The Kuhronic Top 50 Albums of 2021

Here we go again, 2021, and this will be the 10th Kuhronic best album list that I have completed (happy anniversary to me!). When I created this Medium blog near the end of 2019, I had planned to make all of my previous lists available here, but it would seem that’s still a work in progress. Perhaps I can focus on completing that task once this list is “published”, and before starting on 2022. Anyhoo…..

Another strange year for music (and everything else); the return (and re-disappearance) of live shows, the release of a bunch of those quarantine albums, Adele clogging the toilet of global record pressing capacity (metaphorically, of course), and just like every other year, the release of crap albums, mediocre albums and stellar albums in varying percentages. So before we get to the list proper, here are a few bonus / stupid categories

Best Live Album:

Chromeo — Date Night

Best Posthumous Album:

Prince — Welcome 2 America

Best Titled Album That Didn’t Make The List:

Luke Haines — Setting the Dogs on the Post Punk Postman

Best Electronic Free Jazz Classical Album:

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra — Promises

Best Album by a Band That Hasn’t Released an Album in 40 Years:

ABBA — Voyage

Best Album That My Old Drummer Plays On:

Bebe Buckskin — Captain Medicine

Best Adele Album With a Numerical Title:

Adele — 30

Best Limp Bizkit Album:

Limp Bizkit — Still Sucks

OK enough with all the nonsense and tomfoolery, here we go, the Kuhronic top fucking 50 albums of 2021

50. The Besnard Lakes — The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

49. Royal Blood — Typhoons

48. Fiddlehead — Between the Richness

47. Parquet Courts — A Sympathy for Life

46. Dave — We’re All Alone in This Together

45. Arlo Parks — Collapsed in Sunbeams

44. Richard Dawson & Circle — Henki

43. Tori Amos — Ocean to Ocean

42. Cameron Graves — Seven

41. The Dirty Nil — Fuck Art

40. Aesop Rock & Blockhead — Garbology

39. Genghis Tron — Dream Weapon

38. Actors — Acts of Worship

37. Deafheaven — Infinite Granite

36. Snail Mail — Valentine

35. Mogwai — As the Love Continues

34. Tomahawk — Tonic Immobility

33. cÉvin Key — Resonance / Xwáyxway

32. Nas — King’s Disease II / Magic

31. Cloud Nothings — The Shadow I Remember

30. Bad Waitress — No Taste

29. The War on Drugs — I Don’t Live Here Anymore

28 . Quicksand — Distant Populations

27. St. Vincent — Daddy’s Home

26. Tyler, The Creator — Call Me If You Get Lost

25. Death From Above — Is 4 Lovers

24. Kings of Leon — When You See Yourself

23. Silk Sonic — An Evening with Silk Sonic

22. Japanese Breakfast — Jubilee

21. Shame — Drunk Tank Pink

20. Dinosaur Jr. — Sweep It Into Space

19. Casper Skulls — Knows No Kindness

18. Halsey — If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power

17. Quivers — Golden Doubt

16. Dry Cleaning — New Long Leg

15. Geese — Projector

14. The Weather Station — Ignorance

13. Amyl and the Sniffers — Close To Me

12. Iron Maiden — Senjutsu

11. Squid — Bright Green Field

10. Black Country, New Road — For the First Time

09. Sleaford Mods — Spare Ribs

08. Wolf Alice — Blue Weekend

07. Shad — Tao

06. Mastodon — Hushed and Grim

05. Idles — Crawler

04. SAULT — Nine

03. Little Simz — Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

02. Black Midi — Cavalcade

01. Turnstile — Glow On

And as per usual, I can’t stop at just 50 so here are another 50 albums that “Almost Made It” on the list

Snoh Aalegra — Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies

Damon Albarn — The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

Amorphous Androgynous — We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal

The Antlers — Green to Gold

Arkells — Blink Once

AZ — Doe or Die II

Backxwash — I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses

Badbadnotgood — Talk Memory

Julien Baker — Little Oblivions

Courtney Barnett — Things Take Time, Take Time

Black Dresses — Forever In Your Heart

Blunt Bangs — Proper Smoker

The Bronx — The Bronx VI

Cadence Weapon — Parallel World

Cleo Sol — Mother

Czarface and MF Doom — Super What?

Lucy Dacus — Home Video

Deathretro — Deathretro

Dooms Children — Dooms Children

Floatie — Voyage Out

Fruit Bats — The Pet Parade

Fucked Up — Year of the Horse

Ghetts — Conflict of Interest

Godspeed You! Black Emperor — G_d’s Pee at States End

Iceage — Seek Shelter

Illuminati Hotties — Let Me Do One More

Inhaler — It Won’t Always Be Like This

Islands — Islomania

Casssandra Jenkins — An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

King Khan Unlimited — Opiate Them Asses

Mammoth WVH — Mammoth WVH

The Martha’s Vineyard Ferries — Suns Out Guns Out

Ministry — Moral Hygiene

Mdou Moctar — Afrique Victime

Motorists — Surrounded

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis — Carnage

The Notwist — Vertigo Days

Gary Numan — Intruder

Parannoul — To See the Next Part of the Dream

Rules — The Bummer Circus Comes to Truth City

Sleater-Kinney — Path of Wellness

Sons of Kemet — Black to the Future

Spellling — The Turning Wheel

Spirit of the Beehive — Entertainment, Death

The Stranglers — Dark Matters

Th1rt3en / Pharoahe Monch — A Magnificent Day For an Exorcism

Tuns — Duly Noted

Viagra Boys — Welfare Jazz

The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die — Illusory Walls

Yoo Doo Right — Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose

That’s it that’s all, another year in the bag, another 100 Kuhronic approved records and the total number of albums I listened to pushed uncomfortably near the 300 mark. With rumoured or confirmed releases from Kuhronic heavy hitters like Spoon, Foals, Arctic Monkeys, Billy Talent, Kendrick Lamar and Arcade Fire, 2022 is shaping up real nice, musically anyway. See you on the flip side!

Much love,

Dave E. Kuhronic