RIFF’s writers reviewed hundreds of albums in 2021, and although the year isn’t over, December is generally a desert when it comes to new releases.  So we’re spending the month looking back and these are the best of the best. Our list is longer than ever, not because we’re more inclusive, but because the quality of music was so high. Perhaps music was one of 2021s (still) relatively few highlights as we approach the third year of the pandemic. Hopefully, it’ll be the last.

Our opening includes the hard rock of Andrew W.K. and At the Gates, the raw country of Miranda Lambert and her friends, a posthumous release by the great Prince Rogers Nelson, and Morgan Wallen, who started the year on such a high note before it all came down crashing.

The people’s names you see next to the artist and album names are the authors of the blurb, but also usually someone who either nominated or supported the album during our debate. If you love the album, or if it introduced you to a new favorite, that’s the person to thank. If you think it should have been higher on the list, let us know.

108. Morgan Wallen

Dangerous: The Double Album – Big Loud Records – Piper Westrom

Country artist Morgan Wallen is finishing 2021 in a much different place than where he started. And it started so strong with Dangerous, a collection of 30 songs that put him squarely in the country album of the year conversations. It spoke to a dedication seemingly beyond Wallen’s years, walking the line between the country and pop while showcasing his talent for storytelling. On the album, he wears his Tennessee roots with pride and his authentic persona finds a way into his music.

Morgan Wallen has a strong grip on how to switch lanes between old-school country and country-pop. “Wasted On You” is an example early in the album that has country overtones, thanks to a steel guitar, but also an almost hip-hop rhythm. Dangerous: The Double Album is full of good ol’ country songs, country-pop hybrids and love stories. It’s a shame Morgan Wallen wasn’t as good a person as he is a songwriter or artist.

107. Marina Diamandis

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land – Atlantic – Sara London

Marina Diamandis’ (she goes by MARINA now) fifth studio album is a pop-laden meditation on the sad state of the world in a way that’s sometimes so catchy that you’ll forget how dark the lyrics truly are. Her songwriting and music-making style hasn’t changed much over the years, so fans of Electra Heart will notice similar sounds in the orchestration of her songs, like synths and pianos, programmed percussion and not much guitar. While her songs don’t sound the same, she definitely has a very specific sound; one that’s matured over the years yet retains some of its luster and charming simplicity. Diamandis uses her synth-pop vehicles to transport topics from feminist ideology to commentary on climate change or lamentations on love lost.

106. Liz Phair

Soberish – Chrysalis – Tony Hicks

Soberish is appropriately clever, honest, a bit wry and full of hooks. When the world is seemingly traveling back in time to the ’90s, the timing couldn’t be better for one of the best singer-songwriters of the decade to make an appearance. Maybe we can go home again, but this isn’t a nostalgia show. It’s a continuation of Liz Phair’s life experience and the resulting observations. It’s certainly a reminder, but it’s also a well-polished example of the best things she has done in the past 30 or so years. If that also means a generation of parents remembering to push Phair’s music on their daughters, so be it. The honesty and songwriting skill are timeless.

105. Hayley Williams

Flowers for Vases – Atlantic – Mike DeWald

Hayley Williams thought she exorcised the memories of broken love on her debut solo effort, Petals for Armor, but it seems that the Paramore singer had more to uncover. The resulting record is a darkly intimate portrait of Williams’ psyche, a deep dive into everything she was thinking and feeling through the lonely isolation of quarantine. While the theme is still heavy, it doesn’t manifest itself in the same way as Petals. She trades in the angry moments for quiet introspection. Conceptually, the record isn’t far afield of Taylor Swift’s folklore/evermore, but Williams’ personal experiences separate Flowers and give the album its own voice. Those in search of her signature pop-punk spunk should look elsewhere; this record is the singer’s most mature work to date.

104. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

New Fragility – CYHSY Inc. – Sara London

Alec Ounsworth’s love still hasn’t faded. That’s evident with the album. As Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ounsworth crafts a bit more of a nuanced, exploratory experience on the group’s sixth album. CYHSY manages to transform a cookie-cutter pop-rock formula—high-voiced vocals surrounded by muffled guitars and delicately placed synthesizers—into a soulful, reflective chronicle of the modern era. The rock on New Fragility is soft, but not to the point that listeners will miss its occasional brutal intensity. The emotionality and tenor of his pitch fit perfectly with the subject matter, while the songs themselves range from light on the ears to heavy on the heart, such as the title track and the catchy, bouncy “CYHSY 2005.”

103. The Fratellis

Half Drunk Under a Full Moon – Cooking Vinyl – Sara London

The album is assembled to near-perfection. It’s the result of a slow and steady departure from the Scottish rockabilly image with which the Fratellis got their start. Half Drunk Under a Full Moon creates a dreamlike feel, retaining catchy, folky aspects while gracing listeners with swaying melodies and playful drumming. It feels like floating through echoing halls of music on a path of stars.

There are metallic chimes with a thoughtful, sometimes electric and harmonic quality, and a spectrum of sounds that jump across genres and time. The Fratellis deliver a listening experience akin to synesthesia. The varying moments in these songs, with their reflective cadence in chord progressions and beautiful effects over both instruments and vocals, feel like puzzle pieces fitting into one another. Though their music is fun and oftentimes lighthearted, the album shows that The Fratellis have another side that’s much deeper.

102. Wardruna

Kvitravn – By Norse Music – Max Heilman

Bandleader Einar Selvik’s respect for cultural conservation as artistic inspiration remains just as powerful as ever on Kvitravn. There’s more to opener “Synkverv” than Scandinavian atmospheres. The syncopated lyre plucking and resonant chanting exist to unveil a human connection to this ancient music. In the same way, the mid-tempo slow-burner “Kvitravn” builds to an engrossing wall of blaring horns and lurs.

From its eerie field recordings to its rumbling low end, the song effortlessly transcends history and culture. It just hits—and hits hard. Wardruna’s success comes from its balance of academics and expression. The band’s bread and butter comes from playing ancient music on ancient instruments, but its staying power comes from the sheer emotional impact. All that remains on the album.

101. Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall

The Marfa Tapes – Vanner Records – Domenic Strazzabosco

After directing producer Brandon Bell to keep things ragged and intimate, friends Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall chose 15 barren and raw tracks to make up their album, which was written and recorded around campfires with just acoustic guitars and each other’s company. Nighttime sounds like airplanes overhead, crunching dirt and animals in the distance fill in the backgrounds of these songs.

From the quiet “Breaking a Heart” to the comedic “Homegrown Tomatoes,” the group reaches for both the most intimate moments country music can be to more upbeat, bumpkin jams about drinking and country life. Hearing studio versions of these tracks would be interesting for the sole reason of being able to see their journey from rawest to most produced and refined. However, on The Marfa Tapes, it doesn’t matter. The songs work beautifully the way they are.

100. Prince

Welcome 2 America – NPG Records, Inc. – Alex Baechle

Perhaps the idea of a pointedly political Prince album held little excitement when he recorded it in 2010. Obama was in, and Prince had already explored socially conscious themes as far back as 1987’s Sign o’ the Times. In the polarized America of 2021, Prince’s perspective is more needed than ever. Finally unearthed, the lost Welcome 2 America album is a clear-eyed rebuke of the nation’s checkered history.

It’s the first full album of unreleased Prince material to be released posthumously. His almost subtle, matter-of-fact passion drives the songs and nettles convincingly, forcing us to sit with uncomfortable truths. The voice of the artist, canonized, brooks no argument. When he speaks, we had better listen. The 12 cuts here sustain pulsing energy, with little filler and no boring slow jams. Even the subtle tracks are imbued with plenty of blood and grit.

