John's album sobs & rocks, MGK's grunge leads alternative's next steps, Hayley goes solo for a second time, and more. This is 2021's most memorable music.

To start this off plainly, my brother asked me why I continue to spend time compiling these yearly music roundups if I'm not sure that anyone reads them. Two reasons came to mind.

The first is that writing about the music I enjoy is one creative outlet to feel closer to it. The second is close to my heart: Some time after I posted my 2020 list last January, my friend messaged me saying that he checked out Tickets To My Downfall because of my review, and was hooked on it.

And because of that, a few months later, we were in New York City together, front row(ish) at one of the biggest tours of 2021. The trip was wild, and I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to experience music like that with a good friend, and humbled by the fact that time was taken to read my words.

Today, sharing our favorite music is something we do relatively regularly, and playing guitar together is on the horizon. Music just connects people. And in whatever capacity life allows, I will always find ways to connect myself to music. So now that you understand the method to my madness, here's 2021's best.

PAPERCUTS, LOVE RACE, DAYWALKER!, MACHINE GUN KELLY

Seeing as papercuts was my top played song from 2021, it feels appropriate to begin this list with it. While the track lives in the same pop-punk universe as 2020's Tickets To My Downfall, it hails from a darker, moodier planet. A soft acoustic strum builds into a powerful stadium-ready chorus that bangs and bashes. The grungy outro is an epic delivery from Travis Barker, and the song as a whole has something Nirvana-esque about it. (Yes, you read correctly. No, they are not untouchable). As the first listen of MGK's highly anticipated record, Born With Horns, expected to drop early 2022, papercuts is an angsty rock triumph that's ready to spearhead a new era for Kells.

Also part of his 2021 releases are DAYWALKER! and love race. The first is a trap-metal-techno-punk experiment with Kells hashing out an inner monologue on violent urges. The track features Corpse Husband, and is meant to unsettle. The second, love race, released in April right after fall tour dates were announced, is good ol'fashioned lovesick emo-punk to get the girl back.

Regardless of which single you prefer, the three together draw one conclusion:

Colson Baker cannot be bound to one genre, nor should he be.

STANDOUT LINE: "Don't belong. I'm a punk. Hello world. You fuckin' suck"

SOB ROCK, JOHN MAYER

"And you'll never know the unlikely beauty in letting you go".

It was the middle of July. I was on the North Atlantic coast at a friend's house in Gaspesie when I first heard Wild Blue and the rest of SOB ROCK. Ready for corny? John, you'll never know how much I needed this album. But seriously, music, and this record in particular saved my summer. At a time when I was consumed by sadness and confusion one day, and apathy the next, this album felt like one of the few things that helped me get back to myself. It validated my feelings of disappointment (Shouldn't Matter But It Does), and sparked new, healthier thoughts that embrace the future instead of shun it (Carry Me Away).

Now, what can SOB ROCK do for you? It can find a place in your heart as 2021's best record, John Mayer's finest since 2012's Born & Raised, and an overall excellent album front-to-back no matter what year it is. In the case of opening track, Last Train Home, it may be 1982. Beautifully borrowing from Toto's Africa, the track pays homage to the '80s, and the music Mayer grew up on. This theme continues on the record's gleaming jewel, Shot In The Dark. Complete with a video clip built on nostalgia and melodrama, the track glistens and charms: "Remember the line we drew / But call me over and I'm coming through".

Til The Right One Comes is a celebration of singlehood, patience and rightfully cautious decision-making. John's acceptance and well thought-out convictions are stated over the album's most snap-worthy recording. It's infectiously upbeat and makes it impossible not to feel hopeful and like you're exactly where you're meant to be.

STANDOUT LINE: "I found myself when I lost you"

CHECK OUT: Shot In The Dark, Til The Right One Comes, Wild Blue, Shouldn't Matter But It Does

FLOWERS FOR VASES / DESCANSOS, HAYLEY WILLIAMS

On the night of the Wolf Moon in January, a black cape wearing Williams drove to a fan's house in Nashville and dropped off a CD containing My Limb; the first tease of her sophomore album, Flowers For Vases / Descansos. The fan, encouraged to do so, leaked the spooky track to the internet. Macabre in vein, it narrates how someone wanted Williams to "amputate" and "sever what isn't working". But it's not so easy to part without your limb, now is it. The track depicts what many people on one side of a split experience: A desire to hold on to a relationship's remains even if they are terminally infected.

