We’re in the top 30 now! You’ve hopefully been waiting on the edge of your seat for a full week to get to this point, so let’s not waste any more time. Part eight includes Doja Cat, rapper Polo G, the consistent pop of Demi Lovato and the cheeky rock of Desperate Journalist.

But, if you’re just joining us now, catch up with everything we’ve gone through thus far in parts one, two, three, four, five, six and seven.

30. Demi Lovato

Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over – Island Records – Domenic Strazzabosco

On Dancing with the Devil… Demi Lovato addresses numerous controversies and headlines that arrived ahead of its release. The 19 tracks work to create Demi Lovato’s most sonically cohesive project, serving as a confident, mature and necessary step forward in her career. “Anyone,”  the title track,[ and “ICU (Madison’s Lullabye)” all detail the pain and loneliness she’s endured in the time between her last album and now. The vocally stunning ballads lead into the more mainstream, Top 40 sound of The Art of Starting Over portion of the album.

Lovato’s voice is as strong and impressive as ever. The pop tracks are infused with elements of soul and R&B, building on styles explored through her previous albums. In “The Art of Starting Over,” which is summery and introspective, she thanks herself for holding herself up and letting the darkness go over a mid-tempo, easy beat. Then on “Lonely People,” a more refined version of “Really Don’t Care,” she shouts, “Romeo and Juliet are dead,” before singing of dancing freely at a pity party. Other songs are more serious, such as “The Way You Don’t Look At Me,” where she describes losing 10 pounds in two weeks after someone told her to stop eating, or on “Carefully,” admitting “my insecurities don’t take vacations.”

29. Deafheaven

Infinite Granite – Sargent House – Rachel Alm

Infinite Granite is a gorgeous, dreamy shoegaze album, which is odd because Deafheaven was primarily known as a metal band before now. Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Paramore, M83), on this album, Deafheaven stopped relying on the crutch of blast beats and instead went with a clean, echo-drenched guitar sound and a lush, mellow soundscape.

There was a slight outcry in the metal world when the word went out that singer George Clarke wasn’t screaming anymore, but Clarke’s vocals are sweet and understated (and now you can actually understand what he’s singing!). Highlights include “Great Mass of Color” and “In Blur,” but for those who miss the old Deafheaven, there’s still some shredding and screaming at the end of the album closer “Mombasa.”

28. James McMurtry

The Horses and the Hounds – New West Records – Ben Schultz

The Texas musician’s first LP in six years isn’t a masterpiece like 2015’s Complicated Game. Where the earlier album was almost Whitmanian in scope—its insights and compassion extended across multiple generations, occupations and locations—the 10 songs here focus on much narrower territory: Folks of a certain age on the road; sometimes for an escape but mostly for a living.

This doesn’t mean that McMurtry’s lost a step, though—The Horses and the Hounds offers ample proof that Larry’s son remains a songwriter’s songwriter. “If It Don’t Bleed” glances ruefully at past mistakes while urging listeners to live it up “while you still got a more or less functional body and mind.” “Operation Never Mind” ruminates on modern warfare while “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call” describes a middle-aged, middle-class couple’s rocky Florida vacation. The album’s other tracks are chock-full of novelistic details and wry humor, and it doesn’t hurt that James McMurtry and his band haven’t rocked so hard since the G.W. Bush administration. Here’s hoping that we don’t need to wait another six years for the follow-up.

27. Desperate Journalist

Maximum Sorrow! – Fierce Panda – Ben Schultz

The band’s latest album, Maximum Sorrow!, more than justifies its cheekiness. The music’s as anthemic and danceable as anything by The Cure, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Jesus and Mary Chain. At the same time, the tart, tender lyrics place frontwoman Jo Bevan closer to Corin Tucker or Kathleen Hanna than to Robert Smith or Ian Curtis. Add it up and you have a release and a band that desperate journalists should be clamoring to cover (and that average U.S. listeners should be quick to embrace).

26. Doja Cat

Planet Her – RCA Records – Domenic Strazzabosco

On her third album, Doja Cat launches herself into unexplored galaxies above, creating the world of Planet Her. She channels the vibrant energy and various vocal deliveries found on her previous efforts while also doubling down on aesthetics and themes. The album is supported by several A-list collaborations, elaborate big-budget videos and eclectic fashion in every scenario.

Doja Cat opens with “Woman” and from the beginning beats, it’s clear the sounds and styles of the album are much more expansive than we’ve heard from her before. An Afropop beat begins the very feminine, snarky track with lines like, “I mean I could be the leader, head of all the states,” or “I could be the CEO, just a like a Robyn Fenty.” “Options” with J.I.D is another highlight. Over a beat infused with blaring sirens, Doja Cat changes switches up her singing, showing off the talent she holds with vocal diversity and delivery. And we can’t forget about “Kiss Me More,” which certified Doja Cat with another smash Top 3 hit.

25. Garbage

No Gods No Masters – Stunvolume/Infectious Music – Tim Hoffman

No Gods No Masters, the new album from Garbage, shares its name with a popular anarchist slogan that has become more prominent in public discourse as of late. So you know the exact direction Shirley Manson, Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker are going right off the bat. “The Men Who Run The World” critiques the abuse of wealth, power and influence afforded to the patriarchy. It’s guided by a marching tempo, funky, low bass and warping synth effects with sparse electric guitar riffs.

