Ken's Best of 2021 - #8: Chris Brokaw - Puritan


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 Sleep," and "The Heart of Human Trafficking" 

On Repeat...

Liam Kazar - "Shoes Too Tight"

The Freqs - "Witch"

Dutch ReBelle - "GOONIEZ"