Songs of 2021 Part 2: 50-21

No preamble for this post, it's self-explanatory. Taking us to the brink of my top 20 songs and then I'll countdown the rest of the songs tomorrow.

50) The Weight of Dreams - Greta van Fleet (Hard Rock)

Kicking things off here with possibly the most Zeppelin-sounding song from Greta van Fleet’s great “if Zeppelin were still making music” album (by the by, fuck the haters). This epic track with a sprawling instrumental section is lifted straight from the 70s playbook while remaining fresh and vibrant.

49) Take On Me - The Baseballs (Rockabilly Cover)

I have an enormous soft spot for these silly German guys who dress, dance and sing 50s style to do covers of hugely popular and familiar songs. This version of A-Ha’s classic Europop track is another piece of amazing reinvention from them that sounds like it may have originally sounded this way.

48) Coming To Meet You - The Cat Empire (Australian Jazz Pop)

Speaking of blasts from the past and things – like rockabilly – you might have assumed were long dead, The Cat Empire emerged from almost retirement to put out a very mediocre last-breath album that also happened to include this absolute banger. It’s classic infectious Latin-inspired rhythms from them.

47) ZERO - James (Alt Rock)

This song’s been boosted a bit by the fact that Dylan seems to really love it. I suspect that’s partially because it was possibly the first song title he was able to read himself off the car audio display but he insists he likes this ruminative Gen-X anthemic track that begins with the then-repeated refrain “We’re all gonna die…”. It’s nonetheless a very solid piece of rock music from the ever-reliable James.

46) Ladies - Pale Ramon (Psychedelic Rock)

Makers of my #1 album of 2019, Pale Ramon followed it up this year with another great collection of sprawling psychedelic rock of which this is my personal favourite track. Picking favourites off this singularly-themed album though is like picking from an Indian restaurant menu without your eyes. It’s all good and it ultimately doesn’t matter what I pick. Read my top albums writeup for more on Pale Ramon.

45) What Could Have Been - Sting feat. Ray Chen (Folk Rock)

This was a late bolt from the blue. Coming from the soundtrack to some animated series apparently called “Arcane League of Legends” (if anyone knows what that is, please feel free to keep it to yourself), which soundtrack was an astonishing mix of talent (including a track from the maker of my #1 album of 2018 Fantastic Negrito). This was my highlight song from it; Sting’s vocals are a little bit tired and old by this stage but Taiwanese-Australian violin virtuoso Ray Chen provides an absolutely chilling backbone to augment it in every way possible.

44) Boys at School - Spellling (Art Pop)

Spellling is another artist you’ll be hearing more about later in my writeups but this track in particular has a great understanding of pop motifs and how to use them to add progressive mood shifts and build the drama of an already very soulful track.

43) RSVP - Drifters' Collective (Hip-Hop)

This is a funny kind of gimmicky track, taking the form of an imagined conversation between an artificial computer-generated voice and his therapist who’s concerned about his withdrawing from sharing every part of his personal life on the internet and what that might mean for his mental health. It’s a very white flavour of hip-hop but amusingly satirical and with a nice, easy rhyme structure to get into.

42) Amazonia - Gojira (Heavy Metal)

This song, and the album it came off, was completely off my radar until the final week of this year when I picked it up due to it being Revolver magazine’s #1 metal album of the year. And with good reason, as it turns out. This is the most idiosyncratic track off the album, a blend of indigenous folk instrumentation and vocalising and groove/death metal aggression that’s impeccably performed.

41) War Painted Valentine - Diablo Swing Orchestra (Swing Revival Metal)

Bit more of a quirky metal pick; these folks do a very interesting blend of swing revival and metal that’s so bizarre at times even they can’t sustain it for the entire album and revert to simple swing revival and other quirky retro styles. This song though walks the tightrope beautifully, fusing cabaret-style performative weirdness with driving rock guitars and does it extremely well.

40) Little Fires - Rosemary Lawton (Indie Folk)

Another anomalous song from an album that otherwise didn’t make much of an impact, this song grew on me a great deal in relistening for this list (it was only #5 in its week of release and was beaten by, among other things, The Baseballs’ “Take On Me” which is now lower on this list). It’s just a beautifully worked bit of folk singer-songwriter music with a build that typifies a suitably restrained passion.