“Wolves” is a lovelorn tangent that tugs at the heartstrings with a rigid guitar riff and backing synths. On “Waiting for God” Manson sings about the ongoing epidemic of police violence against African Americans. “Godhead” opens with fuzzy scratching and thunderous percussion, as warping synths and electric guitar strikes evoke a cyberpunk aesthetic, and the chilling vocals are delivered via hushed whispers. What makes the sociopolitical focus of No Gods No Masters so intriguing is the focus on the emotional impact each topic has on the individual. Instead of focusing on critiquing the inner mechanisms driving societal ills, or trying to answer those problems outright, Manson and co. focus on the immediate impact of how the lives of regular people are immediately impacted.

24. Poppy

Flux – Sumerian Records – Mike DeWald

Just when you think you’ve got Poppy figured out, think again. On Flux, the musical shapeshifter stays within the rock universe but taps into a much different musical space than her prior efforts. That’s not to say Poppy (Moriah Pereira) leaves behind the precision riffs and metal of I Disagree entirely. But this time around it makes cameos rather than serving as the main course.

“You gotta flux and flow with me,” Poppy sings, which seems like a fairly accurate summation of her manic stylistic shifts over the course of a song—and the record. The title track fuses ’80s bombast with ’90s grunge wrapped up in pop sensibility. One of the most noticeable changes this time around is Poppy’s crisp voice. The same goes for the instrumentation. Everything has a very raw and in-the-moment feel.

While it’s tough to pin Poppy down, part of her identity is that she can be whatever she wants to be at any time. Surely, she’ll morph again on the next album, but that’s part of the fun. While those who loved Poppy’s heaviest moments may miss that aggression, there’s plenty to enjoy on Flux.

23. The War on Drugs

I Don’t Live Here Anymore – Atlantic Records – Mike DeWald

While the songs on The War On Drugs’ fifth album weren’t specifically written for post-pandemic times, the lyrical messages of hope, fear and uncertainty resonate for many right now. Coming off a Grammy for A Deeper Understanding, the sextet was entering a new phase itself. I Don’t Live Here Anymore is a reflection of those feelings set to a soundtrack. The Philly rockers turn in a lush and expansive effort.

“What have I been running from?” Adam Granduciel warmly asks. The instruments slowly layer until the full band joins. The vocalist’s delivery is poignant and makes you want to listen to every word and let it sink in, and then go right back and listen again. “Harmonia’s Dream” is a little Petty, a little Henley and a little Springsteen. “It’s harder to find a friend these days/ Girl I’m sinking,” Granduciel sings of the loneliness and isolation he’s feeling. The song crescendos in a magnificent layered musical soundscape of acoustic and electric the guitars, with a sonically triumphant conclusion.

22. Polo G

Hall Of Fame – Columbia Records – Tim Hoffman

Beneath a glamorous surface of Polo G’s new album is a harrowing exploration of the emptiness behind celebrity, particularly focusing on how isolating it is compounded with his personal traumatic experiences that have festered because of it. The production maintains a more minimalist style, with a lot of acoustic-guitar- and piano-driven trap instrumentals that fit the overall themes and pair well with Polo’s crooning rap-sung vocals.

“Rapstar” is a firsthand account of how closed-off and defensive Polo G has become due to the predatory nature of those trying to eat off his success, isolating him and causing his mental health to tank further. “No Return” offers up the first set of features with Australian MC Kid Laroi singing on the chorus and a killer closing verse from Lil Durk. The song explores how difficult and dangerous life is on the streets, and how it spares no one—not even children—from the brutalities of gang and drug violence. The artists express their desires to never return to such circumstances.

Hall of Fame is poignant, tragic, introspective and complex. It plays like the audiobook version of Polo G’s personal journal, between his emotional outpour and anguish from his trauma, contrasted with an inability to enjoy the success he’s attained while holding a great amount of appreciation for it all.

21. Parquet Courts

Sympathy for Life – Rough Trade Records – Ben Schultz

From its opening drumbeat, Sympathy for Life provides a wake-up call to anyone who wrote Parquet Courts off as too mannered or formalistic. That drumbeat comes from “Walking at a Downtown Pace,” which is funkier and more engaging than anything in the Brooklyn band’s oeuvre so far. And although it may have been written before the pandemic, its lyrics couldn’t be timelier—Andrew Savage looks forward to the day when he can “return the smile on an unmasked friend” and “treasure the crowds that once made me act so annoyed.”

The 10 tracks that follow stay on the good foot. The heartbroken “Black Widow Spider” livens up the band’s punky drone with heartfelt monotone vocals and some supple, Charlie-Watts-esque drumming. The pulsating “Marathon of Anger” raises a fist in solidarity with the national protest movements of the past few years. Elsewhere, the band envisions the loneliness of the rideshare driver, ponders modernity’s uneasy blend of technological comfort and primal savagery and embraces good old-fashioned human connection. But no matter the subject at hand, the lively beats, quirky textures and catchy tunes keep on coming. In short, Parquet Courts’ Sympathy for Life is an album for our current dark moments and others sure to still come.

30. Demi Lovato. 29. Deafheaven. 28. James McMurtry. 27. Desperate Journalist. 26. Doja Cat. 25. Garbage. 24. Poppy. 23. The War on Drugs. 22. Polo G. 21. Parquet Courts.

The 108 best albums of 2021: 20-11 >>