Top 20 Songs 2021

Earl Sweatshirt comes and goes as he pleases, making music when inspiration strikes. Traditional form, structure, and even releases arent really part of the style of the artist born as Thebe Kgositsile. After parting ways with Columbia Records after 2018's Some Rap Songs, he released the alluringly short Feet of Clay the following year. On 2010, he enters the track in mid thought with a fluttering synth: I'ma need a bigger bag for the cohort / Tryna make a millionaire out of slum dogs / Bet that, head crack, blunt force, he raps. Its an opening line that acts as an instant reminder that Earl is one of hip-hops most mind-boggling lyricists, balancing abstract thought with clever wordplay and vivid personal memories. Matt Miller

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats broke out with their particular, you-can't-help-but-dance brand of rock n' roll back in 2015. But at the outset of last year, the frontman wasn't sure he had any more happy songs in him. Going through a divorce, he told Esquire he wouldn't get the group back together until the pep returned, and instead favored more sedate solo fare releases. That changed in 2021, and this, the first song on their return LP, announced a boisterous, undeniable return. MV

ABBA just released their first album in 40 years, it contains a song called Keep An Eye On Dan, and were just supposed to go on like everything is normal? Preposterous. All of the new LP, Voyage, is a beautiful and bizarre ride into the interior lives of four divorced bajillionaire Swedish pop geniusesor at least we think so, the one thing we know for sure is that none of these people has spoken a word of English since 1981. After a few dozen listens, were not sure whether Dan is the ex-husband, or the child whos being dropped off for a weekend with a new stepmother, or what. We also dont care. Listen to it once, know that youll be screaming KEEP AN EYE ON DAN for days afterwards, and thank us later. Dave Holmes

Listening to Like I Used To, it seems almost criminal that Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen had never collaborated before. The ease with which two of todays most revered singer-songwriters share this track is astonishingtheir voices the perfect complement in tone, timbre, power, and style. When they join together on the chorus, their deliveries lock together like building blocks for a transcendent musical structure. MM

The best song off of Adele's 2021 LP, 30, finds the singer at her most Winehouse-ianwhich is to say soaked in R&B and completely irresistible. MV

Charli XCX and Christine and the Queens have already established themselves as a dream team when it comes to making club-rattling art pop. Adding Caroline Polachek to that equation on New Shapes only further launches Charlis sound into another stratosphere. Soaring falsettos glide across the crisp synth pulses and stomping drum machines. Like the best of Charlis music, its fit for an emotional experience on the dancefloor. MM

Since dropping in June, Wet Legs Chaise Longue has garnered nearly 2 million views on YouTube and another 4.5 million streams on Spotify. That may seem like small potatoes to those familiar with, say, Bieber's streaming numbers, but it's an incredible feat for a debut single for any band, especially one from the small Isle of Wight. Its been a lovely surprise, Hester Chambers, one half of the duo, told Under the Radar shortly after the song blew up. We wrote it in one an evening, just writing for fun and being silly and we had no clue at the time that it would connect with so many people. That blithe attitude [this song opens with what may be a reference to Mean Girls buttered muffin joke] toward post-punk absolutely rips, and is what makes Wet Leg so effortlessly cool. Rock music needs not take itself so seriously. Let the numbers show weve been waiting for it. MM

Missouri-born, Nashville-dwelling Rogers made an early name for himself in as mainstream a fashion as possible, making it to the quarter-finals of Americas Got Talent at age 15. Now hes signed to Justin Tranters Facet label, and hes embracing his queerness as his melodic chops get stronger. Rogers picks up where 1970s Elton John and Freddie Mercury left off, and this track is glorious AM gold for the streaming age. DH

"'I'm in control' / That's what I tell myself / When all the walls around me / Close in," Dabice sings early on this diary of pent-up frustration. Building from anxious guitar and vocals to an eruption of drums and screams, it's a cathartic release that feels very much attuned to the past two years. Its a necessary reminder that when everything is on fire around us we can still find some modicum of power. Even if its simply freedom to rip our bed to shreds when we feel like it. Let loose. Go fucking nuts. Youve earned it. And Mannequin Pussy has the perfect soundtrack for it. MM

