The 31 Best Rock Albums of 2021 – Pitchfork

Saddle Creek

Indigo De Souza: Any Shape You Take

Saddle Creek

Indigo De Souza: Any Shape You Take

Tapping into a deep well of human emotion, Indigo De Souza makes familiar experiences feel new. The North Carolina musician’s writing and delivery are so unguarded that you can’t help but relate, whether she’s screaming in anguish or reassuring a loved one that things will be OK. Her second album, Any Shape You Take, often feels like a series of battles as she fights off ghosts, both real and imagined, in an attempt to gain understanding. “I wanna be a light,” she sings, and when she shines, the brightness can be overwhelming. In fact, it’s all you can see. –Kelly Liu

Dead Oceans

Japanese Breakfast: Jubilee

After two albums and a best-selling memoir that grappled with her mother’s death, grief had been a top note in Michelle Zauner’s work for too long. On Jubilee, her splashy third album as Japanese Breakfast, Zauner sucks up life through a crazy straw. She boosts her sound for a growing audience without smoothing over her idiosyncrasies, taking inspiration from the daily battle to tame one’s anxieties, from capitalist buffoonery, and even from the concept of inspiration itself. “How’s it feel to stand at the height of your powers?” she sings. The answer is hers to divulge. –Olivia Horn

Self-released

Liquids: Life is pain Idiot

More than a bratty voice who can yammer out classic rock standards at triple speed, prolific Northwest Indiana punk Mat Williams is a multi-instrumentalist who explores a broad cross-section of rock’n’roll without painting himself into an aesthetic corner. On his latest album Life is pain, Idiot, the tightly written one-minute punk burner “When You Were Born (You Should’ve Died)” leads into the emotionally ambivalent power-pop of “Don’t Wanna Get to Know …….

Source: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-rock-albums-2021/

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