By Massimo Usai

Twenty records that in 2021 were excellent company.

Placed in order of preference, they create, in fact, a musical chart of my year that has just passed. Between lockdowns. First outings among the people. A year in which I once again crossed a border. I spent a year in a city where grey and rain give a strange character to the local architecture and create a particular and unique mood within you.

Here is my ranking … in the opposite order.
It starts from position No. 20 and ends at the number one record of the year.

In another post list, the records worthy of deep listening and which, for various reasons, are not part of my top 20, but perhaps of your ranking.

In the meantime, I cantry to tip that this record will undoubtedly be in the top 20 next year, which will be released on January 14, 2022. It’s about Storm Queen by Grace Cummings (I suggest you write it down her name)

TOP 20 Album 2021

20. Molly Lewis – “The Forgotten Edge”

19. Curtis Harding “if words were flowers”

18. Madi Diaz “History of a feeling”

17. Cory Hanson “Pale Horse Rider”

16. Clairo – “Sling”

15. Mogwai – “As the love continues”

14. Padang’s Food Tigers  – “God’s Plenty”

13. Karen Peris – “A song is way above the law” 

12. Alfa Mist “Bring Backs

11. Ghost Rhythms “Imaginary Mountains”

10. Madlib & Four Tet. – “Sound Ancestors”  

9. The Small Breed “Remember a dream”

8. Nitin Sawhney – “Immigrants”

7. Matt Berninger – “Serpentine Prison”

6. Ben Howard “Collections from the Whiteout” 

5. Damon Albarn “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows”

4. Jane Weaver – “Flock”

3. Elbow “Flying Dream 1”

2. Gabriels “Bloodline” and “Love and hate in different times”

1. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis “Carnage”