39) New America - Marina (Indie Pop)

Following the recent trend here of albums that fell down on consistency but produced a few bangers, the second entry on this top 100 from Marina (who also previously landed in my 2019 top 100 for “No More Suckers”) is an excellent, angry bit of music that pulls no punches in its indictment of the USA’s hubris and hypocrisy but also manages to be a cracking noir pop tune at the same time.

38) Holy Homicide - Rave the Reqviem (Spiritual Metal)

Apparently my nephew’s favourite song ‘of all time’, this utterly silly bit of over-the-top nonsense from religious-themed electro metallers Rave the Reqviem (who go by nicknames including ‘the Prophet’, ‘The Seraph’ and ‘The Sister Superior’ and seem more like a creepy cult than a band) is unabashed noisy fun. Essentially a 90s Eurodance banger disguised as a metal song, it combines two things I love – camp pop and even camper metal – in just about the right quantities.

37) Mitad Sombra Mitad Luz - Lolaa feat. Graham Wright (Latin Pop)

Lolaa took me a bit by surprise about halfway through this year. Seemingly a straightforward pop outfit, they took on a lot more influence from their Mexican heritage quite quickly and fused those rhythms with fiery synthpop seamlessly. This track featuring Graham Wright (of Tokyo Police Club) is just a really lovely, sunny example of it that’s hard not to smile at.

36) Catching Fire - Lightmare (Punk Jazz)

This could qualify as another bit of over the top bonkers music; the punk here is less in the rhythm and energy and more in its no-holds-barred use of jazz instrumentation to build drama even while it also accumulates a sense of manic energy. It somehow manages to be at the centre of a Venn diagram between soulful, smooth and chaotic.

35) Garden Grove - The Hip Abduction (Reggae Rock)

Former #3 album of the year getters The Hip Abduction followed that album up with another collection of sweet, laid back and lilted pop rock of which this was the highlight track. The album ended up falling down for me a bit just due to its lack of surprise (The Hip Abduction laying down lovely, pleasant melodies? Of course they were) but there’s no denying the charm of this bit of breezy reggae rock.

34) Nothing Else Matters - Mon Laferte (Chilean Pop Metal Cover)

You’ll be hearing a lot about the Metallica Blacklist over the course of these writeups. This was my favourite of the many, many covers of “Nothing Else Matters” on that monster 4+ hour album. It was questionable if anybody could do something to a Metallica classic I’ve heard hundreds of times that would really take my breath away but it seems “translate it into Spanish and add Chilean guitars” is all it took. It also introduced me to the wonderful artist Mon Laferte who has an unbelievable voice in its full glory.

33) Eve of Agnes - XIXA feat. Imarhan (Psychedelic Desert Rock)

XIXA are an alumnus of my top 20 (#16 of 2019 for “The Code”) and this album was a suitably great full-length follow-up. This particular song fuses their trademark sprawling Cali-Mexican desert rock with another folk tradition from Tuareg rockers Imarhan and injects a curious mix of psychedelic trippiness with driving dance energy.

32) Introvert - Little Simz (Hip-Hop)

One of the most popular albums of the year among listeners and critics alike, this won’t need any introduction. But while the album didn’t quite sustain my interest across its length, this opening track is a brilliant bit of hip-hop production and orchestration to encapsulate all of Little Simz’s key themes of her attempts to define her identity against the chaotic backdrop of modern life. In a year that included my highly-anticipated followup to Dave’s Mercury Prize-winning “Psychodrama”, this track was my favourite bit of UK hip-hop of the year.

31) Hyperdialect – Hacktivist feat. ten56. (Grime Djent)

Besides this I guess, if it counts. This song combines the furious aggression of grime rapping with an equally furious syncopated djent metal backing and manages to draw a lot of meaning and evocative emotional depth from its crazy, constantly firing drive and anger.

30) El Sueño - Ehsan Matoori & Alireza Ghorbani feat. Solange Merdinian (Iranian-Argentinian Folk Fusion)

If you’re new to reading this blog (Hi, someone who isn’t my Mother!) you’ll see a common theme emerging that I love music that combines disparate folk traditions in a meaningful way. The transition in this song from Matoori’s stirring Iranian tenor to Merdinian’s Latin soprano while the instruments move from orchestral and middle-eastern to something bordering on Argentine tango guitar is quite incredible and almost, just by existing, a shoe-in to the top end of my year.

