And still more lists.....

Chalk this one up to "operator error"

Dec 15, 2021

Apparently I was in too much of a rush to post those year-end lists yesterday. Somehow whole lists and sections disappeared, an error I didn’t recognize until late in the day. Then I learned that it’s impossible to re-send a post with additions and corrections and stuff. So…..here’s what we’ll charitably call part 2. Below are the missing lists, with (hopefully) minimal overlaps and echoes of the material posted yesterday. Apologies for the confusion! Give the gift of music!

2021 releases that became obsessions (in no particular order).

The records that became constant companions this year can be grouped into distinct sets, with Venn diagram areas of commonality. They include: Song cycles devoted to otherness, healing (often related to otherness) and unsparing appraisals of the internal landscape (Allison Russell, Snail Mail, Japanese Breakfast, Olivia Rodrigo, Jazmine Sullivan); songwriting that involves unusual instrumental combinations in riveting dramatic peaks and somber valleys (Japanese Breakfast, Circuit des Yeux, the War on Drugs, Dos Santos, The Weather Station); works built on foundations of improvisation and intricate instrumental writing (Amaro Freitas, Black Midi, Indaba Is, Archie Shepp & Jason Moran). Note the absence of the Pharoah Sanders/Floating Points/London Symphony Orchestra collaboration Promises, a fixture on many lists: While I admired the concept and sonic ambition of the work, the actual minute-by-minute listening to be singularly uninvolving — it registers as a noodling exercise, more a clash of devices than a dialog between artists from different orientations.

Various Artists: : Indaba Is (South Africa)

Amaro Freitas: Sankofa

Allison Russell: Outside Child

Japanese Breakfast: Jubilee

Jazmine Sullivan: Heaux Tales

The Weather Station: Ignorance

Dos Santos: City of Mirrors

Circuit des Yeux: -io

Black Midi: Cavalcade

Archie Shepp & Jason Moran: Let My People Go

bubbling under: Olivia Rodrigo: Sour; Prince: Welcome 2 America; ; Pat Metheny: Side Eye (NYC V1-VI); Ill Considered: Liminal Space; The War on Drugs: I Don’t Live Here Anymore.

Notable Compilations and Discoveries

The filter for this list is simple: These are records that open big windows into under-appreciated and under-represented realms of music culture. Each is its own education: Drummer Roy Brooks’ fiery Understanding, recorded live in 1970, suggests a lively discourse between hard bop and freer improvisation that might have been explored further (only trumpet titan Woody Shaw, heard in blazing form here, pursued that path). The Analog Africa compilations spotlight musicians and singers seeking to expand the funk without sacrificing too much tradition; each arrives at a slightly different ratio, a singular balance. Ditto the soul-gospel dynamo T.L Barrett, a highly influential figure within gospel whose career gets the Numero Group deep-dive treatment with I Shall Wear a Crown. Barrett developed an infectious, rhythm-forward balance of God and groove (or should that be “Groove”?) that has been copied endlessly, but rarely at this level of intensity.