2021 Awards
My favourite music, and other music related things, from another trying year
Album Of The Year : Low — Hey What
I really should stop being surprised by Low’s continual excellence. They’ve been putting out albums for close to thirty years, and I’ve been following them for twenty of those. Most bands, even those I love dearly, eventually settle into a bit of a lull (or split), but Low keep putting out stunning new records every two or three years without fail.
Hey What didn’t have quite the surprise factor of previous album Double Negative, but over repeated listens I’ve grown to love it just as much, if not more It marries their experimentalism with their best set of songs in many years, with vocal harmonies clear and at the forefront. At this stage I may as well pencil Low in for album of the year for any year in which they choose to release one.
Runners up: Grouper — Shade, Adult Mom — Driver, Christine Ott — Time to Die
Song Of The Year : Horsegirl — Ballroom Dance Scene
I may be cheating a bit on this one, as it was originally released in 2020. It was re-released in early 2021 though, so I’m going to allow myself the opportunity to write about it again. It’s such a great song, combining the storytelling, character-filled lyrics of early Belle and Sebastian with the builds and crescendos of post-rock. I look forward to hearing more from them in 2022.
Runners up: Grouper — Promise, Shamir — When Gravity Is Dead, The Crystal Furs — Miss Hughes
EP Of The Year : Rosie Turton — Expansions and Transformations: Part I and II
I don’t listen to enough jazz, despite my love for it having grown over the years, and I certainly don’t listen to enough new jazz. I’m probably missing out on an awful lot of gems, but I’m glad to have caught this one, four tracks of complex yet melodic delight from trombonist Rosie Turton.
Runners up: Hanah — Watch The World In Detail, Caroline Shaw — Narrow Sea
Artist of the Year : Afterlight
Afterlight is the new artist name for Thea Gilmore, whose music I have loved for many years (I wrote about the 20th anniversary of her Rules for Jokers album just recently). She deserves great credit for ripping it up and starting again, but also for a wonderful first Afterlight record, bookended with two of the most powerful spoken word pieces you will ever hear.
Runners up: Low, Adult Mom, Richard Dawson
Live Show of the Year: Richard Dawson
This wasn’t too difficult to choose admittedly, as I only made it to two gigs in 2021 (still more than 2020 though). The refurbished Howard Assembly Room felt weirdly futuristic, and everyone in the audience was masked, so it wasn’t quite a return to normality, but the show more than made up for it.
Support was from a new artist to me, Yakka Doon, another folk singer from the North-East, who I have been listening to a lot since. Richard himself did not disappoint, starting with a 12 minute acapella song about a 17th century quiltmaker with the rest of his set focusing on his ‘2020’ album and a few others favourites. It was just him, his voice and his guitar, a wonderful reminder of how powerful live music can be.
Cover Version of the Year: Shamir — Where Gravity Is Dead
It’s rare that someone covers a song that I love and really does it justice, but Shamir’s version of Laura Veirs’ Where Gravity is Dead truly matches the original. It’s raw, heartfelt and beautiful. It comes from Kill Rock Stars 3 0th anniversary compilation of covers of songs by their past and present artists, which is full of gems.
Runners up: Laura Veirs — Between The Bars, Mirah — In Love
New Artist of the Year: Horsegirl
See song of the year above. Ballroom Dance Scene was great, Billy was great, and I can only hope that a full album follows soon in 2022.
Runners up: Langkamer, Wet Leg, Hanah
New (to me) Artist of the Year: Grouper
It’s always great to discover a new artist you love, but it’s even better to discover an artist with a long, rich back catalogue. Somehow Grouper’s 2021 album Shade is the first I had listened to, despite her music being exactly the kind of thing I like, and it being her 12th album. It sits at that perfect intersection between minimal folk and ambient electronics, and is beautifully quiet and peaceful. I look forward to continuing to explore Grouper’s music in 2022.
Runners up: Shannon Lay, Rosie Turton, Christine Ott
Experiment of the Year : Me Rex — Megabear
When I first read about this album, made up of 52 tracks which can be played in any order to form a single continuous song, I was intrigued, but didn’t expect great things. It really works though. I’ve shuffled it into all kinds of forms, and every time it has flowed seamlessly into a genuinely moving half-hour epic. It helps that it reminds me a little of the emo music I used to love in my mid-Twenties and am just starting to become nostalgic for.
Even if you only ever listened to Megabear in one order, it would still be a great record, but the experiment makes it somehow more profound, provoke all sorts of thoughts on the nature and structure of the music I love.
Runners up: Christine Ott — Time To Die, Fatima Al Qadiri — Medieval Femme
Music film/show of the year — Summer of Soul
A good year for music documentaries, with Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground doc, and Get Back of course, somehow making 8 hours of watching a band rehearse compelling. Summer of Soul was the best though, not only for the musical performances (although Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone in particular were stunning) but also the way it transports you back to late 1960s Harlem, really making you feel you were there.
Runners Up: Get Back, The Velvet Underground, I Am A Cliche
Music book of the year — Dave Haslam
I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t get round to reading many books in the year that they’re released, so this is actually from 2020. A very short but fascinating study of Courtney Love’s pre-fame time in Liverpool, it’s both compelling and remarkably balanced. Courtney Love tends to inspire hatred or intense devotion, so that balance is rare (full disclosure- Hole were my favourite band as a teen, and Live Through this is still an album I listen to a great deal). Well worth the hour or so it will take you to read.
Originally published at http://colourthecortex.wordpress.com on January 4, 2022.
