Music Monday: Leigh-Chantelle's Favourite Music for 2021

Leigh-Chantelle

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13 December 2021

Another year of some great music. Here are my favourite albums of 2021.

My album of the year is probably Julien Baker's Little Oblivions, followed closely by Little Simz's Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

And check out my favourite songs for 2021.

Another year of some great music. Here are my favourite albums of 2021.

My album of the year is probably Julien Baker's Little Oblivions, followed closely by Little Simz's Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

And check out my favourite songs for 2021 (coming soon!)

Aimee Mann: Queens of the Summer Hotel

aimee mann queens of the summer hotel

A selection of songs recorded for the Girl, Interrupted stage show, which Aimee has released this year.

"Sad Girl Music" as they say.

Buy here.

Give Me Fifteen:

Give me 15....
That is all I need to make the call
Women are so simple after all

In the time it takes to walk around the block
I can have you scheduled for electroshock

Maybe you're unhappy or depressed
I can diagnose before you get undressed

Guess you really have to have a special touch
Course it helps if you don't really care that much

I'll evaluate a lady at a glance
You're committed for the crime of lacking pants

Women who complain about the time they're seen
Sing a different tune when they're on Thorazine.

You Don't Have the Room:

You don't have the skin to bend the rules
The world will gladly suffer whiter fools
And when they screw it up, they justify
A second chance so they can try again
Running up a tab they'll never see
Becoming what you'll never be

You Could Have Been a Roosevelt:

This could be us
But those were not the cards
That we were dealt
You're doomed to be a Kennedy
When you could have been a Roosevelt

Read this great write-up from Carrie Courogen (she's just as obsessed with Lindsey and Stevie as me!).

Allday: Drinking with my Smoking Friends

A lot more pop than rap this time around.

Australian rapper who is now embracing his pop side.

Purchase/Stream.

Fast Ride:

I love you like I know you and I know you so well.

Stolen Cars:

Watch the live Lounge Session.

Allday's new album had NO rapping, however, his song with The Veronicas did.

Babyqueen: The Yearbook Mixtape

Honest views of a young person trying to navigate our online and offline world.

Pop music.

Purchase/Stream.

Raw Thoughts:

Dover Beach:

Chvrches: Screen Violence

Great album linking to the idea of a "final girl" who is kept alive in horror movies by her "virtues".

Electronic, synth-indie pop.

Listen/Buy.

How Not to Drown (featuring Robert Smith from The Cure!):

Tell me how

It’s better when the sun goes down

We will never escape this town

I wasn’t scared when he caught me

Look what it taught me.

Tell me how

It’s better if I make no sound

I will never escape these doubts

I wasn’t dead when they found me

Watch as they pull me down.

Good Girls:

Good girls don’t cry

And good girls don’t lie

And good girls justify

but I don’t.

Good girls don’t die

And good girls stay alive

And good girls satisfy

but I won’t.

He Siad She Said:

Dar Williams: I'll Meet You Here

My favourite singer/songwriter of all time. So excited about this record.

Folk/pop/Americana.

Purchase.

Little Town:

But my kids, they went off in all directions
And I know it's thanks to you they have returned
They have all this understanding, all this understanding
They have been the world around
And they came back to our little town.

And a reimagining of one of my fave songs of hers, Aging Well:

Why is it that as we grow older and stronger
The road signs point us adrift and make us afraid?
Saying "You never can win," "Watch your back,"
"Where's your husband?"
Oh, I don't like the signs that the sign makers made.
So I'm gonna steal out with my paint and my brushes
I'll change the directions, I'll hit every street.
It's the Tinseltown scandal, the Robin Hood vandal,
She goes out and steals the King's English.
And in the morning you wake up and the signs point to you.

They say "I'm so glad that you finally made it here"
"You thought nobody cared, but I did, I could tell"
And "This is your year" and "It always starts here"
And oh, "You're aging well".

Julien Baker: Little Oblivions

Probably my album of the year. Always a good year when two-thirds of boygenius releases albums - see Lucy Dacus below.

Indie songwriter.

Listen/BUY on Bandcamp. There's also a Remixes release.

Hardline:

When it finally gets to be too much
I always told you you could leave at any time.
Till then, I'll split the difference
Between medicine and poison
Take what I can get away with
While it burns right through my stomach.
I'm telling my own fortune
Something I cannot escape
I can see where this is going
But I can't find the brake.

And here's a live version from Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Relative Fiction:

When I could spend the weekend out on a bender
Do I get callous or do I stay tender?
Which of these is worse
And which is better?
Dying to myself virtually, a massacre
A Character of somebody's invention
A Martyr in another passion play
I guess I don't mind losing my conviction
If it's all relative fiction anyway.

Watch Julien live (again) on KEXP (at home).

Little Simz: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

This would be my runner-up favourite album of the year.

Rap/R&B.

Listen/Buy.

Introvert is my favourite song - the amount of times I have played this song over and over...

I'm directly affected, it does more than just bother me
Look beyond the surface, don't just see what you wanna see?
My speech ain't involuntary
Project with intention straight from my lungs
I'm a black woman and I'm a proud one
We walk in blind faith not knowing the outcome
But as long as we're unified, then we've already won

Point And Kill feat. Obongjayar

Can't stop greatness, what's the point in trying hard
Not to recognize with all this pressure we applying
Tell my people rise up, can never be silenced
You think we're apologetic, I think we're defiant
Mummy say I gotta be a go go getter
Got the devil tryna tempt me but I know better
Never been the type to not acknowledge all the signs
It's a fact that everything I want is in front of my eyes.

Check out the live Tiny Desk Home concert if you love hip hop with a live band and to see Obongjayar's outfit!

Lucy Dacus: Home Video

Exceptional lyrics and music from Lucy.

Always a good year when two-thirds of boygenius releases albums - hope you saw Julien Baker above.

Indie songwriter.

Purchase/Listen on Bandcamp.

Brando:

You called me cerebral.

I didn't know what you meant.

But now I do.

Would it have killed you to call me pretty instead?

I'm in a second-story window

and you're yelling at me "Stella!"

and I'm laughing cause you think you're Brando

but you'll never come close.

First Time:

Broke into the screened in porch,

now I'm crawling through the dog door.

I may let you see me on my knees,

but you'll never see me on all fours.

Drooling on the tile,

I'm a starfish on the kitchen floor.

Catch my breath to breathe your name.

I am just the fool you took me for.

Watch her live performances on KEXP (at home) and Tiny Desk (home) concerts.