Coup De Main's Best Albums of 2021
If there’s one thing that the worldwide pandemic has given us, it’s that songwriters are universally more honest, than ever before. The world could explode tomorrow, so you may as well say what’s on your mind, right?
Published: December 16, 2021

Clash's Albums of the Year 2021
The end of the year is always an opportunity to look back, embracing winter’s implicit themes of decay and renewal. With the world still shrouded in the
Published: December 16, 2021

Stereogum's 10 Best Hardcore Albums of 2021
We look back at the year in hardcore.
Published: December 16, 2021

Beats Per Minute's Top 50 Albums of 2021

Published: December 16, 2021

Rolling Stone's 20 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2021
The year’s most impressive rap releases included bold moves from Young Thug, Drake, Doja Cat, and Playboi Carti.
Published: December 15, 2021

Stereogum's 10 Best Rap Albums of 2021
In 2021, the grand and majestic rap stars all let us down. Drake made another commercial megalith, an album that dominated charts to an absurd degree, and it was just OK. Kanye West made a vast weeks-long spectacle of his album release, and the album itself was just OK. J. Cole made a pretty good J. Cole album, which isn’t letting us down per se, but it’s not lighting anyone’s world on fire, either. Kendrick Lamar, once again, did not release an album.
Published: December 15, 2021

Los Angeles Times' 10 Best Albums of 2021
R&B testimonials, teen confessionals, hip-hop in pop-star drag and more, in a wide-open year for breakthroughs.
Published: December 15, 2021

DJ Mag's Top Albums of 2021
We've switched up our end-of-year coverage this year. Instead of ranked countdowns, we've asked 40 contributors to pick their favourite albums, tracks and compilations from the past 12 months, celebrating the personal sounds that made this strange year a memorable one for electronic music. Here are DJ Mag's top albums of 2021
Published: December 15, 2021

MAGNET's Top 25 Albums of 2021
1) Strand Of Oaks "In Heaven"; 2) Low "Hey What"; 3) Arlo Parks "Collapsed In Sunbeams"; 4) The Weather Station "Ignorance"; 5) Aeon Station "Observatory"
Published: December 15, 2021

BrooklynVegan's 50 Best Punk Albums of 2021
2021 was an incredible year for punk and its many offshoots. Here are the 50 best albums across punk, hardcore, post-hardcore, emo, screamo, metalcore, ska-punk, pop punk, indie-punk, and some hard-to-define stuff in between.
Published: December 14, 2021

The FADER's 50 Best Albums of 2021
Our list of the albums that defined and transcended 2021, from Tyler, The Creator to Porter Robinson, Jazmine Sullivan to Doja Cat.
Published: December 14, 2021

Les Inrocks' Top 50 Albums of 2021
En cette année moins confinée que la précédente, la musique s’est à nouveau libérée de partout, et parfois de nulle part. À découvrir, entre autres, des brûlots mélodiques, des maelströms émotionnels, de la néo-soul UK et des fulgurances teenage.
Published: December 14, 2021

Rolling Stone's 10 Best Metal Albums of 2021
We run down the 10 best metal albums of 2021, from Iron Maiden's 'Senjutsu' to King Woman's 'Celestial Blues.'
Published: December 14, 2021

Pitchfork's Best Progressive Pop Music of 2021
From PinkPantheress’ lo-fi club cuts to Bladee’s self-deprecating sing-song raps, C. Tangana’s folkloric reimaginations to Tinashe’s featherlight fireworks, these are the songs and albums that pushed pop music forward this year.
Published: December 14, 2021

The Atlantic's 10 Best Albums of 2021
The most memorable music made during a disorienting year, from Lorde, Arca, Jazmine Sullivan, and more
Published: December 14, 2021

BBC Culture's 10 Best Albums of 2021
Arwa Haider and Nick Levine highlight BBC Culture's musical picks of the year.
Published: December 14, 2021

SPIN's 30 Best Albums of 2021
Back in June, SPIN published The 30 Best Albums of 2021 (So Far), rounding up everything from mainstream rock to experimental hip-hop. Six months later,
Published: December 13, 2021

