While the strings sometimes crest with power, the record is incredibly soft and subtle while it's great for background music, Promises's beauty and nuance comes most to fore via quiet appreciation.ĭeafheaven: Infinite Granite. Promises is nine connected movements revolving around a single instrumental refrain astonishing in its simplicity. Each of the three involved parties are equal participants, with no performer overstepping. London based EDM producer Sam Shepherd (AKA Floating Points) teams up with jazz legend Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra to create an insurmountably enchanting work of minimalist reverence. The most beautiful record of 2021, and beyond. Careful while operating heavy machinery this groovy and hypnotic record can lull the most fervent jazz oppositionists into a repetitious trance.įloating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra: Promises.
Most people think of jazz in a free sense, with instrumentation flying all over in chaos Decension, however, zones in on layers and texture. With 75 minutes of masterful jazz improvisation, Natural Information Society sculpt rhythms that are both danceable and deep. Decension is a live recording of a single jazz piece that has been segmented into four sections, mainly for tracking purposes. Natural Information Society with Evan Parker: Decension (Out of Our Constrictions). Ignorance is a blissful reflection of finding peace in a busy and changing world. There is no end to production nuances in this this record, which is definitely a high-water mark for Lindeman. Typically a minimalist folkie, Lindeman uses multiple percussionists, strings, and synths to create plush and dynamic textures. Her lyrics are dense, but still easily processed by anyone listening. Her writing uses the climate crisis as an allusion to our own personal headspace as she examines the world at large, and our own place within its sphere. Fantastic record from the Toronto singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman (AKA Weather Station). It is ultimately best to look at I Don't Live Here Anymore as its own entity, rather than comparing to their greatest works. Disclaimer: Expectations of this record need to leveraged, as it does not compare to their previous albums, one of which (Lost in the Dream) is perhaps the best album of the millennium (It is between that and Kid-A for me). Play this record in the car, volume loud, as you drive through the twists and turns of an empty autumn road. While it may leave a little more on the table than it's predecessors, I don't Live Here Anymore is still the best damn road-trip record of the year. Some fans, myself being one of them, will certainly miss some of the unhurried outros, synth washes and interludes that give TWOD records their pastoral haziness, but the vaporous ether of the past has been swapped for a glossy shimmer which is new to the bands repertoire. To that effect, I Don't Live Here Anymore is another fantastic record by the Philadelphia synth-folkers. I have crystal clear mental images of walking down 16th Street Mall to Slave Ambient blasting through my headphones, or listening to "Arms Like Boulders" as I lounged in City Park. Some of the best music feels more like Polaroids than sounds a sonic snapshot of a moment and nobody captures that as well as Philly based The War On Drugs. The War on Drugs: I Don't Live Here Anymore. So.without further ado, here are some of my favorite (studio) records of 2021! Feel free to ask me about my favorites.I love the conversation! ( And then going out, or staying in, and purchasing their record!). If this list is a bit long, here is the year in a nutshell: Female songwriters totally fucking rock, jazz is in a renaissance period, and Cosmic American is now a genre as formidable as any other. If you are at all a Phish fan, make sure you check out their live shows from this year, especially their Fall Tour.īut, not to worry! The world was still blessed with a wealth of infinitely interesting new records. Their improvisational brilliance ate up a lot of time normally spent diving into new acts. Because of that, I listened to them with a fever and excitement that I haven't had since I first got into them in that same late nineties time period. My favorite band came out of their pandemic hiatus in a way that I've never seen, nor expected, and had their best year since the late nineties.
So, I have to admit, Phish kind of messed up this list for me.