As you may or may not know, I’m a semi-professional performing and recording musician/artist and for as long as I can remember I’ve made a habit of following and discovering new music. 2021 is no exception and though I find I’ve grown more picky over the years, music discovery methods have never been better. Algorithms and suggestions continue to make it their business to push and market a never-ending stream of potential new and next favorite songs in front of our eyes and into our ears.
So, naturally, I have a short list of songs I think deserve your attention at year end as they have held mine all year long. I hope you enjoy my top 10 list of songs for 2021.
10) Adam Graham – Manor House October
Yes, I know, it may seem a little cheap but I had to include one of my own songs, right? Seriously, though, this one actually did make it on my year end favorite playlist on Spotify so I stand vindicated; it actually was one of my top songs for 2021! It was a little difficult to choose but the title track of my debut EP is definitely a deserving entry. It’s also one of the songs that has garnered more encouraging comments to me from fellow music lovers and stands highest in my stream counts.
Manor House October is the song I’m most proud of from this year’s EP release. It’s a tragic story song about escapism, part autobiographical, mostly fictional, following a family that follows their dreams and then watches them burn to the ground. I try to imbue a bit of fantasy and mystery into my songs, especially those that tell more of a story, and I just felt that the lyrics, concept, and music gelled so well with this one that I had to include it.
Favorite Lines
“If I close my eyes, I still can see you twirling in the wind,
Tracing hand-carved trails in the hovering wood-fire smoke,
And in this moment, all in sepia tone, we’re carefree once again,
All our worries overcome with fleeting hope”
9 ) Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open
I could try to be more contrarian and not put a song on the list which is a noted successful worldwide pop hit. But sometimes you have to know when you’re beat. And Silk Sonic, the super group fronted by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, has us all beat.
My wife and I haven’t stopped listening to it since its release in March. If you’re a plain fan of good funk, soul, or R&B, Silk Sonic is a pure guilty pleasure, something akin to a musical equivalent of Stranger Things. It at once evokes the past while being thoroughly infused with a modern recording quality and musical approach. It fits as much today as it would in the 70’s. And the ability for Anderson and Mars to approach the music so playfully and humorously without turning anything into a gimmick is masterful. You have to have been living under a rock not to have heard this song so, if you have, come on out please.
Favorite Lines:
“What you doing? (What you doing?)
Where you at? (Where you at?)
Oh, you got plans? (You got plans?)
Don’t say that (shut your trap)
I’m sipping wine (sip, sip) in a robe (drip, drip)
I look too good (look too good) to be alone”
8 ) The Midnight – Neon Medusa
Speaking of Stranger Things, does any music give us nostalgia more than modern synth wave? I can still recall when I discovered The Midnight, from one of my discover weekly playlists on Spotify a couple years ago. It’s uncanny how certain sounds define a musical era like the ’80s so well and also how such a group can take that sound and still use it to execute quality music some 40 years later.
The Midnight released the “Horror Show” EP in 2021 and besides their cover of “Because the Night”, “Neon Medusa” stands out as my favorite track. It’s gritty, evocative, and tightly produced and immediately transports you to some tragic night life full of seedy and desperate characters. It’s basically a ready-made cyberpunk anthem. You have to be in the mood for it but when you’re in the mood it absolutely fits the bill.
Favorite Lines:
“It’s a highway, highway to the dark
And a neon Medusa’s got your heart
Sweet canyon lullabies
Don’t look straight into its eyes
It’s a highway, highway to the dark”
7 ) NF – Lost
It’s kind of difficult to say anything more about NF than I have in the past. It’s tempting to view him as a token “Christian rapper” and treat his work as a convenient caveat to most hip-hop that Christians are compelled to avoid for its lackluster themes and lack of depth. But that is less true with every release and continues with NF’s 2021 mixtape “CLOUDS.”
Many of the singles from “CLOUDS” contain featured artists from other areas of hip-hop like Tech N9ne and, in the case of “Lost”, Hopsin. This is great and all but strip away the novelty and what we’re left with this year is just a great song deserving of this list. NF can take what would be boring diatribes on mental health and toxic culture and turn them into empathic musical essays. And the music video is pretty fantastic too. But at this point I’m rambling. Just listen.
Favorite Lines:
“Failing’s how you grow and learn your lessons, kids
Take the worst and try to make the best of it
‘Cause when you fail, just know that it’s a test and if
You can learn to pick yourself back up again
And train your brain to not be such a pessimist
It’s okay to make mistakes, just don’t forget that
There’s a high road but I skip the exit when I’m lost”
6 ) Taylor Leonhardt – Belly of a Whale
I’m very picky when it comes to my alt-country tinged tunes. Just any quaint-versed song with banjos or acoustic guitar and an Appalachian accent will not do; I can usually spot a fake a mile away. But Taylor Leonhardt does it rather well, among the likes of other similar female artists like Gillian Welch or Jill Andrews. Taylor released a long-awaited album this year and I didn’t take to all of it across the board but there was one song that I immediately took to.
The overall feel of the song is evident and just what I want out of a modern soft country feel. Even handed, familiar yet unique acoustic chords, with wailing, ethereal pedal steel winding in and out of it, and the occasional electric guitar tremolo ping-ponging from ear to ear. Add in a bit of Biblical reference and God-given lessons learned from an oft-overlooked story like Jonah and I was bound to be drawn to it. Just the feel of it is all I can say.