Amputating oneself from what was once their 'better half' is scary, and comes with sentiments that are far from linear. Williams manages to summarize the complexity of heartbreak in her most raw work. She has always written honestly, but there is something more uncensored about Flowers For Vases. "All I ever had to say about love is a sad song", she admits on Trigger, the album's punch-in-the-gut. On the equally vulnerable, No Use I Just Do, Williams confesses that she's tried to move on, but "it's no use", she can't stop feeling how she does. The hauntingly produced Good Grief, is capable of making one long to walk on autumn's dead leaves even in the summer. It sees Williams as "all skeleton and melody" as she mourns her loss. KYRH is the realization that boundaries are important: "Keep you right here, where the line is".

If Williams' first solo-effort, Petals For Armor, was a mosaic of genres and sonic diversity, Flowers For Vases, is a sustained palette of melancholy throughout. The stripped sound leans mainly on acoustic guitar and piano with selectively placed drum flourishes. Williams wrote and performed the entirety of the instrumentation on the record herself which is a career first for her. Her work is brilliant and the result feels like a compilation of her deepest cuts.

The record's finale brings us to an interesting turn with a different kind of rawness about it. Without taking a full one-eighty from the current mood, Just A Lover channels a young Williams circa 2005, even if for only a few moments. She may be yelling "one last chorus", but the track screams something else: She's ready for the next Paramore era.

STANDOUT LINE: "Why do memories glow the way real moments don't"

CHECK OUT: Good Grief, My Limb, Trigger, No Use I Just Do, First Thing To Go

SURVIVORS GUILT: THE MIXTAPE//, KENNYHOOPLA & TRAVIS BARKER

If you thought an early-2000s pop-punk revival was stopping at Machine Gun Kelly's initiatives, you're in for a treat. On the contrary, a whole new wave of the genre is pushing full steam ahead. Don't believe it? Try Kenny's sunny refrains on hollywood sucks and turn back time to instantly transport yourself back to happy days when Blink-182 were at their prime and your rollerblades got some good use. After one listen of either, it's clear this "revival" is not a short phase: The genre is here to stay and begging to hear from the new kids on the block. Kenny's 8-track EP alone makes an impressive mark on the scene. He doesn't sound like anyone right now- not MGK, Jxdn nor Blink. He sounds like Kenny. And at the age of 24, he comes off like he's been doing this for decades. It will be exciting to see his next move.

While the fast pop tunes shine on Survivors Guilt, my favorite moment is when Kenny goes a little dark; silence is also an answer was on repeat during summer's gloomier days. Lastly, but unsurprisingly, Travis Barker is a beast on this whole project.

STANDOUT LINE: "You stab me in the back when you should stab me in the front, 'cause life is way to short for you to hide behind your flaws... Your loss!"

CHECK OUT: Turn Back Time, Silence Is Also An Answer, Hollywood Sucks, Estella

DANGEROUS LEVELS OF INTROSPECTION, JP SAXE

This one came recommended by John Mayer himself. (Fine. In an Instagram story). I listened, I liked, and I can confirm that it's nothing short of introspective. JP Saxe's debut album is an auditory glimpse at candid jots on journal pages, and it's so easy to listen to: Instrumentation that sounds effortless, and delivery that feels unrehearsed and sincere. Jazzy piano and acoustic guitar are regular players here, but his honest and plain-spoken thoughts make this one of the best records of the year. Saxe wallows on some tracks and walks tall on others, all while sounding as if he is in conversation or an authentic state of question.

Lines in Tension felt like my own exact thoughts when I was confronted with the same depicted situation. He perfectly articulates what it feels like to be at the receiving end of harsh words: "You take it back then expect that it won't stick to me / Was just an argument, no ounce of truth in it / I wanna believe you, but you came off so articulate".

A Little Bit Yours, an epic ballad, has a weighted cognizance: "I let myself feel things I know that you don't". Deep cutting, the second verse explores how saying something different may have changed his ex's mind about leaving. The track communicates a stunning realization; "Maybe that's the problem / 'Cause I still kind of think it was up to me when I never could've made you stay". The girl's mind was made and nothing Saxe could have done or said would have changed the outcome.

STANDOUT LINES: "Ruining a moment with some reckless nostalgia / Dangerous levels of introspection leading me back to you" & "All I do is get over you, and I'm still so bad at it"

CHECK OUT: Tension, A Little Bit Yours, Line By Line, Dangerous Levels Of Introspection, What Keeps Me From It

MISERY LAKE, BLACKBEAR

This one's a goody. An EP that packs punch in each song, and another body of work that speaks to those in need of being pealed off the floor. Each track supplies pop-perfection with flawless production and an ear-grabbing chorus, all while feeling edgy and sincere. Beginning with a perfect delivery on alone in a room full of people, blackbear evaluates a circle of friends, or a "room full of clones". The rapping songwriter comes to a conviction that he is in fact, truly alone, when surrounded by people he's outgrown.

