I wasn’t that big on albums this year. There were tons of singles that I loved but I feel I’m not really into full alums anymore. There’s too many projects that broaden the songs, attempting to capture the biggest audience as possible. So when you find an album with a good number of songs that fit together, it’s a strange thing. This year, a lot of ‘albums’ suffered from the Spotify effect: shortening the number of songs and the length of tracks to get as many full listens as possible. And this seems to have benefited more than a few albums on this list. Enjoy!!
Album of the Year
I got the opportunity to see Brainstorm in concert in 2021. My first live event since the start of the pandemic. Maybe that was a big part of my love for this group and this album but just thinking back to which musical project I had the most enjoyment listening to, Ripe won hands-down. It feels more like a ‘singles and b-sides’ compilation than a fully fleshed out project. More like a live band in a garage than a studio group, and that was so damn refreshing for these days. In a year when Willow’s rock-inspired “Lately – I Feel Everything” was the frontrunner for a long time, it was nice to have ‘the little album that could’ jump to the front of my favorites list.
Best of the rest
