The best albums of 2021 include Bleachers, My Morning Jacket, Ryley Walker, ZHU, Diana Ross, Made Kuti and Femi Kuti, Allison Russell, Chris Pierce, Hand Habits, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Matt Sweeney, Weezer, Amy Shark and Heartless Bastards. Welcome back to RIFF’s year-end album roundup! If you’re joining us…

Heartless Bastards, courtesy Aaron Conway. Erika Wennerstrom has been fronting Heartless Bastards since 2003. The Austin roots-rock band’s sixth studio album, A Beautiful Life, which came out Sept. 10, is some of her strongest material since 2012’s Arrow. On it, she ponders the value of taking chances, materialism, enlightenment,…

Clockwise from top left: Sleep Waker, Heartless Bastards, Gang of Youths, Dessa, Ida Mae, Diana DeMuth and Skott. Whether you’re in the mood for a summer love pop-anthem from Dessa, an upbeat jazz-rock bop from Heartless Bastards that makes you rethink the state of the world, or even a…

Clockwise from top left: VINCINT, cehryl, Curtis Waters, Goody Grace, Heartless Bastards and Izzy Bizu. Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but who has time…