The project's theme may be melancholic, but blackbear steers clear of mopping. Instead, he makes mending a broken heart sound like an empowering 'fuck you'. In u love u, a microscope is placed over an ex-lover's selfish traits that validate why something ended in the first place. In the same song, the dangerous idea of if the relationship could ever work again is explored, but it feels playful and like he already knows the answer (no). The track's lyrics are satisfying and simply stated: "I love you / you love you more".

Navigating bullshit with bravado is weaved through most of Misery Lake, and can be helpfully toughening to listeners feeling particularly insecure. However, outright vulnerable moments are not completely absent from the EP. imu, which features Travis Barker, deals with missing an ex-partner even when accepting a relationship's end: "I miss you at the worse times, I miss you even though it's over".

While I love music for wallowing as much as the next emo person, Misery Lake is something special and in-between fun and cathartic. By the time you arrive at bad day, complete with boppy child-like rhymes, but a very adult message (again, a 'fuck you'), you're ready to go out into the world and face the immaturity of some of its inhabitants... Or pay them no mind whatsoever. When it comes on, it's impossible not to believe, even if just for 3 minutes, that you'll be completely fine and thriving without a person you thought you couldn't live without.

STANDOUT LINE: "I'm alone in a room full of clones, thought you all were my friends, but we only hurt each other in the end" / "Reminiscing about a past I can never outrun"

CHECK OUT: alone in a room full of people, and the remaining 5 songs.

AN EVENING WITH SILK SONIC, BRUNO MARS, ANDERSON .PAAK & SILK SONIC

A funky throwback to 1970s soul, An Evening With Silk Sonic, delivers phenomenal musicianship, crooning harmonization, and crisp production. The album is the product of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak getting together to make music; the duo sound remarkable together, each pulling his own weight, one not outshining the other, but bringing eachother higher. Lyrically, they play with romance and humor and a hell of a good time. They know how to party (Fly As Me) and throw in a killer power ballad (Put On A Smile).

STANDOUT LINE: Anderson's back and forth on the verses in Leave The Door Open

CHECK OUT: Put On A Smile, Leave The Door Open, Fly As Me

HAPPIER THAN EVER, BILLIE EILISH

She could have used the same formula as her monstrously successful debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? on her sophomore record, Happier Than Ever. No one would have objected to another neon green-black haired Billie era or a second round of dark-pop songwriting that solidified her and her brother Finneas as the coolest kids on the block. But that's just not Ms. Eilish. Why do the same thing twice when you can do something different and rock at that too. Enter her second full-length: A mainly downtempo and electronic body of work that favors jazzy-pop, soul, and ambient R&B.

Even the record's aesthetic is a clear departure from Eilish's last album cycle. The covershoot, drawing from old-timey 60s retro, depicts a blond Billie and warm beige tones. No neon green or black to be seen. Don't let the flashback look fool you though. The songwriter is as current as current gets. Folk ballad, Your Power, is a testament to her honest writing and addresses power imbalances in a relationship. "Try not to abuse your power", she sings leaving the personal details vague. Whether the mistreatment was emotional, physical, or sexual, abuse is abuse, and while her vocals are delicate, Eilish has taken a strong stance that this dynamic is not okay. With equal conviction, she confronts unsolicited opinions and body-shamers on Not My Responsibility, a spoken word interlude: "Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?"

Other songs on the album deal with moving on, growing up, and the pitfalls of fame. Even when she addresses the limelight (NDA and OverHeated), its not cringeworthy, but instead a mature, frustrated realization: "Can't be deleted, can't un-believe it", she scoffs of her high-profile position.

Where the record shines most though is when Billie's heart throbs. The title track is the moment of triumph complete with soft croons morphing into what is Eilish's first real use of yelling and distortion. It's a good look for her. Male Fantasy is the record's beautifully crafted conclusion. Over its dainty acoustic strumming, she worries if "this is how I'm always going to feel" while being unable to fully get over an ex-lover. The track is melancholic, but as Eilish intended, it doesn't end the work on an angry note: "I know I should, but I could never hate you".

STANDOUT LINE: "I'm in love with my future, can't wait to meet her"

CHECK OUT: Happier Than Ever, Male Fantasy, Growing Older, Oxytocin, NDA

MONTERO, LIL NAS X

On Lil Nas X's debut LP, something is clear: The pop-rapper is a master of multiple genres. Since his coming out in 2019, the Black queer artist does not hold anything back, and it's a treat to hear him emote atop an array of styles. There are moments of theatrics and confidence (Industry Baby), melodic introspection (One Of Me), and gloomy alternative (Life After Salem). The record's soaring moments are the uplifting, That's What I Want and the pop-rock, Lost In The Citadel.

