2021 was to be the year of the restart, of the resumption of concerts all over the world, of the record returns of many artists who remained in the shadows, in short, of “normality”. As we well know, this was not the case. Many big events have been postponed once again. And many records, like that of Kendrick Lamar, are still closed in the drawer, they will arrive perhaps in 2022. Others, however, fortunately, have come out, making 2021 a year a little more flourishing than the previous one, in which the shock for the pandemic had really stopped (almost) everything. It becomes difficult, given the state in which the world still finds itself, to identify trends and make some fundamental reflections: they would be too partial. Better try to line up the best music that came out, and listen to it again.
10. HEY WHAT, Low
After Double negative, a record capable of deconstructing rock like few in recent years, the Low, two Mormons from Minnesota who have been making records for years have released HEY WHAT, another album of songs written on the guitar and played on the guitar, but which looks like an alien creature from another planet. Compared to the previous one, there is much more melody, as in the singles White horses e Days like these, which without distortion could easily be two hundred year old folk songs.
9. Call me if you get lost, Tyler, The Creator
Californian rapper Tyler, the Creator loves wearing masks and living with contradictions. In Call me if you get lost, his sixth album, has decided to turn the table once again. In the previous Igor he had almost moved away from hip hop, getting closer and closer to rnb and neosoul. Now go back to pure rap, sometimes arrogant. It seems to rediscover its origins, those of when he was part of the Odd Future collective. The alter ego chosen by the rapper for this occasion is Tyler Baudelaire, a globetrotter inspired by the French poet Charles Baudelaire. But the theme that dominates Call me if you get lost it is the vindication of his successes. And, as often happens to him, the artist plays with his sexuality, freely telling flirts and love stories.
8. KICK ii, KicK iii, kick iiii, kiCK iiiii, Arca
After posting kick ii on November 30, the Venezuelan artist Arca on December 8, 2021 released three records in a single day: KICK ii, KicK iii,kick iiii ekiCK iiiii. His electronic music is so rich in ideas that it confuses the listener, while the aesthetics that come out of the videos skillfully play with a transgender and cyberpunk imagery. But the series of Kick it’s one of the most accessible things he’s done. Take the sweet synths of Estrogen, one of the songs by kiCK iiiii, which almost looks like a piece of Laraaji or Aphex Twin. Or the broken rhythms of Witch (KicK iii) or the similar reggaeton of Prada (KICK ii), which could almost go on the radio as catchy as they are. Arca, whose real name is Alejandra Ghersi Rodriguez, defined the new pieces as “mutant club music”, a term that we gladly borrow.
7. Vulture prince, Arooj Aftab
Arooj Aftab is lucky enough to be able to balance his Pakistani roots and Western tradition, between classical and jazz. Born in Lahore but transplanted to Brooklyn, Aftab dedicated the splendid Vulture prince to his brother Maher, who died just as the artist was working on the album. Vulture prince it reaches peaks of great poetry and intensity, as with Mohabbat, a song created by drawing on an ancient ghazal, a recited poem of the Arab tradition that expresses pain for loss but also the beauty of love.
6. Black to the future, Sons of Kemet
Saxophonist and clarinetist who grew up between London and Barbados, Shabaka Hutchins is the leader of three very interesting projects: Shabaka and the Ancestors, The Comet is Coming and Sons of Kemet. In the past he has collaborated with Sun Ra Arkestra, Heliocentrics and more. His music is contaminated: it mixes jazz, dub and African tradition. After Your queen is a reptile, anti-monarchist and anti-racist manifesto, the Sons of Kemet are back with Black to the future, an album that Shabaka himself defined as a sound poem fruit of “anger, frustration and perception that emerged after the death of George Floyd and the protests of Black Lives Matter”. Even the song titles, lined up, are a mini poem about black identity. Militant and above all inspired jazz.
5. Ignorance, The Weather Station
There is a record that, somewhat surprisingly, conquered international critics in 2021: it is Ignorance by Weather Station, a Canadian band led by singer Tamara Lindeman. The ten tracks on the album bring together global themes such as the climate crisis and economic inequalities, with micro-stories about broken loves, escapes and separations. It’s a great album, one that brings to mind both Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell. And it contains one of the songs I’ve listened to the most in the last twelve months, Robber. “The image of the robber is a metaphor. We all know that they are destroying our planet in the name of making 1 percent of the world profit. And this happens in front of our eyes, without a real condemnation of those who do it. The song is also about my naivety and my inability to see this process, to understand who the real robber is who is stealing our future, ”Lindeman said.
4. Spiral, Darkside
Each era has its Brian Eno. We now have Nicolas Jaar, a musician so good and multifaceted that he deserves a place in the history of electronic and experimental music. After two wonderful solo records in 2020 (in particular Ashes) the American artist of Chilean origins has put the Darkside duo back on their feet together with multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. And he made another sensational album, guilty underestimated by international critics. We are lucky to have Nicolas Jaar.
3. The nearer the fountain, more pure the stream flows, Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn’s solo career has reached the second stage. And perhaps this will be the path to keep an eye on with greater attention in the coming years, even more than the Gorillaz and possibly the Blur. Because Albarn has reached an authorial maturity so deep that when he does not have the obligation to sign successful pop songs he emerges even more. It is the landscapes of Iceland that inspired the new pieces, which were born as instrumental orchestral sketches. Taking advantage of the time available during the lockdown, the British musician turned them into songs. And what songs.
2. Sometimes I might be introvert, Little Simz
In every artist’s career there is a record where you try to take the big leap, to move to the next level. For Little Simz that record probably is Sometimes I might be introvert. The Nigerian-born London rapper and actress, whose real name is Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo, is only 26, but has long been a leading name in British rap. With this work, his ambitions seem to grow a lot. If the albums of the past, despite the quality of the arrangements, pursued an aesthetic that was all in all underground and closely linked to the British hip hop scene, Sometimes I might be introvert is a broad spectrum fresco, which mentions the great names of black music (Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill, Etta James, the Smokey Robinson sampled in the piece Two worlds apart), fishing from jazz and funk with the spirit of someone trying to write a classic.
1. Promises, Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra
When this album came out in March, my colleagues and I used the word masterpiece. Have we exaggerated? Maybe, but if I had to keep just one record from 2021 I would have no doubts. Promises was born from a meeting between two musicians of different generations, with very different paths, who however found common ground on which to dialogue. It lasts 46 minutes, it is divided into nine movements but is thought of as a single track. It is difficult to approach it with a single genre, suspended as it is between jazz, ambient and pure mysticism. At times the music, composed by Floating Points but enriched by the improvisation of the saxophone by Sanders, one of the greatest living jazz players, custodian of the tradition of Sun Ra and John Coltrane, refers precisely to certain episodes of the American jazz musician’s records; at other times it brings to mind Steve Reich’s minimalism; in still others it suggests Ambient 3. Day of radiance, the masterpiece of Laraaji and Brian Eno. Despite the many instruments used – the saxophone, the piano, some synthesizers, a harpsichord, and of course the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra – there is always a feeling of total lightness, as in front of a celestial landscape. The most moving moment perhaps comes in the fourth movement, when Sanders sings with the technique of scat. It is the voice of an old man who has seen many, but it also resembles the first cry of a child.
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