29) Together Again - Dave Koz & Cory Wong (Funk)

2021 was the second year in a row where we were blessed with almost bi-monthly new music from arguably the most likeable musician currently working, Cory “Can Do No” Wong. This track actually slipped beneath my radar a bit on its release (it was only #7 of the week) but again grew on me on relistening. A jazzed-up revival of a 1999 track from Dave Koz, this beautiful bit of soulful funk music recalls Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” and (to me at least) manages the impossible of avoiding sentimentality in a sax-driven instrumental song (possibly due to Cory’s unmistakeably chill musical personality).

28) Enter Sandman - Rina Sawayama (Metal Cover)

A more straightforward cover version from the Metallica Blacklist than Mon Laferte’s “Nothing Else Matters”, this amazing version earns its spot near the top of my list largely through the sheer synergy of Rina Sawayama’s own kickass style with the brilliance of the original Metallica song (one of my favourite songs of all time). Sawayama also hit on a bit of brilliant inventiveness through her choice to ‘sing’ the night-time prayer section that’s in spoken-word in every other version on this album, and it’s a choice I think should be included in all versions moving forward.

27) Alameda Apartments - Neal Francis (Indie Pop Rock)

A very dynamic bit of retro pop rock, this great upbeat track from Neal Francis combines a big band sound with an intimate kind of storytelling lyrical style. Unfortunately after loving this lead single, the remainder of his album failed to recapture this same magic (and also made a lot of audible effort in doing so) so this ends up being a singular piece of great music rather than part of a broader album story.

26) 22nd Century Dandy - Pepe Deluxé (Experimental Pop)

You’ll probably hear more about Finnish experimental weirdos Pepe Deluxé in my albums writeup, but this track certainly has all the hallmarks of a standout song from an otherwise bonkers album. This was originally part of my top twenty in fact just due to the magnetic charisma of its central beat and brilliant production value, but it ended up sliding down a bit due to the fact that they take the experimental route later in the song and lose a bit of traction. Nevertheless a fascinating and entertaining bit of music.

25) El Baile del Viejo que Mira las obras - NanowaR of Steel (Italian Comedy Metal)

Those who read my blog last year (Hi, Mother!) will remember my #5 album of last year, Alestorm’s “The Curse of the Crystal Coconut” and this silliness from Italian tongue-in-cheek rockers NanowaR of Steel was a lovely tonic this year if I was ever missing Alestorm. This track combines twee folk accordion, loud blokey singalong and some kind of incongruous metal to create a bit of circus nonsense that’s impossible not to like, at least ironically.

24) Running on Empty - Misty River (Americana Folk)

I do enjoy sometimes when my list goes from complete silly nonsense to something as down-to-earth and earnest as this. Misty River’s beautiful waifish vocals provide an emotional soul to this ruminative song whose lyrics are relatable and poignant (“when you’re running on empty, bettin’ on your dream is hard”), and the evocative folk instrumentation provides a lovely backdrop.

23) Malignant - G. Brenner (Art Pop)

Staying in earnest mode here, G Brenner’s operatic style brings a great deal of both drama and gravitas to this deeply intimate tune about his Mother’s cancer diagnosis, and he uses the swells of his electronic compositions to build that emotional climax in a pointed and incredible way.

22) On the Wrong Side - Lindsey Buckingham (Dad Rock)

Another song that grew a lot on me in relistening, this song stood out on Lindsey Buckingham’s solo album which otherwise felt a bit of a letdown after his collaboration with Christine McVie a few years ago (the lack of dormant but still potent sexual tension maybe let it down), but this song’s easy and catchy chorus is an excellent reminder of how much of a vibrant songwriting force Buckingham remains.

21) Sea Beast - The Dead Deads (Punk Rock)

Possibly the biggest ‘grew on me in relistening’ track, this song went from only #9 of its release week to just teetering on the brink of my top 20. There’s a very 90s throwback sound to this track (which is a huge part of its appeal of course) but it combines sly humour, fempunk attitude with a touch of raw hardcore punk anger to make a really delightful pastiche of various eras of stylish in-your-face rock.