Whew, we’ve almost made it halfway through our list of the best albums of 2021. This year may have felt like nothing but a grim continuation of the previous, but the music did indeed prevail, resulting in our longest “best of” yet. You can find the rest of our list in parts one, two and three. And stick with us, because we have a lot more coming your way.

Part four includes country superstar Eric Church, rapper Wale, rockers Mastodon, African guitarist Mdou Moctar, composer Danny Elfman returning to solo rock for the first time in three decades, and more. In fact, the output of Eric Church was three albums, released on consecutive weeks. We look at the best of each.

70. Valerie June

The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers – Fantasy Records – Mike DeWald

The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers is both raw and intricate in its construction. Sometimes atmospheric, sometimes ethereal, it aptly taps into everything from old-school blues and Americana to soothing and earthy acoustic intimacy and upbeat funk. Valerie June focused on music exploration and challenging her own norms while recording. That meant mixing modern-day touches with the more traditional “band in the room” style of recording to create something fresh and challenging. That mission was a success and the album is filled with a sense of musical adventure.

Songs like opener “Stay” are brimming with nuance and subtlety, fusing an Appalachian R&B style on top of a lush musical canvas. Others are brilliant and gorgeous in their simplicity, a musical restraint and quiet calm that allows June’s immersive vocal presence to carry the day.

69. Mastodon

Hushed and Grim – Warner Records – Tony Hicks

Mastodon had a lot of steam to blow off with the death of their longtime manager, and it seemed the Atlanta metal veterans would come back big with Hushed and Grim. And that’s exactly what they did. Opener “Pain With an Anchor” sounds terribly fun to play, as does the dramatic “The Crux,” which shows off drummer Brann Dalor’s skills and requisite alt-metal aspects of aggressiveness, tempo breaks and harmony leads, even if there didn’t seem to be a matching payoff. The same thing happens at the end of “Sickle & Peace,” which has a refreshing, if not weird, country prog metal vibe until it goes full glory metal and back again.

“The Beast” is open, echoey, melodic and vaguely threatening enough to work on the soundtrack for a movie about alien gunfighters. “Skeleton of Splendor” brings some emotional bleakness with a couple of hopeful changes mid-song keeping things fresh. “Teardrinker” steps back a few years, relying on melody and mood for a song that could have come from the early aughts. The thoughtful and accessible “Had it All” has a big-building overall dynamics pushing out some epic lead playing. “Savage Lands” is just a barn burner, with machine gun drumming and a galloping vibe that’s difficult not to physically react to.

68. Eric Church

Heart & Soul – Universal Nashville – Roman Gokhman

Eric Church’s triple album Heart & Soul is such a diverse set of releases that it’s reductive to call it “country.” His twangy voice is the throughline, but the material gracefully glides and detours in numerous directions like rock and soul. That in itself is not new for Church, but there’s also so much depth here with the extended track list. The sample size is greater than before. Eric Church is definitively extending his reach beyond country while demonstrating his ability to craft Springsteenian narratives. Soul, then Heart, offer the bet material while & connects the two. I’m not sure, exactly, whether Eric Church tries to differentiate between heart and soul on his three new records. But what’s clear is that he’s got more than enough of both.

67. Wale

Folarin II – Warner Records – Tim Hoffman

Wale wastes no time whatsoever on Florian II, getting at the heart of his frustration with critics, superficiality of his peers and asserting his status within the hip-hop scene—all while packing punch after punch, track after track. In the follow-up to his 2012 mixtape of the same name, Wale delivers a diverse selection of sounds with many notable guest features and samples certain to please. Success really is the name of the game, and is certainly the defining theme of the album. Wale sings about how success informs every aspect of his life. It’s incredibly introspective as he analyzes his past, present and future in the context of success; while also observing how his relationships are informed by that success.

66. Torres

Thirstier – Merge Records – Roman Gokhman

The fifth album by Torre (rock singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott) is her most sonically bombastic, most jubilant, power-chord-filled work to date. Although Torres’ lyricism has been more difficult to decipher before, on Thirstier she’s brimming with love, joy and pride. “The more of you I drink, the thirstier I get, baby,” Scott sings on the title track. While there are several variations of love talked about on the album and it’s not always easy to tell them apart, the predominant form is of the romantic variety. Torres is so in love that she can’t enough. Scott wrote and recorded during the pandemic, but rather than focusing on anxiety or fear, she focused on the happiness she found during the Big Pause.

