Duskmourn – Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns
Folky, power chord-riddled melodeath; just listen to Wintersun or Eluveitie instead.

Dvne – Etemen Ænka
Not groundbreaking, but enjoyable, progressive doom metal that’s not as progressive as I’d like it to be.

Erika de Casier – Sensational
While the feminist lyrics are my bag, ultra-smooth r’n’b pop is still not something I was able to fully appreciate in 2021; check back at the end of this year for any further mind opening that hopefully happens in this direction.

Esperanza Spalding – Songwrights Apothecary Lab
I love Esperanza Spalding, and this new project with a touchingly philanthropic concept brings forward a collection of jazzy odds and ends that perfectly exemplify her unbridled, remarkable talent.

Evolfo – Site Out of Mind
Like an wonderful anachronism, Evolfo makes psych-garage with such intensity and nostalgic lo-fi production that it’s amazing to me that this wasn’t recorded in 1966.

Fiddlehead – Between the Richness
The stuff Fiddlehead does is fine, but I simply cannot find the energy to get all flustered in my pantaloons over new versions of ’90s DIY indie emo bands.

Field Music – Flat White Moon
Sleepy, toothless indie rock for people who’d rather suck their flavorless cardboard through a straw.

First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle
This flamenco speed metal album is super fun for about 20 minutes, then when it completely wears out its welcome 10 minutes later, you realize that there’s still 40 fucking minutes left.

Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders – Promises
Cool to see Pharoah Sanders still kicking around, but I found this album as a whole to be massively overrated.

Flying Lotus – Yasuke
FlyLo’s latest project is a soundtrack album for a Netflix anime series, and even though I’d rather kill myself with fire than watch any anime series on the planet, Yasuke is incredibly vivid and dynamic…just like every other FlyLo album.

For Those I Love – For Those I Love
Entertaining mix of alternative dance, spoken word, and stunning, spacious soundscapes; the Irish accent don’t hurt neither.

Franklin Zoo – The Dandelion Child
Excellently ruminative and subtle progressive grunge-tinged hard rock from Denmark that features some really nice soloing that never treads wanky territory.

Fruit Bats – Siamese Dream
I don’t know enough about the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream to know how faithful, or otherwise, this complete top-to-bottom tribute cover to their second studio album actually is, but taken on its own it’s only just ok.

Funeral Mist – Deiform
This album slaps, but it’s too bad that the guy running this Swedish black metal outfit is a possible neo-Nazi piece of shit, so it gets a red dot!

Gazelle Twin / NYX – Deep England
Gazelle Twin’s 2014 album Unflesh was satisfyingly bizarre and often creepy, but this collaboration with NYX is completely boring as shit.

Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
The chaotic electronic metalcore outfit “evolves” just a little bit more, and our collective boredom has increased to match.

Ghetts – Conflict of Interest
I know this got high reviews across the board, but I found this thing way too fucking long and way too fucking tedious and I’m not even going to listen to it AGAIN because I’d rather poop on my fresh laundry and deal with that than grind through Conflict of Interest yet another time.

Goat Girl – On All Fours
Tighten it up next time, Goat Girl, your second album is 15 minutes longer than your first album and it suffers for it.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!
The legendary post-rock band makes another successful album of sleepy background music for people who like it when post-rock bands make music that sounds like post-rock music.

Green Lung – Black Harvest
It’s a poor man’s Deep Purple, OR it’s a rich man’s late-’80s/early-’90s era Deep Purple, and I’m here for it in either case.

Headshrinker – Callous Indifference
A big slab of twisty, labyrinthian death metal — me likey.

Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination
Stoner rock mixed with afrofunk, ’nuff said.

Hiatus Kaiyote – Mood Valiant
At times I can’t shake the thought that this sounds like a poor man’s Dirty Projectors a lot of the time, and thus 10 years too late, but it’s all right because this sometimes sounds like a REALLY poor-man’s DJ Shadow and Erykah Badu too, and I’m fine with that.

Iceage – Seek Shelter
I’ve always thought Iceage was a rather boring punk rock band, and they upped the boring ante further by incorporating a lot of boring gospel music.

illuminati hotties – Let Me Do One More
If you want to listen to the new Snail Mail record, but you don’t want to listen to all the overhyped and dull bullshit that actually surrounds the new Snail Mail record, listen to the new illuminati hotties record instead.

Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote
Some parts sludge, some parts post-hardcore, some goth rock, some cool melodies, and there are six other albums that came before this one to check out!

Indigo De Souza – Any Shape You Take
There are occasional cool surprises in this indie record, like some jagged, grungy guitar solos, but I haven’t warmed up this one entirely yet.

