THE TOP 20 SONGS OF 2021

[For the full playlist, click Here.]

Welcome to the Top 20 Songs Of 2021!  We have a helluva list for you this time around, one so nuts that I could have easily made it a Top 40 and been confident every song deserved to be here.  (Hell, in weaker years #21-40 could have been a really decent countdown).  So let's get started!

I don't normally write about the songs in these, but I was feeling chatty this time, so deal with it!  It's content!  I'm way too hype and using too many exclamation points!


20. Serpentwithfeet "Fellowship"

The line "The blessing of my 30's" in this song kills me.  My 30's were a complete waste due to a lot of things, mostly on me.  I regret pretty much that whole decade.  I'm hoping my 40's can be what this guy's 30's are for him: "I'm spending less time worrying and more time recounting the love".  But one thing me and dude agree on is the chorus: "I'm thankful for the love I share with my friends."

19. Tkay Maidza "So Cold"

Probably the best beginning to any song on this list.  Some futuristic purple space funk and a statement right up front.

18. Benny Sings "Nobody's Fault"

Just a nice, breezy song to tap your toe to.

17. Naia Izumi "As It Comes"

This one is building tension; it's the lead up to the climactic action sequence.

16. Tune-Yards "Hypnotized"

That chorus makes me want to fall in love.  It's been awhile, but who knows?  2022 could go many different ways.

15. Little Simz & Cleo Soul "Woman"

One of the best examples of the quiet cool and perfect ambience the entire album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert gives off.

14. Royal Blood "Typhoons"

I feel weird that this ranked so high, but what can I say?  I'm a sucker for a groove and a sucker for crunchy guitars.

13. Lake Street Dive "Hypotheticals"

A beautiful soul song to sing along to.

12. Willow Smith & Travis Barker

"t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l"

Willow's whole album goes harder in the paint than you'd expect.  Watch out for that one.

11. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard "Catching Smoke"

Speaking of groove, this song about looking for the ephemeral is solid as fuck.

10. Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow "Industry Baby"

It has the line "This one is for the champions" and it came out three days after the Bucks won the title.  Of COURSE I'm all over this one.  (Bonus points for having heard it a hundred times and me still not being sick of it!)

9. Japanese Breakfast "Be Sweet"

The rest of the album Jubilee wasn't my taste, but "Be Sweet" is the perfect 80's-tinged melancholy pop song.  The vocal harmonies are some kind of witchcraft.

8. Frost* "Day And Age"

The longest song on here at a shade under twelve minutes, and it somehow does both things a song of this length would do at the same time: a) Have a refrain so jamm-a-riffic you can keep going that long and still have it be good and b) Go a bunch of different places.  Around the halfway mark, Frost* does some weird stuff with the key (probably not weird to people who know theory) that stretches the song to its breaking point while sounding gorgeous in its oddity.  They keep pulling new and interesting changes out of the hat, yet never really change the beat so when the chorus comes back in it's the most natural thing in the world.  Amazing stuff.

7. Left At London "Pills & Good Advice"

I gave this the edge over "Day And Age" because the former may be more technically impressive and overall more pleasant to listen to, this one GOES FOR EVERYTHING.  There's singer-songwriter parts, there's drum & bass (really good year for drum and bass; no lie), there's hyper pop, there's massively distorted pop punk (see The Armed?  This is how you do it), there's soul, there's a bit of dub, there's hip hop beats, there's a big rock moment...all in a ten minute journey from the first day out of some kind of treatment program through to realizing they need to go back.  It's...it's a helluva trip.  

6. Billie Eilish "my future"

Took awhile to warm up to this one as much as I did (especially since it came out in summer of 2020; it's on the album so I count it for this year).  But man, the sentiment of falling in love with your future is so alien as to be novel again.  And so novel as to feel a little inviting.  And then a little more...

5. Billie Eilish "GOLDWING"

This is a song of two halves: The first being the stereotypical beauty of angelophany, then the back half the Biblical description of angels with like 20 eyes and shit.  The message is unsettling too: Keep your head down because beauty like yours only exists to be violated.  (At least that's how far too many with the power to abuse view it.)  Powerful, dark and kind of terrifying.

4. Helado Negro "Gemini And Leo"

This makes me think of some magical times.  

3. Amber Mark "Worth It"

This song destroys me.  By the pre-chorus I'm choke-sobbing.  I was supposed to do SO much more with this life but this is all I've managed.  But I also know Amber Mark saying "You think you don't deserve it; But you are so damn Worth It" is true, and that it's a truth I should have believed in all along.  Which just makes me sadder at all the wasted time.  Eventually I'll get out of this loop; I feel like it's possible now, at least.

2. Little Simz "Little Q, Pt. 2"

The beat for this one is what put it ahead of "Worth It" for me.  The lyrics are intensely personal, even talking about a time Simby got stabbed.  My favorite song from Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

So I've been doing a Best Songs list since 2008, and I'm about to do something I've never done before: 

A Tie for Number One.

I think if you put enough pressure on me I could eventually choose, but screw that.  I decided to make both of these songs Number One because 1) It's a symbolic fostering of a spirit of togetherness.  You don't need to compete!  You can share the glory!  There's enough to go 'round!  2) They're my #1 for...opposite reasons isn't quite right, but it fits well enough I guess and 3) They both fucking deserve it.

1. A TIE:

Left At London "The Ballad Of Marion Zioncheck"

Tune-Yards "Hold Yourself"

Marion Zioncheck was a Congressman elected during FDR's rise to power and the ushering in of the New Deal.  Listening to this song tell his story (and tie it to the songs surrounding it on the album) hits me every time.  "Hold Yourself" feels like as good an anthem for picking yourself up after the end of your world as any, so I latched onto it.  And it has carried me through.  

2021, overall, was a healing year for me.  I got out of a bad work situation, got vaccinated, I'm getting $5/hr more than I started with, learned some things about myself and how to process emotions I've pent up for decades at this point...I've scratched and clawed to a point where I'm just now just barely getting by.  And that's so far up from where I was I can't believe it.  So the message of both songs ultimately being "But still, we try" resonates pretty hard.

That's gonna do it for The Top 20 Songs of 2021.  It was a stacked year, probably one of the most stacked I've ever covered, which is NOT something I would've said even in early to mid September, but these results don't lie.  Next up is the albums, which is probably gonna be in two weeks because there's more writing involved, but I just did all 1,369 words of this in one sitting, so who the hell knows?  Take it easy, stay warm out there, and above all else:

Love Over Fear.