99. The Marias

Cinema – Atlantic – Arianna Cook-Thajudeen

The Marías incorporate a span of genres from jazz to reggaeton on their first full-length album, Cinema. However you describe it, it’s a gorgeous album. “Just a Feeling” is beautiful in its simplicity. It pairs an uncomplicated strummed classical guitar melody with lush strings that sets the sweetly melancholic tone. “Calling U Back”  is intentionally more in-your-face. Featuring a hip-hop-inspired vocal cadence, the regretful breakup song—while certainly more energetic than much of the album—still doesn’t feel out of place.

“Fog as a Bullet” is a haunting ballad that lead singer María Zardoya wrote in response to the helicopter crash that killed basketball star, Kobe Bryant. The song features paired-back instrumentation led by a classical guitar melody and is backed by soft synths and jazzy brass. It’s about how things like the fog shrouding the helicopter are both incredibly beautiful yet destructive.

98. At the Gates

The Nightmare of Being – Century Media – Alex Baechle

The Nightmare Of Being delivers intensity, but the record goes beyond death metal to achieve its extremes. While this should come as no surprise to fans of these dynamic masters of composition, it takes At The Gates’ previous experimentation a step further. For one thing, the instrumentation takes a turn toward the indulgent. Orchestrated intros with string sections frame several songs in an epic context. Cellos groan and evoke images of fraught, cavernous journeys. A brief harmonized classical guitar piece starts the record, fusing Iron Maiden and Albeniz.

On “Garden Of Cyrus,” a straightforward indie progression quickly turns sour. Melodic dissonance develops like a floral wine. Soon after, borne-on-the-wind saxophone rocks out, mullet-and-leather-pants-like. One of the best riffs of the year rides in on a convincing and original doom detour. A satisfying departure, it mirrors the hard-prog contortions of At The Gates’ heroes King Crimson. All this points to a certain ambitiousness. At The Gates wring emotional resonance out of struggle and resistance. The instrumentalists attack in athletic synchronicity, with fearsome stamina.            Morgan Wallen

97. Maxïmo Park

Nature Always Wins – Prolifica Inc. – Rachel Goodman

To their credit, Maxïmo Park is still here. Nature Always Wins is the band’s seventh album, examining the self, the band’s identity and humanity as a whole. Nature Always Wins’ title comes from the age-old “nature vs. nurture” debate. Recorded during the pandemic, it comes at a time when people are still taking introspective looks at themselves. It’s a slow burn but worth the 45-minute listen. The opener, “Partly of My Making” sounds like the band went back to the ’90s for inspiration.

The ridiculously catchy “All of Me” leans on the lyricism brilliance of Paul Smith. He’s an architect of words, both poignant and smart. The opening line, “Make the world that you want to see; there are obstacles at every turn,” is perfect for the world we live in at this moment. To this, you add the swirling guitars and end up with a pop song with big themes.

96. Andrew W.K.

God is Partying – Napalm Records – Daniel J. Willis

In 2018, Andrew W.K. released You’re Not Alone, his first new rock album in 12 years. During his contractually inspired hiatus, he spent time variously as an advice columnist, a children’s show host and a motivational speaker, each new venture gaining him new fans. The album was a diverse collection of subgenres and styles anchored by the messages from his motivational speaking.

That message of positivity, however, has overshadowed how dark his early music was. Everyone remembers the joyous choruses about partying, but the verses to every track on the album were dark, occasionally violent and bordering on post-apocalyptic. With God is Partying, Andrew W.K. is clearly getting back to his roots. The chaos and emotional darkness returned in full force. But what was an undercurrent of darkness 20 years ago is now at the forefront; what was once a subtle message has become more like a brick to the face.

108: Morgan Wallen. 107: MARINA. 106: Liz Phair. 105. Hayley Williams. 104: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. 103: The Fratellis. 102: Wardruna. 101: Miranda Lambert and friends. 100: Prince. 99: The Marias. 98: At the Gates. 97: Maximo Park. 96: Andrew W.K. Morgan Wallen 

The 108 best albums of 2021: 95-83