Thirstier also offers boldness in the instrumentation, which for the most part features the type of wall-of-sound guitar action that’s been underused since the ’90s. Both are purposeful and effective.

65. Japanese Breakfast

Jubilee – Dead Oceans – Domenic Strazzabosco

Ever thought about using paprika, a spice from central Mexico that spread to Europe during the 1500s, to describe someone who is the center of attention in a pop song? If not, then check out the opening track to Japanese Breakfast’s newest album, Jubilee. At first it seems like an extremely random analogy, but in context it somehow makes both logical and poetic sense. That’s the same offbeat style spread throughout singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michelle Zauner’s newest album.

Her style is like a combination of Florence Welch’s aesthetic and Zooey Deschanel’s relaxing vocals.  From start to finish, words that best describe the project would include “yellow” or “off-beat.” There’s a modern, progressive feel to the style of the music; it’s both one of a kind and diverse, especially on its highest points.  Look to the upbeat and poppy “Slide Tackle” or the jarring opening lyrics on “In Hell” to begin catching the vibe of this quirky project.

64. serpentwithfeet

DEACON – Secretly Canadian – Red Dziri

Soil earned Josiah Wise (serpentwithfeet) great admiration from fans and peers alike back in 2018. Fully versed in R&B and soul classics, Wise seemed to take great pleasure in upending expectations by choosing experimentation over replication. On DEACON, Wise celebrates Blackness, queerness and their intersection in equal measures, adding gospel touches to an already rich canvas. The experience feels communal, as reflected in “Fellowship,” the ode to companionship that closes the album. Other moments address the subject matter in a more tumultuous manner. One such memorable instance is “Heart Storm,” an electric collaboration with Nao that stands out above all thanks to great chemistry between the two performers and an audacious production by Wise and Justus West. DEACON’s compositions are as spellbinding as the voice at their helm. Don’t miss it.

63. Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth

Utopian Ashes – Third Man Records – Domenic Strazzabosco

Utopian Ashes is a gorgeously grim and gray project.  Alt-rock styles are composed with a string of songs situated around a crumbling relationship. The Primal Scream vocalist and Savages member grapple with broken hearts and the inability to articulate or express emotions. It’s a refined and eloquently composed album, running only nine songs in length as the duo’s light vocals and arrangements display high levels of collaboration and raw talent. The conceptual album includes members of each of their bands and is a masterclass in cinematic storytelling with its entirety feeling soaked in gray mist and billows of fog.

62. Danny Elfman

Big Mess – Epitaph Records – Mike DeWald

For his first solo work in more than 30 years, Danny Elfman draws on his decades of experience and channels it into an unexpected and exciting place. On one hand, Elfman takes the orchestral fervor of which he’s become accustomed. On the other, he takes the raw intensity of guitar-driven progressive rock. The resulting 18-track double album is challenging, aggressive, weird and requires you to listen. He tackles a rock album with the mindset of a composer, making for a complex layering of instruments, panning and just about every tool in the musical tool chest.

“Sorry” is a journey within a journey during its five minutes. Elfman’s vocals are surprisingly compelling, with a raw tenacity that pairs well with the aggressive instrumentation. “Everybody Loves You” bounces between acoustic guitar riffs and fuzzy distorted hard rock over seven mind-bending minutes. Big Mess is anything but and at its finest moments, Elfman absolutely soars.

61. Mdou Moctar

Afrique Victime – Matador Records – Alex Baechle

The fresh, six-string sounds of Mdou Moctar provide a rejuvenating jolt to acolytes of the ax. Afrique Victime continues the overdriven rock style undertaken on 2019’s Ilana (The Creator). Where his earlier albums dabbled in rootsy African folk sounds and modern effects, he lets his Stratocaster do the talking here. The resulting creation resonates with his singular sound. Far from impenetrable, the record carries listeners along on sandstorms of driving, infectious rock and roll.

Moctar creates a spacey, soulful and rhythmically rich soundscape. Evidence of this appears persistently in his free improvisation. His biting tone cuts through the atmosphere of the opening track “Chismiten.” Like much of the record, the song travels by unrestrained and celebratory airs. Incendiary guitar solos lance through at surprise angles. His jams feel like journeys; ones not tidy enough to fit as conventional pop songs and with vocals to buoy the musical forays rather than the other way around.

70: Valerie June. 69. Mastodon. 68: Eric Church. 67: Wale. 66: Torres. 65: Japanese Breakfast. 64: serpentwithfeet. 63: Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth. 62: Danny Elfman. 61: Mdou Moctar.

The 108 best albums of 2021: 60-51 >>