If It's Too Loud...

I first heard Calicoco's 2018 album in March of 2019. I made the comment that if I had heard Float when it was released it would have definitely made my top 10 of 2018. This year I heard Underneath on time and it's my #1 album of 2021. Underneath combines two of my favorite styles of music. Giana Calioli's vocals still embody that 1950's style crooner sound, but on this new album they are put over giant indie rock epics. The album starts off with "I Hate Living With Me," an absolute monster of a song that just swirls and swirls and swirls around itself with fuzzy and hypnotic guitars while Calioli's vocals somehow command your attention above all of the chaos. This is what sets an album like Underneath apart from so many others. Music this noisy or loud isn't usually this beautiful, and with such compelling vocals. It's almost like early 90's Sonic Youth mixed with early Smashing Pumpkins and a little bit of when Tori Amos started playing with ...

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I stumbled onto Sierra Ferrell's song "Jeremiah" a little over a year ago. It was one of those times when you hear a song from a new artist and just drop everything to hear more. It's combination of classic country mixed with a little jazz and some 60's groovy cool absolutely sucked me in. Once she released covers of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock" last year, I was completely smitten with Ferrell's music. And then Long Time Coming was finally released. I had such an anticipation for this album that it should have been a disappointment, but it wasn't. I don't think any album this year is as fun as Long Time Coming is. The songs on this album mix together classic country, traditional folk, and jazz into one of the warmest and most familiar sounds I've heard in years. Plus, Ferrell is balancing between the worlds of serious folk musician and having a little ...

I'm always hesitant to put an album in my top 10 that came out in the past month. The new album excitement is still there, and a lot of times an album that I've gushed about doesn't seem as great after six months or so of listens. But... this is Weakened Friends here, so I'm more than a little confident that Quitter will still be a favorite album in a few years.  I was a little nervous about this album. If you follow the band on social media, you would have seen them repeatedly posting about how much they were convinced everyone would hate this album. They were wrong. Quitter is far from an exact copy of 2018's Common Blah , but it's close enough that this new one won't lose them any fans. Quitter sees them edging a little more into pop territory and showing off their Avril Lavigne roots a bit, but this is still an indie rock album. It's filled with killer anthems and catchy hooks throughout. If Quitter isn't the album that has Weakened Friends headl...

I first discovered Aaron Lee Tasjan opening for Margo Price. He was a perfect opener for Price, with his "indie folk grit" dabbling into country with some pop sensibilities. On Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! , he blows up that sound completely. His 2021 album still has some of the sensibilities of folk and country, but it leans much more heavily into pop territory without being pop. The album also has a distinct 70's meets 2021 vibe to it.  Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! mixes so many styles into its songs that it has basically created a genre since you wouldn't listen to this album and declare that it's folk, or country, or pop, or rock. On this album, Tasjan is also very open about his sexuality (particularly in songs like "Up All Night" and "Feminine Walk"), which also helps make this album feel like it's Tasjan truly being Tasjan. Plus, it's an incredibly fun album. It takes all the fun you would find in 70's AM radio, classic country, neo fo...

We've been fans of TORRES ever since Mackenzie Scott's 2015 album Sprinter. I saw her live shortly after the release of that album, and I left thinking that the show was OK, but TORRES was going to be great some day. That day came this year with the release of Thirstier. TORRES has been improving with every single release, and Thirstier might be Scott's masterpiece. The album is filled with huge rock songs with a strong pop sensibility. 2021 is the year that alt-pop edged its way into alt-rock, and this is the pinnacle of that moment. TORRES is blending the two genres perfectly, in a way that hasn't been seen since Tina Turner in the 80's. I had to miss a tour of small clubs earlier this year, and it was truly my loss since there is no way TORRES will be playing those venues by this time next year. If the Superchunk/TORRES tour is playing anywhere near you next year, I implore you to check it out. Songs of note: "Don't Go Puttin Wishes in My Head," ...

