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Pointed lyrics: Yard Act, featuring frontman James Smith
Debut album: Following various singles including Fixer Upper, a set of newer sharp, funny, talky, wordy and witty post-punk-funk debut LP by the Leeds quartet, filled with ironic observation about Britishness, echoing some delivery elements of the Fall and Sleaford Mods
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Spector’s Now or Whenever
New album: The third LP and first since 2015 for the London indie band presents a more thoughtful, melancholy, and often slower set of songs than their more youthfully exuberant previous releases, but includes reflective, strong material
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The prolific Deerhoof’s latest as ever original LP: Actually, You Can
New album: Released late in 2021, San Francisco indie-prog experimental quartet’s 18th studio LP is a frenetic, pace-changing, daredevil record, challenging social and political norms, laced with interwoven and blistering guitar, bass, and drums alongside Satomi Matsuzaki’s distinctive vocals
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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Lunar Vacation’s debut album
Debut album: Joyously fresh, freewheeling indie pop with a dash of shoegaze and psychedelia in this debut LP by the four-piece from Atlanta, Georgia, with influences from Rilo Kiley to Tame Impala, Alvvays and Slow Pulp
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New perspective: Aeon Station’s Observatory
New album: Beautiful debut full LP by the solo moniker of The Wrens' Kevin Whelan with contributions from his band mates, these lockdown-inspired, highly emotive songs take the long view, filled with recriminations, guilt, but also hope for the future
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Blind Date Party album
New album: The brilliant veterans of darkly beautiful lo-fi and killer lyrics release a 2020-21 lockdown collaborative 19-song compilation of covers and reworked songs with just as many guests, including songs by Leonard Cohen, Yusuf Islam and Billie Eilish, as well as many Drag City labelmates
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Julie Doiron’s I Thought of You
New album: Cracking new LP by the influential 49-year-old Canadian indie singer-songwriter who has released multiple album under her own name, various other monikers, in French and Spanish, here with catchy, melancholy and moving songs
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Deap Vally’s Lindsay Troy and Julie Edwards
New album: Full of feisty swagger, and rich, fuzzy guitar grit, the Los Angeles pair of Lindsay Troy and Julie Edwards return for a fourth album of rock-rich irony, fun, sweary sneering, sex-talk, anger and meaty riffs, and one of best yet
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Vibrant joy: The Bug Club’s Pure Particles
New album: A fantastic, punchy short album of nine songs by the indie trio from South Wales with vibrant, fresh, Jonathan Richman-style panache, witty lyrics, dynamic guitar riffs and driving rhythm that is all infectiously toe-tapping
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Radiohead’s KID A MNESIA
Reissue albums: An anniversary edition of two landmark albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) combined, but with a difference, with added tracks and alternate versions, harking back when the band expanded from rock into more experimental, krautrock and electronica territory
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Pip Blom’s second album Welcome Break
New album: The second album by the Amsterdam indie quartet continues their breezy, upbeat style, but with double-edged humour, riffing on pandemic lockdown but also on the brand name of British motorway services, familiar to any band touring
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No rush: Courtney Barnett’s fourth LP
New album: There’s no rushing the Australian indie singer-songwriter in style or substance, and this attractively laid-back new LP is relaxed in pace, filled with gentle, sometimes melancholy lyrics, many of which seek reconciliation, healing and patience
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Snail Mail’s Valentine
New album: Second LP by Lindsey Jordan, following 2018’s debut, Lush, broadens her folk-indie-rock brush with a bigger range of sounds and synths, as well as heartbreak, exchanging some of her initial musical intimacy perhaps to reach a broader commercial appeal
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Afflecks Palace: Spirit of ‘89
New album: Spirited, uplifting debut by the Manchester indie quartet named after the legendary market stall building with a style very much echoing the heydays of baggy ‘89 Stone Roses, complete with jangling guitars, stop-start sections and wistful, upbeat harmonised vocals
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Marissa Nadler
New album: This ninth album by the Boston-based American singer-songwriter is a beautiful selection of slow, acoustic numbers rich in stories about individuals and inspired by the long-running TV documentary series Unsolved Mysteries
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A collage of dreams: the new album by The Surfing Magazines
New album: A welcome regrouping of two of The Wave Pictures, Charles Watson from Slow Club and Dominic Brider on drums in a 16-song mix of catchy surf guitar, folk rock, blues, indie, vintage rock’n’roll, bluegrass and no shortage of humour
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I Will Not … Behave Myself
New album: The Wirral’s Louisa Roach and co return after the acclaimed 2018 LP Revolution of Mind with stirring, feisty, rebellious songs that rally against injustice, celebrate society’s outsiders, filled with seething, articulate anger about everything from food banks to the patriarchy
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Sam Fender’s second LP Seventeen Going Under
New album: Hugely popular, especially after his 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from North Shields builds on this with further Springsteen-style huge choruses and sax-decorated melodies and Strokes turns, but now with edgier, more personal lyrics
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