STANDOUT LINE: "I need time to get up and get off the floor / I need time to realize that I can't be yours"

CHECK OUT: That's What I Want, Lost In The Citadel, Life After Salem, One Of Me (feat. Elton John)

YOU'RE WELCOME, A DAY TO REMEMBER

Sifting through the comments section of the band's Instagram account post-album-release, one thing was clear: Some ADTR fans were not thrilled. Hate comments flooded their launch post with some users begging the band to return to their metalcore roots. I smiled to myself as I read the remarks. I know that I was exactly like these kids some years ago: Hating change, and wanting every new record to sound like the last. ("Please record Homesick over and again, so I can drown myself in nostalgia", I may have begged back then).

It's understandable why people want more of the band's older stuff; known for heavy breakdowns that merge with singalong punk, it's a standalone category of alternative that ADTR basically invented. However, if You're Welcome was a debut release of some new emo act today, it would be praised for being explosively hooky on almost every track. (Degenerates and F.Y.M. are extra poppy). To add some more sugar to the wound, here's a comment that'll piss-off the heavy diehards: Someone in ADTR, if not all members, is a big Ed Sheeran fan. Or at least that's what the layered vocals in Mindreader's bridge or the beautiful build in Re-Entry sound like. (Don't believe me? Listen to Ed's Give Me Love for the full experience). None of this has to be a bad thing though, as the rock veterans executed all the different styles that appear on their seventh full-length with conviction.

To the fan saying the band "sold out" or "suck now"; I think they would suck more if their creativity was stifled by answering to narrow minds. While it would have been nice to have a few more heavy moments on the record, they can always revisit those roots again- later or live. And you, dear diehard, can always listen to their back catalogue.

The point I am trying to make is that there are bad albums, there are good albums, and then there are good albums that appear to be bad albums because they don't fit into what we thought they would sound like. That is a tongue-twister to arrive at the following conclusion: You're Welcome is a good album.

STANDOUT LINE: "Belief is the death of reason"

CHECK OUT: F.Y.M, Everything We Need, Degenerates, Mindreader, Last Chance To Dance

TELL ME ABOUT TOMORROW, JXDN

This is the story of a Tiktok star gone rockstar. When Jaden Hossler's talent got in front of Travis Barker, the kid was signed to the iconic drummer's record label. Tell Me About Tomorrow doesn't reinvent anything, but instead draws from exactly what worked from pop-punk's past: Fun, sun-kissed teenage angst. The chorus in A Wasted Year draws directly from Blink's 2003 hit Feeling This while the opening track, Pills, sounds like it could have a home on New Found Glory's Radiosurgery. One Minute and DTA are equally catchy blasts to the past.

While the sound is nothing new, it may be just what the next generation of alternative fans are looking for: A 20-year old emo hero to carry the genre's torch. Single Angels & Demons, the record's bridge between 'music of today' and rock 15 years ago, was a fan favorite during Jxdn's set opening for MGK this past fall.

STANDOUT LINE: "I wish I could go back in time and do it different / And lose my insecurities, I know I wouldn't miss them"

CHECK OUT: Braindead, Wanna Be (feat. Machine Gun Kelly), Better Off Dead, Angels & Demons, One Minute

BITE ME, AVRIL LAVIGNE

Here's a fun one. It's our first listen of Lavigne's forthcoming seventh LP which will be produced by Travis Barker. She just signed to DTA Records, and by the sound of Bite Me, her and Barker make an awesome team. The song is a boy-bashing pop-punk gem and "back to her roots" as Lavigne says on an Instagram post. It's obvious that the singer was not held back, but encouraged to make the music that she wanted to. If the single is any indication of what the full-length will sound like, we're in for some fun this year. (I'm banking on an MGK collaboration here).

JUSTICE, JUSTIN BIEBER

Anyone was the first song from 2021 that I heard on its New Year's Day release. The single is a hit with a power chorus, and a bridge that builds upon beautifully layered vocals. It was a much needed comeback that redeemed Bieber after 2020's Changes, a record that fell flat. The rest of Justice is stable pop that infuses some '80s retro vibes with rhythm and blues. Its formula does not reinvent, but is familiar and safe.

STANDOUT LINE: "Looking back on my life, you're the only good I've ever done" (TAZ)

CHECK OUT: Anyone, Unstable, Deserve You

What did my ears miss this year?

What did your ears agree with?

__________________________

MOST-ANTICIPATED FOR 2022:

- Born With Horns, Machine Gun Kelly

- Paramore's 6th album

- Whatever Blackbear is working on with Travis Barker

- Avril Lavigne's 7th album

- Billy Talent's Crisis Of Faith