Inhuman Condition – Rat God
Enjoyable thrashy, death metal debut with great production, Black Sabbath riffs, and a swaggery old-school vibe, but I completely forgot this album existed until I started writing this stupid 2021 wrap-up!

Injury Reserve – By the Time I Get to Phoenix
The experimental hip-hop group’s sophomore effort is every bit as bizarre, abrasive, cerebral, and complex as their excellent debut, so listen to this shit why don’t ya?

Iotunn – Access All Worlds
Sprawling progressive melodeath of the Be’Lakor / Soen / Leprous ilk that is often melodramatic, BUT often resonant, so I like it enough.

Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
Fuck this, why does this album have to be 81 minutes long like the band didn’t already say everything it needs to say 35 years ago?

Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning
Isaiah Rashad takes his time between albums, and he also takes his time as he plods through his lazy trap stylings, ha!

Jane Weaver – Flock
Jane Weaver’s fresh take on spacey Stereolab drones and psychedelic worldbeat pop was a huge hit around the TomWritesAboutStuff offices (the closet in my home where the furnace and water heater rattle endlessly).

JPEGMANIA – LP!
Four albums in and JPEGMAFIA still hasn’t clicked with me, but perhaps that’s just because none of my own heroes are cornballs, I suppose.

Jazmine Sullivan – Heaux Tales
I don’t know enough about this particular genre as a whole to know exactly why this stands out so much, so maybe I’m missing something.

Kanye West – Donda
I listened to this once, and DONDA make me listen to it again!

Kayo Dot – Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike
Toby Driver can do no wrong in my eyes, even ten albums into his Kayo Dot project, even back in the day with his maudlin of the Well project, so of course I’m going to green dot this shit, you moron!

Kills Birds – Married
Hard-hitting, grungy, garage-y, female-fronted rock that is immensely listenable and one of the more underrated 2021 albums of its kind.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – L.W.
I’m always in the mood for some psychedelic jam-laden garage rock goodness…

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000
…unless, of course, the jams aren’t very inspired, and certainly not very garage-y.

King Woman – Celestial Blues
A unique mix of female vocals and slow, sludgy doom riffs, but a little too sleepy at times.

L’Rain – Fatigue
Yeah, I get it, and it’s all right, but I burned myself out on this kind of experimental sound collage-type music too long ago.

Lil Nas X – MONTERA
Hey, this kid is actually pretty good for someone whose stage name is just three other rapper names cobbled together; no wonder Elton John is a such a big fan!

Lingua Ignota – Sinner Get Ready
I’m not going to pretend I like this more than I do, because while this religiously themed exercise of tense old-school opera and sizzling industrial outbursts is emotionally satisfying, it can be a bit taxing in the wrong mood when absorbed as an leisurely listening experience.

Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
This is a monster of a record from a rapper who keeps innovating, this time adding plenty of orchestral instruments, and proving with bombast that she’s not as introverted as she may realize.

Logistic Slaughter – Lower Forms of Life
There’s nothing quite like 30 minutes of chunky brutal death metal to cure anything that might be ailing you, including depression, sleepiness, lupus, and Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Loraine James – Reflection
James’ experimental dance music is fun for a few spins as a novelty, but a lot of the album treads the chillwave style that I can’t really enjoy on its own merits and it’s too distracting to be good background reading music.

Low – HEY WHAT
Low continues their nearly perfect streak of haunting, pretty-even-when-it’s-ugly songwriting with an album that grows with each listen (and no signs of plateauing yet).

Magdalena Bay – Mercurial World
I admit that the synth textures and smooth, new-age beats are intriguing, but these springy sunny tunes do not fit the October 8th release date whatsoever, so they get a yellow dot for poor release schedule aesthetics!

Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks of God
The Million Minutes of Boring Music

Manic Street Preachers – The Ultra Vivid Lament
Manic Street Preachers are always one extended Moog synthesizer solo from being a full-blown corny neo-prog band, but the very fact that they flirt with this line so tactfully makes me like them even more than I would otherwise.

Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
The hype is real with this self-taught guitarist from Niger whose techniques are among the most unique I’ve heard from anyone coming up within the last 20 years.

Mega Bog – Life, and Another
Erin Birgy’s cozy folk, pop, and jazz amalgams are always enhanced by her lack of reservations to get really weird with it on occasion.

Ministry – Moral Hygiene
I still think Al Jourgensen is all right, but releases like Moral Hygiene, with all the Trump samples, feels like an antiquated way to present political commentary — even if I agree with it.