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Best music of 2021 was about reconnecting with the world

By Dan DeLuca, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Published: December 23, 2021, 6:02am
2 Photos
Jazmine Sullivan gives an interview at the ???2021 Soul Train Awards??? presented by BET at World Famous Apollo on Nov. 20, 2021 in New York City.
Jazmine Sullivan gives an interview at the ???2021 Soul Train Awards??? presented by BET at World Famous Apollo on Nov. 20, 2021 in New York City. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET/TNS) Photo Gallery

The best music of 2021 was about coming back out to meet the world — or at least trying to.

It wasn’t so easy. The pandemic that was supposed to end didn’t. Live shows returned during festival season, then became uneasy indoor anxiety-inducers as new coronavirus variants emerged.

Most of the albums on this list reflect that tension, though many were recorded or at least written before the pandemic began.

But that’s no surprise: Great art is often about ambivalence and uncertainty as well as a compulsion to connect. The War on Drugs songs shoot to arena-rock transcendence but also look inward with hesitancy and doubt. Japanese Breakfast’s “Jubilee” means to be as celebratory as its title, but grief lingers.

Starting with those two and counting Jazmine Sullivan’s “Heaux Tales” and Lucy Dacus’ “Home Video” makes for four legit spots by Philly-based or -founded acts. That’s a personal Top 5 record for me that speaks to the continued vitality of the scene.

So listen up, and here’s to a healthier and even more productive 2022.

Allison Russell, ‘Outside Child’: Allison Russell’s debut album tells a harrowing story with elegance and grace. “Father used me like a wife, mother turned the blindest eye,” the Montreal-born, Nashville-based songwriter sings on “4th Day Prayer.” “Stole my body, spirit, pride.”

Does that make “Outside Child” sound like a difficult listen? The opposite is true. Instead, Russell, 41, a longtime member of Birds of Chicago and one of four banjo-playing Black women in folk supergroup Our Native Daughters, has fashioned a beautifully resilient solo debut. She’s at her most mesmerizing on “Nightflyer. “I’m the wounded bird, the screaming hawk,” she sings. “The one who can’t be counted out.”

The War on Drugs, ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’: The title of the Fishtown-founded rock band’s fifth album doesn’t pertain to Philadelphia per se, though band leader Adam Granduciel now lives in Los Angeles. It’s more about a concept of constant motion, the forever search, that drives the Drugs’ best synth- and guitar-heavy songs, like “IDLHA’s” title cut and the sublime “Harmonia’s Dream.”

Olivia Rodrigo, ‘Sour’: When 2021 began, Olivia’s Rodrigo’s name wasn’t widely known beyond the Disney+ show “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” Her breakout “Drivers License” changed that, and the artistry that runs throughout the punk-poppy “Sour” shows she’s learned much from her songwriting hero Taylor Swift. Suburban teen angst is at its finest on “Brutal”: “I hate every song I write, and I’m not cool and I’m not smart, and I can’t even parallel park.”

Tyler, the Creator, ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’: Odd Future producer Tyler Okonma’s latest alias is Tyler Baudelaire. He’s named himself after the French poet while rapping about eating French vanilla ice cream. “Call Me If You Get Lost” honors late ’00’s mixtape culture and looks back on past controversies. And at over eight minutes, “Wilshire” comes in second to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” as the epic soap opera of the year.

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