Vulture's Best Albums of 2021
Including Halsey, Tyler the Creator, Mach-Hommy, Jazmine Sullivan, Madlib, Kacey Musgraves, Low, and more.
Published: December 13, 2021

Stereogum's 10 Best Country Albums of 2021
From Allison Russell to Sturgill Simpson, we look at the best of what country had to offer this year.
Published: December 13, 2021

Rolling Stone's 25 Best Country & Americana Albums of 2021
The best country and Americana albums of 2021, including Morgan Wade, Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson, and Allison Russell.
Published: December 13, 2021

The Line of Best Fit's Best Albums of 2021
We rank the 50 most outstanding records of 2021, including JPEGMAFIA, PinkPantheress, The War on Drugs and Little Simz.
Published: December 13, 2021

Far Out Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2021
Picking out the 50 finest records of the year is always difficult but 2021 bore a new challenge. Expect inclusions for Japanese Breakfast, Shame and more.
Published: December 12, 2021

The Sunday Times' 25 Best Albums of 2021
25. Valerie June — The Moon and StarsThe Tennessean used her extraordinary voice — sometimes a sigh, sometimes a full-throated holler, switching without warnin
Published: December 11, 2021

Stereogum's 10 Best Electronic Albums of 2021
We count down the best electronic albums of 2021.
Published: December 10, 2021

Esquire's Best Albums of 2021
The best albums of 2021 come from stellar outings from Tyler, the Creator, Japanese Breakfast, the Kings of Leon, Leon Bridges, Mach-Hommy, the Weather Station, and more.
Published: December 10, 2021

Kerrang!'s 50 Best Albums of 2021
It’s here: the Kerrang! verdict on the 50 albums that shaped 2021…
Published: December 10, 2021

NME's 50 Best Albums of 2021
​​It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Here are NME’s top 50 albums of 2021, ranked in order of absolute awesomeness
Published: December 10, 2021

RIFF's 108 Best Albums of 2021
The best albums of 2021 include Billie Eilish, Brandi Carlile, Tyler, The Creator, Little Simz, Olivia Rodrigo, Wolf Alice, Gojira,…
Published: December 10, 2021

Our Culture's 50 Best Albums of 2021
Our Culture's top 50 albums of 2021, featuring Clairo, Foxing, The War on Drugs, Low, Turnstile, Japanese Breakfast, and more.
Published: December 09, 2021

Stereogum's 10 Best Metal Albums of 2021
In the 10 Best Metal Albums Of 2019, we introduced the Black Market Glossary, a reference guide designed to help new readers interpret what the hell we were writing about. In 2021, we’re introducing the Game Of Metal, a tabletop game for old readers to print out and play and wonder what the hell we’re doing with our lives. The Complete Handbook includes an incredible gameboard designed by Stephen Wilson, rules, roleplayable scenarios, starter cards, and more. It’s… a lot. And those 48 pages of glory, an intense, wild-eyed tribute to the gods of “a lotness” (Manowar?), can be downloaded here.
Published: December 09, 2021

The Vinyl Factory's 50 Favourite Albums of 2021
Vinyl Factory's favourite albums of 2020 – the fifty records that the editorial team loved during the past 12 months.
Published: December 09, 2021

Variety: Jem Aswad's Best Albums of 2021
Our critics' picks for the best albums of 2021 include Billie Eilish, Summer Walker, Arlo Parks, Liz Phair, Brandi Carlile and Arooj Aftab.
Published: December 09, 2021

Variety: Chris Willman's Best Albums of 2021
Our critics' picks for the best albums of 2021 include Billie Eilish, Summer Walker, Arlo Parks, Liz Phair, Brandi Carlile and Arooj Aftab.
Published: December 09, 2021

Pitchfork's Best Electronic Music of 2021
From SHERELLE’s breakneck breakbeats to Equiknoxx’s surrealistic dancehall, and from aya’s dissociative club fugues to Space Afrika’s mournful ambient, these are the electronic releases that made our year.
Published: December 09, 2021

Double J's 50 Best Albums of 2021
The 50 best albums of the year, as voted by the Double J team
Published: December 08, 2021

