Yes, we're already a week or so into 2022, but the entertainment world likes to take an easy start into the new year, which makes this the perfect time for me to spew out some content wrapping up 2021. As I've done each year for over a decade now, I'll be running through the albums that I ended up listening to the most in 2021, with some final thoughts on what makes each of them so special. If you're new around these parts, I should point out that I don't release my top albums in order; I'm simply going to tell you what my Album of the Year is, since that's likely what you care about the most, and if you want to keep reading after that, more power to you. Let's get into it, shall we?
Album of the Year: Every Time I Die - Radical This is the closest Album of the Year call I've made in a long, long time. I didn't end up making the final decision until the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, and it came down to a final spin through each of the top 3 records on my turntable to determine a winner. Every Time I Die's long-awaited album Radical ends up taking this top spot for so many reasons, but this one sticks out to me: this is probably the band's best album, and for a band that's now been making music for over 20 years, that's a feat we may never see within this scene again. Just like he did on 2016's Low Teens, Keith Buckley had drudged through the darkest recesses of his life and mind to craft some of the most intelligently-written lyrics in the heavy music scene. The guitar tandem of Keith's brother Jordan and Andy Williams are top notch once again, as they relentlessly riff over Buckley's vocals. Drummer "Goose" Holyoak turns in an unsung-hero performance, as he's able to change his pacing and still pound the kit from the band's chaotic "Planet Shit" to the nuanced "Thing with Feathers," while shining on lead single "Post Boredom." I'm continually amazed by how well Every Time I Die continues to age, and given its bleak subject matter and the current state of the world, I have a feeling a lot these songs will be sticking with me for a while.
The Band CAMINO - The Band CAMINO When it was announced that The Band CAMINO was releasing its debut full-length album, I had to fact-check it to make sure that was accurate. Turns out, even though all 8 of its songs are album-worthy, the band's 2019 effort tryhard was still considered an EP. So here we are, with one of the most buzzed-about pop/rock bands releasing their first full collection of songs, and it's astounding how seasoned they sound here. By a rough estimate, there are at least 6 single-worthy songs on here (with "1 Last Cigarette" and "Know It All" leading the charge), and the band clearly have the right team around them to help complete their sound. The album's 16 tracks end up feeling like a bit too much by the end, but there are very few albums that reached the heights that The Band CAMINO did in 2021.
Teenage Wrist - Earth is a Black Hole Released in February, where the vaccinate-or-not debate was reaching new levels of insufferable, a lot of people were pretty fed up with the world. Teenage Wrist seemed to be as well, and they released an album full of songs to help you bang your head for catharsis and escape. While the album is built on songs with big choruses like "Taste of Gasoline" and "New Emotion," it's the post-rock-ish pieces of songs like "Stella" and the standout title track that really show you Teenage Wrist is a band cashing in on some real potential to stand out in the emo scene in years to come. We'll look back at Earth as an album that really put these guys on the map.
Foxing - Draw Down the Moon One of the three albums I was considering for my AOTY, there's an argument to be made that no album had more care put into its release than Foxing's brilliant fourth album. Draw Down the Moon pulls the best parts of all of the band's previous work to present it in a fresh, new way that never does anything less than demand your attention. There are quiet moments that burst into complete sonic chaos, instrumentation beyond the band's years, and Connor Murphy's lyrics scraping the bottom once again. Easily the best and most complete release of their career, Draw Down the Moon sees Foxing boldly and confidently ascending to the very top of the list of best emo bands on the planet.
Beartooth - Below
At some point, and hopefully soon if you haven't gotten there already, you're going to have to start giving Caleb Shomo the credit he deserves. The guy wrote, recorded, and produced Below, the best and most consistent Beartooth record to date, in the middle of the pandemic. Oh yeah, and the album's written almost entirely about his mental health struggles, something that he's been turning into anthems ever since the band's inception. Below is a triumphant album in so many ways, and has the band soaring to its greatest heights.
Deafheaven - Infinite Granite Still experimenting, still expanding, and still without equals. Deafheaven's music has defined metal for nearly a decade now, and as if that weren't enough, now they're going to take over post-rock too. Yes, there are callbacks to the band's shoegaze/black metal melding that initially set them apart from their peers, but with the moments of tenderness and the intricate arrangements the band continue to create, Infinite Granite sets itself apart as another piece of evidence of the band's singular talent and vision, but perhaps the best offering of their career.
Noah Kahan - I Was / I Am
It might be too obvious to compare Noah Kahan to other singer/songwriter sad bois like Hozier or James Bay, but that upper echelon is exactly where he belongs. I Was / I Am finds Kahan settling into his sound, and taking a few more risks with his vocal delivery than we saw on Busyhead, and it all pays off in a star-making album. Kahan will likely spend the rest of his career trying to find the perfect folk-pop balance, but even as he's releasing that ever-important sophomore album, he's willing to experiment, and that's exactly what we need out of the next generation of American songwriters.