To be completely honest, I didn't really like Leash  that much when it first came out back in September. It was good, but considering how much I loved her 2020 album Whatever Happened to Avery Jane? , I wanted to love it more. So, like we did back in the 80's and 90's before we had virtually every single album at our fingertips and we were dropping anywhere from $8 to $20 on an album, I kept listening to it. Slowly I started finding more and more to love about the songs on Leash . Was it a little more poppy than the previous album? Definitely. But the more I listened the less pop it was. Or, it was at least this bizarre form of pop that would be the Taylor Swift of Bizarro world. A song like "Cherry" perfectly encapsulates this. It didn't click for a while. The first few times I listened it was ok, but it's slowly become one of my favorites on the album. It's this gloriously heartfelt song that brings the 50's crooner thing into modern pop... but o...

Three years ago Lucy Dacus' Historian was my #1 album of the year, so I obviously heavily anticipated its follow up. Home Video comes in at #7 for me this year. The new album leans a little bit more towards the pop side of things than Dacus' previous albums did, but there is still a lot of her indie roots shining through on this one. Right from the album's opener, "Hot & Heavy," you know that this is going to be different. It's a dance song, but with an oddly hypnotic quality. There are also some gorgeous and powerful ballads on Home Video , especially "Christine" and the stunningly captivating "Thumbs." This album has catapulted Lucy Dacus from mid-sized clubs to much larger clubs and small theaters, and I'm willing to bet by the end of the summer she'll be headlining smaller amphitheaters. And very deservingly so. Songs of note: "Hot & Heavy," "Cartwheel," "Thumbs," and "Brando"

I've been saying that Chris Brokaw is a criminally underrated artist for years now, and if you haven't believed me then you haven't listened to Puritan. His 2021 album shows off pretty much everything he does perfectly. There's some straight up alt-rock, some gorgeous ballads, noise rock, and an indie rock epic. While a lot of Brokaw's solo albums are either (mostly) acoustic or quite experimental, Puritan is a rock band album. He even brings in his Come bandmate Thalia Zedek in to sing lead on a pair of songs. This is one of the more diverse rock albums of the year, all while sounding like a cohesive collection of songs. It's the kind of album where a quiet ballad like the Zedek sung "The Bragging Rights" can lead into the quick and kinda punky "I Can't Sleep" and then into the monster indie rock epic of "The Heart of Human Trafficking" and it all just makes perfect sense. Songs of note: "Puritan," "I Can't S...

While most artists on my top 10 of 2021 are ones we have covered previously, Melissa Carper came out of seemingly nowhere for me. Her album Daddy's Country Music sounds (and the cover kinda looks like) one of those cassettes you would have seen in truck stops and convenience stores with a "Nice Price" sticker. This album is filled with perfect classic country songs. If anything, it sounds like it could have been a legacy artist's greatest hits album since songs sound like they could be from different decades. Plus, Carper injects more than a little jazz into her classic country sound. Besides just killer classic country songs, Carper also has a little subtle sense of humor that pops up here and there. This is obvious with a song title like "Would You Like to Get Some Goats?" (although the song itself is quite heartfelt), but also pops up in "Makin' Memories" when she tries to remember someone's name. Daddy's Country Gold is the kind of ...

At this point, it's pretty much a guarantee that any time Tristen releases an album it's going to end up on my top 10 for that year. Aquatic Flowers landing at #10 just proves how great of a year this was for new music! Tristen has moved more towards the indie pop side of things from the more alt-pop-country of 2014's Charlatans at the Garden Gate (although looking back that album was quite pop, too). Aquatic Flowers is eleven songs of perfect indie pop. "Complex" is one of the best songs of the year, and I wish I wasn't already married because "Wrong with You" would be a perfect song to play at my wedding. How great is this album? It even has a fantastic song about being a new parent ("Julian"), which is a subject that trips up even the best songwriters into mediocrity. I assume most of our readers are already huge Tristen fans, but if you aren't you need to check this one out ASAP. Songs of note: "Complex," "Wrong with ...