63 years and 32 studio albums into her Hall of Fame career, the Queen of Rockabilly has no right to still be going this hard. With a hell of a lot of swing and heaps of boogie-woogieplus some rock n roll sizzle from Joan Jett, who produced the LP, and her band The Blackhearts who serve as a backing band herethis onell kick your door down. MV

Over disintegrating Kenny Beats production, Vince Staples lays bare his anxious view of the world on Sundown Town. And while it's a perspective both disturbing and disheartening, the song is a testament to the rapper's incredible command of languageand his ability to distill the phobia of his past and present into a few quick bars. A sharp two-and-a half minutes, he doesnt need a second longer. MM

Earlier this year, up-and-comer McRae tweeted: In 2023, Phoebe Bridgers is gonna drop her third album & the opening track will be about hooking up in the car while waiting in line to get vaccinated at Dodger Stadium and its gonna make me cry. The post went viral, so she posted a thirty-second pre-emptive cover of that song and that went viral, so she recorded the whole thing. A natural aversion to things that go viral kept us from clicking and listening. And then she closed her set at the Troubadour in Los Angeles with it a couple of weeks ago, the crowd shouted it back at her, and everything was right in the world. Its a sweet, sad, perfectly-observed song about Love in These Times, and even if it began as an exercise in someone elses songwriting style, it is purely Jensen McRae. Keep an eye on her. DH

As hot vax summer gave way to delta variant autumn, it felt like we could all use a pick me up. Enter Silk Chiffona feather-light indie pop offering from Los Angeles trio Muna. Their first single since signing to Phoebe Bridgers new label Saddest Factory Records, it's a sugary ode to the halcyon days of young queer love. With its simple, tender melody and shimmery chorus, the hit single recalls late 90s bubblegum pop. At last, the gays have their own proper makeout jam. Abigail Covington

Illuminati hotties topsy-turvy MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA is filled with musical fuckery. I'm convinced that theyre just trying to tie our brains into knots. There are key changes. There are random tempo left turns. Theres a gibberish chorus. And absolute euphoric joy. Even after dozens of listens its still hard to keep track of where the song is going to go next. It shouldn't work. [Really.] And yet, it does. The visuals for MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA are also awesomely subversive, with a gloopy take on DAngelos iconic Untitled [How Does It Feel] video. Don't overthink this one. MM

Snail Mails Lindsey Jordan was just a teenager when her critically acclaimed debut album made her an indie-rock superstar in 2018. Now returning three years later, Jordan has only expanded and honed her craft with Valentine, a heart-breaking love-torn track that explodes with synths, guitar, and Jordans vivid anguish. You won't believe what just two months do / I'm older now, believe mе, I adore you, she sings, achingly, before the songs chorus just about bursts with grief. It hits hard, and its simply wonderful. MM

Lorde gets back to the minimalism of her breakthrough single Royals on the verses of this one, but then you blink three times and you feel it kicking in: the hook to be bellowed at pool parties until autumn. Its a little George Michaels Freedom 90, its a little Primal Screams Loaded, the video definitely takes a cue from Humira, and while none of us has successfully made a bong out of a fennel bulb, that doesnt mean we wont keep trying. We have all wondered whether we can kick it, especially this year, but I think Lorde is right: yeah. We can. DH

Pop musics favorite chameleons reign remains uninterrupted. Doja Cat, a 25-year-old LA native hot off the release of her third album, Planet Her, moonlights in many genres: hip-hop, R&B, disco, and electro, tying her excursions together with an undeniable, resplendent joy. Thats certainly true here, on this sticky-as-bubblegum roller rink flirtation featuring SZA. Madison Vain

I had a daydream that Clive Davis signed me to Arista Records but the deal was: he got to choose the material, as he would have for Whitney Houston or Carlos Santana, Jordan Zadorozny told Spill magazine about his latest album Arista. It was a fun exercise because it put my songwriters ego in the back seat, and with imaginary Clive in my head picking the songs, the job was to just make it a real Blinker the Star album. There are covers of classics by Madonna, Boz Scaggs and ZZ Top, but the kicker is this version of an overlooked Eurythmics jam. DH

