Summer has officially arrived, we’re thankfully getting out of our homes to revel in the great outdoors, and many of our daily lives are slowly but surely returning to some modicum of normalcy after a trying past 16 months.
Yes, indeed, we have much to celebrate once again. And this includes the wonderful new music that has emerged during the first six months of the year. As we approach the midway point of 2021, we’re taking stock of the 21 best albums of the year so far, which admittedly represents just a small sampling of the music that has tickled our ears and soothed our souls since January.
We hope you enjoy discovering—or rediscovering—the albums featured below (in alphabetical order), and at the bottom of the page, be sure to check out our 42-track audio & video playlist comprised of standout tracks from the 21 albums showcased here.
If you like what you hear and happen to have the means right now, we encourage you to consider purchasing the albums that tickle your fancy from the artists’ respective online stores or your favorite music retailers.
Other ways that you can support musicians include buying tickets to their virtual live performances or upcoming in-person shows and purchasing merchandise from their official stores.
The 21 Best Albums of 2021…So Far
Julien Baker | Little Oblivions
Matador | Official Store
“Maybe, then, the most interesting thing about Little Oblivions is that it gets us to stop thinking about Julien Baker. Surrounding her voice with more sound turns the spotlight away from her, which helps you realize that Little Oblivions isn’t interested in you understanding someone else’s pain. The problems that define Little Oblivions, these coping mechanisms and avoidance tactics, are part of every person’s life. These songs are already about you.” – Jeremy Levine | Read More
Jon Batiste | WE ARE
Verve | Official Store
“WE ARE is veritably dripping in various iterations of New Orleans musical heritage and memories of what sounds like an idyllic childhood in the city, and it provides a heartily welcome dose of positivity at the end of this long, pandemic-filled winter. … The album is an infectious slice of uplifting, enjoyable soul that gathers the markers of Black music into a musical palette that is delivered with gusto and deep joy.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
Black Coffee | Subconsciously
Ultra | Buy
“With so many tracks on here to fall in love with, it would be criminal to not let the listener have the luxury to form their own perspective by immersing themselves in the beauty and artistry that is Subconsciously. My love for this album is incontestable and I encourage each of you to soak it all in.” – Matthew Hocter | Read More
Lana Del Rey | Chemtrails Over The Country Club
Interscope/Polydor | Official Store
“This album is clearly an emotional one, one that sees the singer explore the notion of running away, leaving it all behind, but also the how and why. Examining themes of loss is something Del Rey has never shied away from in her previous work, but she exudes a heightened empathy in exploring the complexities of loss and love across the expanse of Chemtrails Over The Country Club.” – Matthew Hocter | Read More
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra | Promises
Luaka Bop | Bandcamp
“Though I’ve heard outstanding records in the last few years and awarded 5 stars for some, nothing has come close to the visceral emotion I felt upon first hearing this masterful concoction. It’s pacing and spacing are incredible, with every single note placed to perfection to elicit depth of emotion, but with enough emptiness to allow thought and interaction with its beauty. It is jaw-droppingly astonishing in its scope and ability to wring emotion from the listener, and it merits every single bit of your time and attention. Listen in solitude if you can and its beauty will illuminate your life in ways that didn’t seem possible.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
Foo Fighters | Medicine At Midnight
RCA/Roswell | Official Store
“Medicine At Midnight affords Foo Fighters another stadium-ready set of songs. Many ache to be heard live, where extra gusto will no doubt be given to them. And that’s the bittersweet nature of the album. Songs made pre-pandemic with a sense of optimism that should have blared from staked amps the world over. And indeed, that time will come. But for now, we can be drawn into the nuances and intricacy of the writing and performance before things once more turn all the way up to 11.” – Andy Healy | Read More
Garbage | No Gods No Masters
Stunvolume/Infectious Music/BMG | Official Store
“As much as Garbage thrives in the now, their work always ends up aging gracefully after their respective reveals—it will be the same for this collection. And yet, No Gods No Masters is already unique in Garbage’s canon because it tasks its audiences to be the change they wish to see via its content. It’s another innovative measure from an outfit that has made a career of innovative measures; in this way, some things (thankfully) never change.” – Quentin Harrison | Read More
Juliana Hatfield | Blood
American Laundromat | Official Store
“Blood is the best kind of sonic contradiction, pitting Hatfield’s biting wordplay against vivacious melodies and delectable grooves. As always, she writes with incisive imagery that’s especially fun to pull apart and examine on tracks like ‘Mouthful of Blood’ and ‘Chunks,’ which are rife with colorful metaphor. Her guitar work adds depth and drama to the mix, and she never seems to fail in finding some kind of new way to express herself through her strings.” – Grant Walters | Read More
Wesley Joseph | ULTRAMARINE
EEVILTWINN | Official Store
“At a brief 26 minutes, ULTRAMARINE proves to be a sampler of what Joseph is capable of and it shows that the sky is the limit. You don’t have to look that far to find other artists who have started in this intimate, personal way before embracing a more expansive approach to their art and Wesley Joseph seems perfectly poised to make that leap if he is minded to. Ultramarine is a calling card of Joseph’s promising future.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
London Grammar | Californian Soil
Metal & Dust/Ministry of Sound | Official Store
“’And all the parties, they fade / And yes, my looks, they'll go away / I'll just be left here in America / But she never had a home for me,’ Reid sings as the album-closing ‘America’ concludes, referencing the dubious ‘American dream’ as a metaphor for breaking free from the superfluous and superficial matters in her life. Her sentiments can also be interpreted as speaking, more broadly, to a much-needed recalibration for the group that can be heard across the entirety of Californian Soil, as they take stock of their career to date and embark upon new musical roads that lie ahead.” – Justin Chadwick | Read More
