On the Drugs’ fifth album, Granduciel has learned how to wield every element of this project together. In fact, that is the exact fuel for I Don’t Live Here Anymore. Perhaps you can credit that to Adam Granduciel’s ongoing sense of impeccable quality control. Tom BreihanĪrriving to the highest levels of anticipation in the War On Drugs’ career, I Don’t Live Here Anymore showed up - right on time, in autumn - and exceeded already stratospheric expectations. You’ll probably find a few new things on it that you might like, and you’ll probably find a few reasons to argue with us, too. Later on, we’ll give you our lists of the year’s best EPs and the best albums from certain genres, as well as a few other year-end goodies. We all made our own personal lists, assigned points, came up with a ranking, argued over and tinkered with that ranking, and ended up with what you see below. The list was chosen entirely by the staff here at Stereogum. In that spirit, here’s our list of the 50 albums that we liked best in 2021. You have made it possible for us to make our living doing that. For the small staff of this website, all we really want to do is blather to anyone who will listen about the music that we like. Last year, when this site went independent, you, the readers, raised enough money to keep us going, and we are eternally grateful. We mean that in a metaphysical way, and we also mean it in a literal way. We, your Stereogum staff, owe a great debt to you, the Stereogum readers. There’s no central theme to our list of the year’s best albums.

Plenty of others clanged and howled and made a whole lot of noise. Some of them whooped and thumped and celebrated. Some of our favorite albums this year twinkled and murmured and soothed.

The music that we loved in 2021 didn’t adhere to any particular sound or sensibility. But in the past few months, especially, we’ve seen a tidal surge of new records, and many of those new records are truly great. Now, it feels miraculous.Įven in the depths of the pandemic, artists never stopped releasing new music. It’s not quite the same as it was this time in 2019 yet, but it’s now possible for a band to release an album and then tour behind that album. But around the time that most of us got our second arm-jabs, the whole economy surrounding music started to sputter to life once again. The COVID era, which utterly derailed music and most other things for the better part of two years, isn’t quite over.

Chris brown wall to wall album