Favorite Lines:
“But you cannot resist your tendency
To save me from myself
And I am living on your mercy
In the belly of a whale”
5 ) Sam McCabe – You Can’t Praise Away the Mourning
Sam McCabe is one of those names that those in “the know” just seem to know. Respected but not widely known, with a cult following that’s as passionate as it is smaller than it deserves to be. There are few songwriters that I wish I could strive to out-write but McCabe is one of them. Sam released a number of startlingly well-produced singles between 2020 and 2021 and finally released a stripped-down version of those and then some late this year. And unfortunately my favorite of those, “I Want to Serve God”, was technically released in 2020 so I will forego choosing it. But, if I had to pick a close second, it might be this one.
“You Can’t Praise Away the Mourning” is full of reminders and its insights, while biting and critical, are never judgmental. It reminds us of how we cannot just expect to apply Scripture to our wounds and enjoy instant relief. And in a year following the most powerless and grief-stricken one most Millennials have ever experienced, it reminds us of the mourning we all have probably put off far too long to process. This isn’t your K-Love Christian music. This is meat and bread and real substance.
Favorite Lines:
“When you’re wrestling with the angel,
You better wait for the sun,
And if you don’t walk with a limp yet,
Then the Father isn’t done,
There’s still time til morning light for you to lay your burden down,
To see your weakness as your crown”
4 ) Fleet Foxes – Can I Believe You
I somewhat pride myself on being an OG Fleet Foxes fan. I can’t say that my writing is directly influenced by the group or Robin Pecknold’s writing in any detectable way but they’ve always been an inspiration for me. In many ways, it may be impossible to capture the magic of earlier albums, to live up to past expectations. So it’s likely best not to try.
But the artistry is still unmistakeable and though some of the baroque medievalism and pastoral settings are missing, their 2021 album “Shore” is as good a future direction as any. I would best describe it as a full experience, with no song sticking out too dramatically and each song reflecting a distinct room in the house that is the album. But if I had to choose one (and I do) “Can I Believe You” is as good as any. It melds the choral/group vocal motif present on many of the songs with classic Fleet Foxes drum and guitar sounds and is easily the most rock-and-roll song of the record. But if you take a minute to enjoy the song, don’t stop. Just keep going and you won’t be disappointed.
Favorite Lines:
“I see it, eat through every word I sow
See what you need to, do you doubt it’s yours?
Now I’m learning the ropes never get this close
I’ve been wounded before
Hasn’t let me go”
3 ) Jacob Early – Good Heart Bad
From the day it was released, from the first listen, this song just took my breath away. It starts out quick and never lets up, containing the ferocity of a rock song but with the instrumentation being thoroughly indie, from acoustic plucking to dirty synth-arpeggiation. What Jacob Early normally reserves for many of his production clients he keeps for himself here. And at less than 2:30 in duration, I found myself listening 10+ times in no time and never tiring.
The song is at heart a sort of funeral dirge for the already dead, from a son to his father. It bears witness to the pain that every relative has ever felt having missed the last moments of a loved one’s life, never getting to say their proper goodbyes, to pay their proper regrets. A young father to their own father, it dives into the abyss, borne on a poppy and upbeat tempo, lit in red, then leaves the listener exactly where they need to be after reflecting on death…”heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven…”
Favorite Lines
“It was your bad heart,
That made us bury you,
But it was your good heart,
That makes me shiver at the dark”
2 ) Patrick Droney – Like the Water
Every time I get the opportunity, I try to rep Patrick Droney. To the casual listener, he will remind one of a slightly more urban John Mayer, solo vocalist with solid guitar chops. But there is a lot more uniqueness there to be experienced and when I saw that he was finally beginning to release new music after his debut EP many years ago, I was thrilled. And then it released and it was, of course, great. But that was largely last year’s music in a new year wrapper.
And then came “Like the Water.” It’s definitely made for me from the very first notes, reverse delay, reverb and technical guitar all. But what struck me most was how tight the entire package was. Lyrically, every square inch is taken up by masterful rhymes and composition. The themes are not lofty by any means but when an artist can take an otherwise mundane object like a love song and elevate it or master it in some new way, it’s worth noticing and worth sharing.
Favorite Lines:
“Something ’bout the moon, pulling me and you
Natural as the turning tide
Found me at the shore, I was wanting more
Honey my lips were dry
Followed you and now that I’ve fallen in,
I’m losing oxygen, but baby I’m born again
And all that I can do is surrender to you tonight”
1 ) Andy Squyres – Love Never Fails
I think it’s a good sign of any truly great song that one finds oneself continually surprised. Each successive listen may evoke the same expectant feeling, awe and musical wonder, and an excitement for what’s to come. That’s the way I feel about “Love Never Fails.” From the very first notes and boops of synth goodness mixed with analog hybrid drum patterns, it hits a very sweet spot for me nowadays, an amazing mix of raw indie elements with an at-once modern and vintage electronic flair.
There just isn’t anything not to love. Every line is flawless and filled with pensive reflection on the faithfulness of God, the unfailing victory of God’s love, and the folly of mankind’s attempts to unfailingly trust Him. Impeccably rhymed, impeccably arranged, “Love Never Fails” stands out to me not only as my favorite of Andy’s singles leading up to the release of “Poet Priest” but also what I think is the best song on the record; and that’s saying something. Believe me: you will leave this song with something. Whether you want it or not.
Favorite Lines:
“All are atoned for, the wicked made whole,
The world’s scarlet letter, washed white as snow,
When the albatross cursed all the wind from our sails,
We have no damns to give, Love never fails”