Stereogum's 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2021
As the second year of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic draws to a close, live music is slowly coming back. Bands are returning to the recording studio. And we’re all — artists, fans, and music industry folks alike — trying to predict what the future may hold. Jazz, a genre familiar with precarity even at the best of times, has been altered in fundamental ways by the events of 2020 and 2021.
Published: December 08, 2021

NZ Herald's Top 10 Albums That Defined 2021
Opinion : What an absolutely colossal year it's been for music. 2021 gave us everything from Lil Nas X literally giving birth to his new album, right through...
Published: December 08, 2021

Metal Hammer's Top 10 Death Metal Albums of 2021
From the hellish shrieks of blackened death metal to the technical ecstasy of the tech-death scene and beyond, death metal's landscape teems with life in the 2020s. Between the revival of old sch
Published: December 08, 2021

Pitchfork's 31 Best Rock Albums of 2021
From Snail Mail’s explosive breakup anthems to the Armed’s conceptual fireworks, Lucy Dacus’ home movies to Mdou Moctar’s virtuosic guitar anthems, these are the rock albums that stood out this year.
Published: December 08, 2021

Slant Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2021
The 50 best albums of 2021 prove that, despite all the chaos in the world, music’s pulse is stronger than ever.
Published: December 07, 2021

The Washington Post's Top 10 Albums of 2021
Some of the year’s best albums helped push time forward. Others made it blur.
Published: December 07, 2021

Stereogum's 25 Great EPs from 2021
In all the years that we’ve been doing this list, 2021 is the first time that it seems like so many artists released multiple EPs over the course of the year, or released sequels that revisited ideas from previous EPs that they had put out. I don’t know why that is! Maybe the pandemic has got everyone’s attention span frazzled, or maybe the ever-present vinyl delays mean that artists are turning to the shortform while waiting for their long-players to eventually come out. Whatever the case may be, you’ll see quite a few sequels and Vols. 1 and/or 2 in this year’s list. There are also the requisite entries from hardcore barn-burners and up-and-coming bands that are just starting to prove themselves and a whole lot more in between. As it has for the last few years, our 25 Great EPs list is an addendum to Stereogum’s 50 Best Albums Of 2021 list so that we can celebrate this year’s shorter releases and highlight a larger pool of music. We collectively voted on these as a staff, though I (James, hello) wrote about all of them and made the final decisions about what to include and exclude, which means that the results probably trend toward my tastes a bit more than a true consensus list might. That also means that the EPs list is not meant to be exhaustive and definitive — because of their very nature, EPs sometimes slip through the cracks. We encourage your picks in the comments below. Read on for Stereogum’s list of 25 Great EPs From 2021, which are presented alphabetically.
Published: December 07, 2021

Pitchfork's 50 Best Albums of 2021
The albums that got us through a very strange year, featuring Tyler, the Creator, Adele, Jazmine Sullivan, Playboi Carti, and more
Published: December 07, 2021

Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2021
As the year comes to a close, we've rounded up the 50 top albums of 2021. Check out the complete list to see what made the cut here.
Published: December 07, 2021

The Ringer's Best Albums of 2021
As the music industry regained some normalcy, big-time releases returned. But how many made our list of projects worth celebrating?
Published: December 07, 2021

Treble's 50 Best Albums of 2021
Our list of the 50 best albums of 2021 is a cross section of gems from a strange year, from haunted gospel to orchestral rap maximalism.
Published: December 07, 2021

Billboard's 50 Best Albums of 2021
Billboard's editorial staff picks their 50 favorite albums of 2021.
Published: December 06, 2021

The Economist's Best Albums of 2021
Desert blues, folk and punk rock are included in The Economist’s recommended playlist this year | Culture
Published: December 06, 2021

Stereogum's 50 Best Albums of 2021
We made it! Mostly. Kind of. The COVID era, which utterly derailed music and most other things for the better part of two years, isn’t quite over. But around the time that most of us got our second arm-jabs, the whole economy surrounding music started to sputter to life once again. It’s not quite the same as it was this time in 2019 yet, but it’s now possible for a band to release an album and then tour behind that album. We used to take that for granted. Now, it feels miraculous.
Published: December 06, 2021

Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2021
From Adele's heroic return to Rauw Alejandro's thrillingly unpredictable breakthrough and much more, here are the best albums of 2021.
Published: December 03, 2021