Immovable at number one since its release in late May, Butter continues BTS hot streak and injects pure joy into a stressful, angsty season. In their boastful and bouncy second English-language single, our winter-issue cover guys get just cocky enough to show us they know theyre killing it, yet still name-check ARMY to remind us they know who got them there. US radio airplay still lags behind streaming and sales for this one, but it doesnt matter: this is the unquestioned song of the Summer of Butter. DH

My god, I thought / My god, what a sunset / Blood red floods the Atlantic, Tamara Lindeman sings in the opening lines of Atlantic. Theres a steady tide of drums. A storm of trilling synths swirls in the background while Lindeman tries to reckon with the beauty of nature and the looming doom of the climate crisis. I was thinking about the weight of the climate crisislike, how can you look out the window and love the world when you know that it is so threatened, and how that threat and that grief gets in the way of loving the world and being able to engage with it,. Its a song that attempts to come to terms with the great catastrophe of our generation. And when a song is this gorgeous we cant help but listen. MM

Summer is when a lot of cool kids go to house parties and a lot of coastal kids hit the beach, and these experiences have not gone undocumented in song. But its also a time when a lot of sadder kids with more cautious parents get packed up and sent to vacation bible school, an experience Lucy Dacus recounts to devastating effect here. The detailsa preacher in a t-shirt, a father who wears long sleeves to hide the evidence of a previous life, a girl whose nerves can only be calmed by secret Slayer sessionsadd up to a short story. Dacus may no longer be a believer, but she makes it clear: the communion of young and skeptical souls can be a miracle. DH

FKA twigs is here to finish what she started. In 2019, the avant garde pop star lent her vocals to a short interlude on a mixtape from rapper Headie One and producer Fred againthe entire collection, called GANG, is worth a spinthat serves as the first iteration of this 2021 release. The two years of tinkering were worth it, the final version is completely exhilarating, from her blown glass vocals to the UK drill stars hypnotic, urgent flow. MV

The video is getting all the attention, which when one slides down a stripper pole to Hell to give Satan a lap dance and then snap his neck, is to be expected. But dont sleep on the song itself, an unrequited love song to a self-destructive possibly-closeted man who lives in the dark, from a narrator just as afflicted with internalized homophobia, wanting nothing to do with the boys thats in my league, I wanna fuck the ones I envy. In a release-day Instagram post, Lil Nas X said he wrote this song for his fearful 14-year-old self, with love from the future. Heres hoping that kid can see past the visuals and the cable-news outrage and appreciate the honest, nuanced and challenging look at grown-up gay life. Dave Holmes

In the last few years, amapiano has become the most popular sound in South Africa. A subgenre of house music, it started as a grassroots, countercultural, DIY movement that thrived in the local clubs. Its the music of freedomlong, joyful, hypnotic dance bangers rooted in deep house. Kabza de Small and producer DJ Maphorisa are at the forefront of this movement, helping spread it across Africa and onto global popularity. On this nearly 8-minute track, Kabza, Maphorisa, and TRESOR show the genres true potential. Its also proof of why the likes of Drake, Usher, Beyonce, Disclosure, and others are paying close attention to this scene. Don't be surprised if this is the next K-Pop, reggaeton, pr Latin trap phenomenon. MM

It wont be the that does it, but eventually you will give into the latest chart-topper from the Biebs. Why not make now that moment? Bieber debuted the unexpectedly vibey cut during his NPR Tiny Desk performance earlier this year, just hours before dropping his Justice LP. Manning the keys, it was an infectious, if slightly random, ode to different regions of the continental United States. [Dont overthink this.] But the pristinely-produced radio version, which also features Daniel Cesar, is almost impossibly smooth. MV

When Bruno Mars takes on a genrethe 90s new jack swing of Finesse or the early 80s synth-pop of Treasurehe shows he understands the assignment, but thats the essential problem with Bruno Mars: too often his music can feel like an assignment. For the Silk Sonic project, Mars has teamed with Anderson .Paak, and their first track is a flawless tribute to mid-70s R&B with a key change that will make you stand up and cheer. Were no closer to understanding who Bruno Mars actually is, but when his work is this much fun, who cares? DH