Eidola - The Architect Following in a long line of bands that combined progressive hardcore, Eidola's Christian-metal infused blend is a shock to the system. The Architect, their fourth full-length album (but the first to be released under scene super-label Rise Records), shows off the band's immense talent and ear for a catchy chorus in between showing off Andrew Michael Wells's vocals and the band's crafty musicianship. It's going to be tough for Wells to juggle this band with his nearly full-time duties with Dance Gavin Dance (who are set to release a new album in 2022), but if his effort matches his talent, we'll be lucky enough to get much more Eidola in the years to come, with The Architect building immense hype for the band.
You, Me, and Everyone We Know - Something Heavy At this point, the story of Ben Leibsch and his project You, Me, and Everyone We Know has been well-documented. It is a complicated story that features some truly unique highs, embarrassing lows, and some great music with each and every release. It's what makes the band's legacy one of the most interesting (albeit unheralded) in pop-punk history, and what makes each of the band's releases so interesting to me. Case in point: the band's second full-length Something Heavy, released eleven years after their debut Some Things Don't Wash Out. Leibsch's songwriting is still top-notch here, as we've got catchy choruses, gang vocals, and a biting commentary on what it's like to be alive right now. In other words, it's a record that anyone could listen to and find something they enjoy.
Atreyu - Baptize Baptism is typically the first sacrament a Catholic child receives after their birth, but Baptize feels like a rebirth for Atreyu. For starters, frontman Alex Varkatzas is out of the picure, and drummer Brandon Saller is out from behind the kit to take on lead vocals, with Porter McKnight taking over on most of the screamed vocals on the album. The band's sound has also strayed from the guitar solo-driven metalcore anthems they'd nearly perfected to a more riff-oriented sound here. It wasn't a necessary shift, so I ended up feeling like something was missing on the album, but there was enough here for me to go back to it more than a few times throughout the year.
Thrice - Horizons / East In nearly a direct contrast to Atreyu's approach to their new album, Thrice opted to continue down the path they traveled on their last effort Palms. The result is another melodic post-rock approach, but Horizons / East doesn't quite hit the highs that the band's previous post-hiatus efforts have. There's still a few gems, obviously, as all Thrice records have, but I left this one expecting a little more.
Tigers Jaw - I won't care how you remember me
It's been quite some time since Tigers Jaw's spin was released, but it should comfort everyone to know that the band's expertly-written emo songs have survived. Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins both turn in some of their most well-written songs of their careers, with Walsh shining on "Can't Wait Forever" and Collins bringing some of her best vocals on "Commit." Now-official drummer Theodore Roberts turns in a great performance here, too, with his pounding fills driving home each and every biting lyric throughout. While spin cemented their legacy as one of the best bands of their generation, I won't care how you remember me pushes them into a new echelon with the likes of bands like Bayside and Silverstein, whose new material will always stay true to the band's signature sound while finding new wrinkles to make things feel fresh each time out.
Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God After being penciled in as my AOTY the day lead single "Bed Head" came out, Manchester Orchestra nearly went wire-to-wire with that title before Every Time I Die snatched it from them. That's not meant as a slight to The Million Masks of God, though. It's another assertion that Manchester Orchestra remains one of the pillars of modern rock in 2021 and onward. Andy Hull and Robert McDowell struck gold on Black Mile to the Surface, propelling the band to one of the most commercially successful releases, and now Masks finds them experimenting beautifully once more, combining the groovy "Keel Timing" with the intimate "Telepath," mixing in the crashing "Dinosaur" with the slow-building "Angel of Death," all with the care and precision you've come to expect from this beautiful Orchestra. While the album has so many great moments, it doesn't hit the consistent greatness the Every Time I Die and Foxing hit, but it rounded out a phenomenal top 3 for the year.
This ends another hear of wonderful listening experiences. In looking back at 2021, I do think this was one of the stronger years of music we've had in some time. IN addition to Foxing, Manchester Orchestra, and Every Time I Die making the AOTY decision extremely difficult, the next three albums that would have been on my rankings--The Band CAMINO, Tigers Jaw, and Deafheaven--likely would have been AOTY contenders in other years. I feel like I ranked the Noah Kahan album too low in my personal rankings, but I just don't know how much higher I could put him. It's splitting hairs at this point, though; this was a great year, and I'm happy to have so many bands I enjoy listening to releasing new material. In case you're still hungry for some more content, here's a few liner notes:
-While there were some great EPs released this year, none of them were considered for this list. I'll likely be writing about my favorites in that category in a future post.
-Other albums that received consideration for this post: Citizen's Life in Your Glass World, Kanye West's DONDA, The Maine's xoxo - From Love and Anxiety in Real Time
-My running Albums list was made using Musicboard.app, a really cool website that functions in a similar way that letterboxd does for tracking the movies you listen to. You can view my profile on the site here: https://musicboard.app/whysoserious
The Year-End Madness is drawing to a close soon, but we'll have at least one more post up here before the end of the week. Stay tuned!
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