Looking Back on 2021
by John Amen
Writing โ of whatever sort, poems, stories, critical work โ has always felt like a compass and a weathervane, providing direction while portending from where the next storm might arrive. This year, perhaps more than others, I was grateful for the practice.
As there are numerous best-of and top-fav lists out there, Iโll keep it short. Here are some artists/projects that struck me as uniquely compelling and that seem underappreciated:
* Animated Matterโs exquisitely languid and ethereally transportive Selkie.
* Anna B Savageโs A Common Turn, with its diaristic yet poetic lyricism, club atmospherics, and small dollops of chamber punk.
* Archie Shepp and Jason Moranโs Let My People Go, surreally tinged, subtly asynchronous, and elegantly discordant jazz.
* Daniel Knoxโs Wonโt You Take Me with You, a continued reinterpretation of the Sinatra-Scott Walker-Broadway Musical lineage.
* Dean Bluntโs dreampop-y, agit-textural Black Metal 2.
* Kujoโs dystopian, jagged, and disorienting The Rebels Have No King.
* Maple Gliderโs To Enjoy Is the Only Thing โ melancholy, atmospheric, uber-melodic songs.
* Nala Sinephroโs Space 1.8 โ trippy, electro-tinged, new-generation jazz.
* Naoko Sakataโs Dancing Spirits, stunning hybridizations of classical structures and jazz improv.
* Paris, Texasโs debut EP (LP?) Boy Anonymous, with its boisterous amalgams of pop sensibility and hip-hop bravado.
* Sadnessโs Alluring the distant eye, seamless transitions between delicately sheer and densely apocalyptic soundscapes.
A few other standouts (most of which seem to have been a bit more widely appreciated): Arooj Aftabโs Vulture Prince; Backxwashโs I Lie Here Buried with My Rings and My Dresses; Beth Leeโs Waiting on You Tonight;Claire Rousayโs A Softer Focus; Dry Cleaningโs New Long Leg; Emma Ruth Rundleโs Engine of Hell; Helado Negroโs Far In; Janet Simpsonโs Safe Distance; Kaโs A Martyr’s Reward; King Womanโs Celestial Blues; Lil Ugly Maneโs Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern; Hana Vuโs Public Storage; Karima Walkerโs Waking the Dreaming Body; Lingua Ignotaโs Sinner Get Ready; Little Simzโs Sometimes I Might Be Introvert; and Pearl Charlesโs Magic Mirror. Of course, there were numerous other albums that thrilled me at different times throughout the year, many of which Iโll later regret not mentioning.
W.S. Merwin opined in a couplet that Iโve never forgotten since I first read it years ago: โHope and grief are still our wings / Why we cannot fly.โ Itโs that second line that fascinates me. Letโs take care of ourselves โฆ and each other.