Floating between spoken-word storytelling and soft, pensive singing, Cassandra Jenkins weaves brilliant vignettes from the hard drive of her mind. Theres an undeniable hope lingering in the everydayness of her memories. Its a reminder of all we have to come back towhen those simple, quiet moments can be so meaningful. Released on the day of President Bidens inauguration, Jenkins wrote that I hope today we can take a deep breath, count to three, let go of the last 4 years and start to look ahead at the next chapter. Like a meditative guide, she instructs the listener: Just breathe. One, two, three. The fresh air feels so good. MM

Every few years, a debut song comes along and sucker punches you right in the face. Its brilliant and big and broody, irresistible to adults and teens alike. You want to listen to it alone, but also with everyone youve ever met. Other music? You forget it, completely. Such a cut arrived this year when 17-year-old Olivia Rodrigo dropped Drivers License. Within what felt like hours it took over TikTok and radio airwaves alike; just days later it climbed to the top spot on the all-genre Hot 100. This one hurts in all the right places. Sing it at the top of your lungs. MV

Forty-five years after punk, it feels odd to describe a band as post-punk, but no other description seems to work for South London quartet Dry Cleaning. Lead talker Florence Shaw intones non-sequitursIve come here to make a ceramic shoe...Its a Tokyo bouncy ballover clanging Gang of Four-style guitars in a mix thats just chaotic enough for its moment. Do everything and feel nothing, after fourteen months of doing nothing and feeling everything, turns out to be just what we need to hear. [Also, props for the best video weve seen in ages.] DH

Its the year before Christopher Columbus landed in America. And the year before he initiated the transatlantic slave trade and the American Indian genocide. I used to kiss my Saint Christopher, fuck Christopher Columbus 1491, it's one and done, this shit is fucked up, Navy Blue puts it simply over a crackling sample and a distant siren. From that year, Navy Blue connects to vivid images of his own life: I got brothers in the ends, though, to whom I miss a lot / They got machetes in their track pants, a swishy in the sock / Just say a prayer for a Black man, I been feeling down. MM

Kings of Leon will likely never be as big as they were at the beginning of their career, when songs like Use Somebody and Sex on Fire enjoyed viral success before things, well, went viral. But on their eighth LP, which dropped in March, it finally sounds like they no longer give a damn. This cut, lifted by an arena rock-sized melody and draped in frontman Caleb Followills drawl, moves with an enviable leisure, comfortable in its mid tempo pocket. Its only misstep? Its mouthful of a title. MV

Weve all done the thing where we look through our photo app for the last normal picture we took before lockdown, weve all had more than a year to contemplate the end of the world and what we might have done if wed known it was coming. Some of us baked bread, some of us took up chess or piano, some of us just got more comfortable in sweatpants. Beatrice Laus teamed up with Matty Healy of The 1975 for a song that addresses our new relationship with our mortality, suggests early 90s shoegaze, and actually builds on the promise of last years near-perfect Fake the Flowers. Twirl your Covid anxieties away. DH

The first single from Michelle Zauners third album as Japanese Breakfast is a mission statement of joy. Her first two LPs chronicled her mother's fight with, and eventual loss, to cancer, and worked as mournful dream-pop meditations on grief. But with splashes of funk, glowing synth, and a bright bass groove, Zauner taps into the effervescent side of herself. I wanted to just explore a different part of me: I am capable of joy and I have experienced a lot of joy, she told Pitchfork. All the songs are different reminders of how to experience or carve out space for that. And with everything happening in the world right now, thats exactly the outlookand soundwe need now. MM

Inspired by a quote from Audre Lorde Pain will either change or end British singer/songwriter/poet Parks sends a tense world a soothing message over lo-fi beats: I know you cant let go of anything at the moment, just know it wont hurt so much forever. Well have to take her word for it for now, but until the world settles, Parks debut Collapsed In Sunbeams is a front-runner for album of the year. DH

Jazmine Sullivan's "Girl Like Me" offers a more nuanced take on the break up ballad. "Knew it was real when you blocked me / Now I sit at home judgin' my body," she sings in the opening verse over lonely piano and trickling Frank Ocean-esque production. It's a song that digs into the questions that haunt us about a break-upand the ways in which it can be destructive to one's mental health and self-worth. "I identified with it as a woman, as a Black womanas a woman who I feel like is on the side of the regular girls who don't look like Instagram models and never have, with social media having gotten so popular, seeing those images all the time and it getting to you," Sullivan told NPR. "It gets to you after a while." MM