Best of 2021

 

The Un-Herd Music Top 50 of 2021

1. Art Bergmann Late Stage Empire Dementia

He's been a hard luck legend of the Canadian underground for 40 years now, and while it's something of a surprise this album exists at all I can't say it's any surprise that it's so effin' excellent. 

 

 

 

2. The Courettes Back in Mono

The echoed drums, baritone sax deep in the mix & girl group melodies wed Spector's Wall of Sound with the raggedy looseness of 60s garage punk. A triumph all around.

 

 

 

3. Hayley Mary The Drip  

There's a layer of melancholy lying just underneath the driving guitar buzz that lends these highly melodic tunes an impressive staying power. Technically only an EP, but match it with the previous year's "The Piss, The Perfume" and you've got an album for the ages.

 

 

4. Steve Conte Bronx Cheer

An album that not only screams New York, but also offers - in its barrage of hard rock hooks - testament to the reasons why Conte was first choice as Johnny Thunders' fill-in in the reformed New York Dolls.
 

 

 

5. Jelani Aryeh I've Got Some Living To Do

Precociously talented at such a young age, Jelani Aryeh grabs pieces from pop, soul, R&B, and indie and puts them together in refreshingly original ways.

 

 

 

6. We Are The Union Ordinary Life

There are layers of social, political, and lyrical reasons to appreciate this album, but none of that would matter much if the music (a quantum leap forward for both ska-punk and pop-punk) didn't pack such a punch. 

   

 

7. Amyl and the Sniffers Comfort To Me

While Amy Taylor still doesn't exactly sing, she chants and rants with a charisma that sits perfectly amid the band's ACDC-meets-Radio Birdman attack. And while it's understandable she gets tagged as a female Iggy Pop, it's also evident that she's powered by a more righteous anger than any male counterpart might muster.

 

 

8. Made Violent Wannabe

Every now and then I'll find a small miracle - in this case, garage punk with an infectious 50s sock hop sensibility in its melodic construction - that forces me to champion the band as an underdog. Will we ever hear from them again? Who knows. In the meantime, we've got "Wannabe."

 

 

9. Sam Coffey & the Iron Lungs Real One

A declarative reminder this kind of music is far too scarce. Not metal, not punk, not indie or alternative - no need for a hyphenate at all - just melodic, aggressive, proudly electric rock that refuses to leave my player. 

 

 

 

10. Reigning Sound A Little More Time With Reigning Sound

Reaches back to their first 2 albums (the pedal steel of "Break Up Break Down" and the garage punk R&B of "Time Bomb High School") and creates what might be their crowning achievement. 

 

 

 

11. L.A. Exes Get Some

12. Pat Todd & the Rankoutsiders There's Pretty Things in Palookaville

13. Ike Reilly Because the Angels

14. The Blips The Blips

15. EUT Party Time

16. Brothers Steve Dose

17. Peppermint Kicks Peppermint Kicks

18. Daniel Romano Cobra Poems

19. Ryan Hamilton 1221

20. You Am I The Lives of Others 

 

21. Sour Ops X

22. Shannon & the Clams Year of the Spider

23. Mad Rollers Get Mad

24. Ryan Allen What a Rip

25. Real Sickies Love is for Lovers

26. Tommy Womack I Thought I Was Fine

27. The Wildhearts 21st Century Love Songs

28. Kiss the Tiger Vicious Kid

29. Aimee Mann Queens of the Summer Hotel

30. Curtis Harding If Words Were Flowers

 

31. Radio Days Rave On

32. Split Squad Another Cinderella

33. Blunt Bangs Proper Smoker

34. Geoff Palmer Charts and Graphs

35. Too Much Joy Mistakes Were Made

36. Hurry Fake Ideas

37. Cocktail Slippers Shout It Out Loud

38. Ellen Foley Fighting Words

39. The Forty Nineteens The New Roaring Twenties

40. Suzi Quatro The Devil in Me 

 

41. Boy Golden Church of Better Daze

42. Watts Shady Rock 'n' Rollers

43. Needles//Pins Needles//Pins

44. Yola Stand For Myself

45. The Fleshtones Face of the Screaming Werewolf

46. Beatrice Deer Shifting

47. Emperor Penguin Corporation Pop!

48. Parquet Courts Sympathy For Life

49. Elise LeGrow Grateful

50. Nick Waterhouse Promenade Blue 

 

Will You Let Me In Your Hard Heart?

 

1. Art Bergmann Entropy

2. C0urettes Misfits and Freaks 

3. Steve Conte Recovery Doll

4. Hay1ey Mary Would You Throw a Diamond?

5. Rea1 Sickies Give and Take

6. LA Exes Temporary Goodbye

7. Je1ani Aryeh Stella Brown

8. Y0u Am I The Waterboy

9. Sour 0ps Inside the Mind

10. Radi0 Days When I'm With You

11. We R The Union Broken Brain

12. Sam C0ffey & the Iron Lungs Lately

13. Amy1 & the Sniffers Security

14. Sp1it Squad Hey DJ

15. EUT Party Time

16. Peppermint Kicks Hey Fanzine!

17. Geoff Pa1mer This Monkey

18. Pat T0dd Cheap Nostalgia

19. Made Vio1ent You Had It Easy

20. Reigning S0und Oh Christine

21. Bros Steve Next Aquarius

22. Shannon & the C1ams Year of the Spider

23. The B1ips Wild Thing II

24. Danie1 Romano Nocturne Child