MARINA | Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land
Atlantic | Official Store
“For eleven years, Marina Diamandis has allowed her muse to guide her wherever it may lead. Having closed any sort of divide between the two sides of her creative mind with Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land, she is currently acting with a new level of control and confidence over her songcraft. Diamandis remains one of the greatest pop genre aesthetes of our age—long may she reign.” – Quentin Harrison | Read More
Morcheeba | Blackest Blue
Fly Agaric Records | Official Store
“It would have been easy for Morcheeba to keep returning to one aspect of their sound that brought them to prominence at the outset of their career. Instead, the pair do what they have always done which is push forward. Blackest Blue represents Morcheeba in the moment: bold, mercurial, and enthralling. It is an album that you are meant to experience—don’t miss out.” – Quentin Harrison | Read More
Róisín Murphy | Crooked Machine
Skint/BMG | Official Store
“Every track on the album resides somewhere between divine and unique, but tracks like ‘Echo Returns’ (the reinterpreted ‘Narcissus’) and ‘Less Is More’ (‘Something More’ on Róisín Machine) tread the areas of dub, thumping bass and at times appear stripped back, when, in reality, they are just as captivating as their original forms. Barratt is clearly an expert at his craft and an innovator, whose soundscapes reflect him exercising his artistic freedom, unencumbered by musical conventions or others’ expectations. Róisín’s ‘machine,’ crooked or not, is a transformative voyage into what dance music should be: creative, collaborative, unaffected and all night long.” – Matthew Hocter | Read More
Mustafa | When Smoke Rises
Regent Park Songs | Official Store
“This album, at just 8 songs lasting a grand total of 24 minutes, keenly exemplifies the old showbiz adage “leave ‘em wanting more.” It is brief but beautiful and avoids the many pitfalls of overstuffed, guest-laden epics. The message is sharply focused, deeply moving and all the better for it. It offers an emotionally bold counterpoint to so much of the violent narrative that started with the blues and continued through musical traditions into rap music. In processing his pain in this way, Mustafa allows others to heal too.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
Arlo Parks | Collapsed In Sunbeams
Transgressive | Official Store
“This is a remarkably mature debut album for a twenty-year-old, filled with poetic flourishes, luxurious soul-pop stylings and Parks’ velvety, characterful voice. It offers not so much a glimpse at her potential, but rather a startling affirmation of what she is capable of at such an early point in her career, and it will deserve every plaudit it will undoubtedly receive.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
Liz Phair | Soberish
Chrysalis | Official Store
“Well worth the extended wait, Soberish represents the work of an accomplished, confident artist at peace with her place in the world, free to craft the songs she alone wishes to make, seemingly—and thankfully—beholden only to the self-imposed pressure of her own expectations. As she surmised a few decades ago on whitechocolatespaceegg (1998), “all that matters is what makes you happy,” and this superb album should give Phair—and all of us fortunate enough to experience its songs—much to be happy about, indeed.” – Justin Chadwick | Read More
Nitin Sawhney | Immigrants
Sony Music Masterworks | Buy
“Nitin Sawhney is no stranger to prizes and awards for his many and varied works (a simple Wikipedia search will demonstrate that). But this is everything a great album can be and that should see him handsomely rewarded as a result. You suspect though, that the only reward he would want would be some more compassion, humanity and love in the hearts of those who would seek to run the world.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
Sons Of Kemet | Black To The Future
Impulse! | Official Store
“Black to the Future demonstrates the immense power of the quartet, as they inch their way towards wider audiences beyond those that traditionally consume jazz music and point, once more, to Shabaka Hutchings’ figurehead status among British musicians of any genre. That he has two other groups (Shabaka And The Ancestors and The Comet Is Coming) also shifting expectations of genre and creating new ways to use the vocabulary of jazz, makes him one of the most important musicians around right now and he deserves all the flowers he will surely receive.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
STR4TA | Aspects
Brownswood Recordings | Official Store
“Each track has something delightful, be it the bubbling funk bass of ‘Steppers Crusade,’ the helium-light melody of ‘After The Rain’ or the subtle differences of rhythm that permeate the second half of the record. It truly does evoke the great Brit Funk records of not just Bluey’s work with the aforementioned groups, but also Hi Tension, early Level 42 and others. While it is slightly one-paced and singular in its tone, it is done with enough style, panache and unbridled joy to carry it across its 50-minute running time and provide not just a time capsule to days gone by but also a hint to a future more funk-filled than you may have imagined.” – Patrick Corcoran | Read More
Texas | Hi
BMG | Official Store
“Texas is in red-hot form on Hi—ten records in and they’ve lost none of their artistic drive or technical proficiency that assisted in setting them apart from the crowd back in 1989. Regardless of its commercial fate, Texas have made an album that they can not only be proud of, but that will age to perfection in the ensuing years to come, losing none of the potency it holds now.”– Quentin Harrison | Read More
Wolf Alice | Blue Weekend
Dirty Hit/RCA | Official Store
“Competent, confident and captivating, Wolf Alice’s absorbing third LP showcases their penchant and passion for stretching their sound while further solidifying their distinctive musical identity. If there’s any justice in this world, Blue Weekend will be the album that finally convinces audiences outside of the UK—and specifically here, stateside—of their brilliance. In my review of Blue Weekend’s precursor Visions Of A Life (2017), I suggested that ‘Wolf Alice is a young band arguably still years away from the peak of their musical powers.’ With Blue Weekend, they’ve taken one giant step forward toward achieving this pinnacle and are unequivocally becoming masters of their craft before our eyes and ears.” – Justin Chadwick | Read More
LISTEN/WATCH: