The best albums of 2021, from Dave and Arlo Parks to Lana del Rey and Little Simz

It’s been another dodgy year – but the music has been spectacular
ES Composite
David Smyth21 December 2021

While gig going is far from back to normal, at least musicians haven’t forgotten how to make great albums. The past year has been stuffed with recorded music, both lockdown creations and big releases that had been delayed in hope of the old ways returning.

It’s many years since we had an autumn quite so starry, with Adele, ABBA, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay all making comebacks, but the very best releases were elsewhere. Here are a dozen of them.

Clairo – Sling

(Fader/Republic/Polydor)

Bedroom pop, the current term for lo-fi, understated music that couldn’t sit further from an arena confetti explosion, stepped out into the open in 2021. Dodie, Girl in Red and Claire “Clairo” Cottrill all made sophisticated albums. The latter’s second is the most surprising, a transition from her debut that abandons her previous indie electronic mix in favour of chamber pop strings, muted brass, piano and acoustic guitar. Maybe it was part of producer Jack Antonoff’s plan to create a new Laurel Canyon – his recent work with Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Taylor Swift has a similar warm folky feel. Either way it successfully shunted Clairo from an internet curiosity to a mature songwriter who’ll last.

Dave – We’re All Alone in This Together

(Neighbourhood)

David Orobosa Omoregie set himself an extremely high bar with his 2019 debut, Psychodrama, which went platinum and won the Mercury Prize and the Brit Award for Album of the Year. On the follow-up he keeps the musical backdrop minimal but really stretches out with his lyricism, digging deeper into the hardships of his early life but also, on Three Rivers, tacking the immigrant experience as a whole. Heart Attack in particular is an extraordinary 10-minute journey, with Dave carrying on rapping long after the music has stopped and wrapping up with a sobbing speech from his mother.

Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

(Polydor)

Without a world tour to eat into her time, Lana Del Rey has been recording at a fierce clip lately. This one was the second of three albums she released in just over two years, not including a spoken word recording of her poetry. Chemtrails Over the Country Club isn’t as expansive as its career-high predecessor, Norman F***ing Rockwell!, but hangs together more coherently than its follow-up, Blue Banisters. Del Rey keeps the feel as romantic and tortured as ever but also seems at ease, putting her friends on the sleeve and bringing some low-key musical buddies in for a cover from Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon album.

Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

(Polydor)

Like a northern indie rock version of Dave, Sam Fender put himself under the microscope on his second album, presenting unflinching personal detail that also said something profound about the rest of us: teenage fist fights, difficult fathers and suicidal thoughts are all present in his heartwrenching songs. The difference is the music, which is so exhilarating and euphoric – massed guitars, strings and stratospheric choruses – it’s no wonder he’ll be playing it to ecstatic arenas in the spring. Yes, he still sounds like his idol Bruce Springsteen, but his honesty makes the songs unmistakably his own.

For Those I Love - For Those I Love

(September)

I keep playing this one to people this year, insisting how great it is, and it doesn’t always get a positive reaction. Some will falter at David Balfe’s thick Irish accent, which transports the dance beats and spoken word tales of The Streets to the streets of Dublin. But the pain in that brogue is profoundly powerful as he details the fallout from the suicide of his best friend. There’s bleak drinking and attempts at partying: “The songs sound fun and you dance with your mates/And it’s grand then until the next day,” he says, sounding like things definitely aren’t grand. There’s also, eventually, a glimmer of hope.

Fred again.. - Actual Life (April 14 - December 17 2020)

(Atlantic)

Londoner Fred Gibson has been the main producer on Ed Sheeran’s last two albums and worked on rap tracks by Stormzy and Headie One. None of that music indicates the intimate appeal of the two solo albums he has released this year. Both Actual Life and last month’s follow-up, Actual Life 2, have date ranges as their subtitles to show their status as musical diaries. The songs are named after the people he has sampled, scattering these found sounds over dance music with a soft sadness at its core. It’s a moving chronicle of a year like no other, dominated by one supportive slogan: “We gon’ make it through.”

Valerie June - The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers

(Fantasy)

Memphis singer-songwriter Valerie June has a reputation as a vintage throwback, previously working with retro enthusiast producer Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and memorably describing her songs as “organic moonshine roots music”. Which makes her latest album a fascinating surprise. It roams widely, sprinkling a shimmer of psychedelia over her country-folk baseline. There are digital beats on Within You, trippy interludes designed for meditation and a guest spot from Stax soul veteran Carla Thomas, whose voice is a fine counterpoint to June’s feline purr.

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

(Age 101)

The reclusive producer Inflo released yet another excellent Sault album this year, as well as making some key contributions to Adele’s 30, but his best work was on the expansive soul sound of Simbiatu Ajikawo’s fourth long player. The opening track Introvert in particular is significantly less timid than its title, an onslaught of choir, drums and orchestra that confirm Little Simz as our most sonically ambitious rapper. Meanwhile, lyrically speaking she is more gripping than ever, tackling broken family relationships, feminism and her own love-hate relationship with fame.

Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams

(Transgressive)

Arlo Parks pipped Wolf Alice and Celeste to this year’s Mercury Prize with a debut album that was a comforting hug in a dark year. Though it’s almost too softly spoken musically, with an easygoing, jazzy style that recalls Nineties trip hop, her status as a poet allows her to hit nails on heads throughout. There are fascinating microscopic details and universal themes, and overall, a feeling of much needed reassurance. On Hope, she sings: “You’re not alone like you think you are/We all have scars, I know it’s hard.”

Olivia Rodrigo – Sour

(Interscope)

Olivia Rodrigo’s well-trodden path from Disney Channel to pop singer might have suggested obligatory career box-ticking rather than anything genuinely special. However, the Californian teenager’s debut single, the slow-burning emotion of Drivers License, was a phenomenon, spending nine weeks at number one in the UK and 10 in the US. She pulled off its trick – making opera-level drama out of the standard experiences of growing up – again and again on her debut album, wishing happiness but not too much of it to an ex on Happier, and wondering “Where’s my f***ing teenage dream?” on the appropriately named Brutal.

Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure

(Fiction)

Not many pop singers are making albums that suggest everything is great these days, but Sheffield’s Rebecca Taylor did a particularly fine job of sticking chilis in the ice cream. Her big, loud synthpop songs are riddled with pain and insecurity, also encouraging the women listening to “Look up, lean back, be strong,” as she puts it on her breakthrough single, I Do This All The Time. The rumbling opening song, I’m Fine, trumpets feminist freedom while finishing with a woman revealing that she and her friends bark like dogs in an attempt to defuse intimidating groups of men. It’s a brilliant album that voices the contradictions of being a woman today and never stints on the tunes.

Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

(Dirty Hit)

Though Wolf Alice won the Mercury Prize with their last album, this one was their first UK number one – a richly deserved status upgrade. The pick ‘n’ mix indie rock of the London band’s earlier work becomes a widescreen style more distinctively their own here. Producer Markus Dravs was drafted in, having previously helped to give an epic sheen to albums by Coldplay, Arcade Fire and Florence + the Machine. Epic anthems such as The Last Man on Earth and How Can I Make it OK? put Wolf Alice comfortably in that A-list company.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in