Both in the course of my work and (mainly) because I’m a hopeless melomaniac, I have, as usual in any given year, heard hundreds of albums in 2021. And I do mean hundreds. I keep running lists of favourites across the multiple genres I appreciate, which in total, runs to a great many pages. Filtering out a Top 10 from any category is a task I never relish, as I inevitably feel pangs of guilt for leaving out certain titles. That’s been the case once more in assembling a list of end-of-year choices as highlighted by myself and other contributors to this esteemed website throughout 2021. Anyway, here they are, presented not in order of merit, but alphabetically, and please know that this could have comfortably been a Top 50, and even then, there’d undoubtedly have been omissions worthy of inclusion.
Eleanor Buckland – You Don’t Have to Know (Soundly Music)
Straddling pop, rock, and folk, this affecting solo debut from one-third of the American female roots trio Lula Wiles is as personal a collection of songs as I’ve heard all year. Beautifully produced by Aerialists’ Adam Iredale-Gray, and featuring a stellar cast of (mainly) Canadian talent, it’s chock full of stealthily memorable melodies and emotionally cathartic lyrical sentiments.
Evan Cheadle – Fault Line Serenade (Victory Pool)
Out of Victoria, BC, with his fluid guitar picking and unique voice front and centre, Evan Cheadle trades in a classy, baroque variant on singer-songwriter fare, à la one of his musical heroes, Duncan Browne. Collaborating with David Parry of the gorgeous indie band Loving, Cheadle has produced a warm and sweet yet melancholy collection of songs for this gem, his second full-length release.
Circuit Des Yeux – -io (Matador Records)
Despite my ravenous appetite for music, Haley Fohr’s Circuit Des Yeux project somehow managed to evade my radar until this wonderful album found its way to me in October. With its strident orchestration, operatic vocals, and innovative arrangements, like Lingua Ignota’s similarly dramatic, gothic new opus, in -io the Chicago-based artist has produced a truly majestic piece of work.
The Deep Dark Woods – Changing Faces (Six Shooter Records)
There are few greater exponents of chill Canadian roots music than Ryan Boldt. On The Deep Dark Woods’ album # 7 Boldt and his collaborators (including Evan Cheadle) have produced what I described in my assessment as ‘a comfortingly familiar set of melancholy folk songs, occasionally flecked with a dash of psychedelia,’ and to that end is lovely, rustic stuff from the ever-reliable Boldt.
Reb Fountain – Iris (Flying Nun Records)
I was alerted to the music of New Zealander Reb Fountain as “not your typical Flying Nun fare” by a work associate this year, and as she quickly became a firm favourite in my household, I must thank him for the heads-up. Joining the idiosyncratic ilk of Tiny Ruins, Nadia Reid, Aldous Harding, Marlon Williams et al., the land of the silver fern is producing some truly engaging indie roots music right now.
Shannon Lay – Geist (Sub Pop Records)
I was floored when I heard this for the first time: what a singer this woman has become. While I liked Geist’s charming predecessor, August, Lay has gained a lot of ground as a songwriter and vocalist in the two years since its release. With the polished Geist, she has delivered a moving, comforting collection of superlative folk music boasting heavenly melodies and elegant lyrical imagery that invites dissection.
Ryland Moranz – XO, 1945 (Tonic Records)
Multi-instrumentalist (and pilot!) Moranz is an integral member of roots rocker Leeroy Stagger’s punchy Rebeltone Sound band and the artist responsible for the very first (new) album I heard at the top of this chaotic year. Scattered with personal observations, literary references, grit and emotion, as one of the finest Canadian alt. country/indie folk releases of the year, it’s really stayed the course, too.
Le Ren – Leftovers (Secretly Canadian)
Of all the album releases I was looking forward to in 2021, in the wake of her gorgeous 4-song debut for Secretly Canadian, it was Le Ren’s Leftovers that I most anticipated. As an artist, Lauren Spear seems to have arrived pretty much fully formed, and this full-length bow does not in any way disappoint. It’s an extremely beautiful record that, if you’ve yet to experience it, I would urge you to do so this instant.
Lorkin O’Reilly – Marriage Material (Team Love Records)
It was a riveting live set opening for Gruff Rhys that introduced me to the manifold charms of this young Catskill, NY-based Scot’s music. As an out-of-leftfield lyricist capable of eliciting tears and guffaws in the space of a few lines of a single song, while O’Reilly’s delicate picking and hushed vocal may mark him as a compelling live performer, that prowess is perfectly captured on his great second album.
Son Volt – Electro Melodier (Transmit Sound)
I’ve followed the post-Uncle Tupelo career of Jay Farrar since Day One, but while everything his muscular Son Volt outfit has released since 1998’s Wide Swing Tremelo up to 2019’s Union have been solid Americana records, Electro Melodier is easily their best since 2009’s American Central Dust. Packed with instant earworms and impassioned state-of-the-nation lyrics, this is a band firing on all cylinders.