened to it! Highlights: Fish in Lake, To the Party, Innocent.)
82.	Vylet Pony - Cutiemarks (And the Things That Bind Us) (EDM/Electropop. This is a weird phenomenon: brony music from the awkward corners of the internet hitting the top of RYM charts with a splash before getting rating bombed. If you can get past the extra-musical trappings (or if you just rly love My Little Pony), there is some brilliant stuff hidden here. Stylistically, the album goes from hyperpop to alt-rock and pop punk to drum and bass or whatever, and not all of it works. Honestly, at least half the tracks on this bloated album are filler. But the best tracks are among the best pop of the year. Doubt I'll ever listen to this in full again, but dem highlights: Antonymph, Lesbian Ponies With Weapons, Wayfarer, Nonexistent Meet-Cute. 3/5.)
83.	dltzk - Teen Week (Hyperpop/Digicore. Obnoxious internet music by a teenager that I should have no business understanding (well, I guess that applies to most of hyperpop/bubblegum bass). The few best tracks, which are when he comes closest to letting loose like 100 gecs or w/e, are absolute bops though. Highlights: homeswitcher, 52 blue mondays. 3/5.)
84.	Radio Supernova - Takaisin (Shoegaze. This is some nice, old-school shoegaze in Finnish. Instead of the dreamy, shimmering dream pop end of the spectrum, they lean toward post-punk with a cold, echoey sound and a driving rock energy. Highlights: Tammikuu, Väkivaltaa. 3/5.)
85.	Lucid Express - Lucid Express (Dream Pop/Shoegaze. 2021, 1991, who knows? Sugary sweet female vocals, tinkling guitars and synths, punctuated with bouts of furious distortion. Like an early Slowdive or late, more straightforward Cocteau Twins album that both rocks and pops harder than either. Brings very little new to the genre, but they pull it off like pros. Highlights: Hotel 65, Prime of Pride. 3/5.)
86.	Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage (Chamber pop. This is a very low-key affair with typical modern Cave reciting his lines over Ellis’s atmospheric backgrounds. As a big Nick Cave fan, I needed to include this, but honestly it kind of just washed over me. After the terrifying grip of Skeleton Tree, Ghosteen felt very meh, and I couldn’t muster interest for this one either. The time and mood was not right. It’s very sleek, pretty and professional, though. 3/5.)
87.	Hélène Vogelsinger - Reminiscence (Progressive Electronic/Ambient. Very minimalistic and repetitive prog-electronic, as impenetrable as the alien monolith on the cover. I like the genre more on the progressive side (e.g. Tangerine Dream's Force Majeure, whereas this is very much Phaedra), but it's a nice album. 3/5.)
88.	Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood (American Primitivism, except not very primitive. Virtuosic instrumental pieces on acoustic guitar. Very sunny and serene. 3/5.)
89.	Birds of Passage - The Last Garden (Ambient/Ambient Pop. Drawn out ambient pieces with echoey, half-whispered female vocals. 3/5.)
90.	Epica - Omega (Symphonic Metal. I have a soft spot for Epica (well Simone anyhow), and this is pretty good Epica. 3/5.)
91.	Jess And The Ancient Ones - Vertigo (Psychedelic Rock. Although they draw from heavy psych and occult rock, this album lacks the disorienting, claustrophobic and murky haze I associate with the genre. It’s bright, clear, soaring and rocks your pentagram-knit socks off. Although it’s a comparatively small adjustment to their sound, it’s a successful touch-up. Highlights: Burning of the Velvet Fires, Strange Earth Illusion. 3/5.)
92.	black midi - Cavalcade (Avant-Prog.)
93.	sonhos tomam conta - Hypnagogia (Blackgaze/Emo.)
94.	The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls (Shoegaze/Emo.)
95.	Yoth Iria - As The Flame Withers (Melodic Black Metal.)
96.	Year Of No Light - Consolamentum (Atmospheric Sludge)
97.	Panopticon - ...And Again Into The Light (Atmospheric Black Metal)
98.	BADBADNOTGOOD - Talk Memory (Jazz Fusion.)
99.	Shinichiro Yokota - Tokonoma Style (Deep House)
100.	Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern (Neo-Psychedelia/Hypnagogic Pop.)