NPR Music’s 100 Best Songs of 2021 (80-61)
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Renee Klahr/NPR
Renee Klahr/NPR
“ merely hera to sin. ” That entree from NPR Music ‘s sung of the class lies at the heart of many of the stories told across these 100 tracks. possibly the crown of Cardi and Megan ‘s “ WAP ” stopping point class signaled a transgressive sea change. possibly, after 20 months behind masks, we felt like revealing ourselves again. possibly we kept some truths concealed during desperate straits, so as not to appear frivolous ( or feral ) in the face of unforgiving circumstance. But in the songs … booties were called. Muffins were buttered. Revenge was contemplated. In other words, we could be human again, and it felt good to be back. It ‘s our sincere hope that as you make your way through our 7-hour playlist of the year ‘s 100 best songs, you ‘ll feel the lapp. If you find yourself losing steam or feeling down or wondering when things will ultimately turn around, feel free to skip the rest of “ All Too Well. ” ( Jk, Taylor ! ) ( Oh, and you can find our 50 Best Albums of 2021 hera. ) Stream NPR Music’s 100 Best Songs Of 2021:
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Tyler, The Creator (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again & Ty Dolla $ign)
“WUSYANAME”
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Tyler, the Creator does n’t care if he ‘s coming on impregnable on “ WUSYANAME, ” a soulful track where the once trollish artist indulges in a sweet sincerity. He and his love matter to are n’t even by rights acquainted even, and he ‘s already asking to share secrets and take oversea trips. The excited, new-crush energy of “ WUSYANAME ” carry that find of locking eyes with person and incidentally finding yourself fantasizing about marriage and babies. A sample of H-Town ‘s 1994 R & B jam “ Back Seat ( Wit No Sheets ) ” and angelic ad-lib by Ty Dolla $ ign make it all the more sentimental. —Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Saudade
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not every visualize tells a report. Some canvasses evoke moods and memories alternatively of narrative. That ‘s the encase in music excessively. Saudade, by lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, is a consummate case. The claim refers to mix feelings of nostalgia and muted rejoice. Martinaitytė translates that into sound, manipulating the symphony orchestra to capture texture, color and light. Brass players produce eerie calls by blowing and singing into their instruments. Percussionists place cymbals atop the kettle for a glistening impression. The music, like potent waves of emotion, swells in elephantine crests of pealing brass and soaring strings before returning to repose. —Tom Huizenga
Yotuel, Gente De Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky
“Patria y Vida”
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Maykel “ Osorbo ” Castillo has been imprisoned in Pinar del Río since May, charged, according to pro-government exit Cubadebate, with “ crimes of attack, public disorder, and miss of prisoners or detainees. ” Earlier this year, Osorbo co-wrote a song that altered the rotation slogan “ patria o muerte ” to “ homeland and life sentence. ” It has since lived many lives on and off the island after July ‘s demonstrations protesting food scarcity and medicate shortages as the pandemic surged gained external attention, a well the artist ‘s campaign unionize in the name of barren expression, of which Osorbo is a member. “ ¿Quién lupus erythematosus dijo que Cuba vitamin e de ustedes ? / Si mi Cuba es de toda mi gente, ” Randy Malcom of Gente de Zona asks. reality and the future will constantly be more difficult to hold than the words we ascribe to it, harder to honor than the interests of politicians in Cuba or in the U.S, but art asks its listeners to try. —Stefanie Fernández
Meet Me @ The Altar
“Hit Like A Girl”
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certain, ticket, yes : This was the year pop-punk reentered the mainstream, not filtered through SoundCloud rap ‘s purple daze or Philly indie ‘s basement fuzz but sounding roughly as it did when most media left it for dead a decade ago. And even, for all the high-gloss bratitude that zoomed through the culture in 2021, a lot of it felt like moonlighting — a cluster of fun, one-off writing style experiments by artists whose bread is buttered elsewhere. A toast, then, to Meet Me @ The Altar : three musicians just old enough to remember the last curl firsthand, who can sing and play better than many of their forebears, and whose commitment to the studded-belt phone appears dear and all-consuming. On the page, “ Hit Like a Girl ” is a flurry of fists-up hashtags, and in less able hands it might fizzle. The juice hera is in the execution — the command of tune and book, the bottle subtext of dismiss and decrease voices seizing the mic at last and the wallop chops to put those instincts to work. —Daoud Tyler-Ameen
Zao
“Ship Of Theseus”
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Zao did n’t plan a WandaVision link, but the MCU coincidence did n’t hurt. The Ship of Theseus is a think puzzle developed by ancient greek philosophers, basically asking if a ship rebuild from raw planks is still the same embark. In WandaVision ‘s season stopping point, the question allows for an emotional constantan ; for Zao, “ ship of Theseus ” serves as a ripping statement of re-purpose. True, the decades-spanning metallic band has no original members, but a track like this one — featuring Daniel Weyandt ‘s ferocious bark over bumble and eddy riffs — honors Zao ‘s heritage while braving nameless waters. —Lars Gotrich
Silvana Estrada
“Marchita”
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mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada is on an intimate tied with the spanish terminology, which means the cadence of the lyrics of “ Marchita ” are precisely equally significant as the message of a lost love. “ Marchita ” is a placid meditation on the lyric and musical poetry of the conditional tense, and is a master class in how to say so a lot with thus little. Coupled with the austere orchestration of Mexican folk instruments augmented by a chain quartet, the birdcall becomes the mark of a amply develop artist. —Felix Contreras
Porter Robinson
“Musician”
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There ‘s a tint backstory to this euphoric sung by erstwhile EDM wunderkind-turned-hyperpop auteur Porter Robinson about falling back in love with making bangers after a festival-sized bout of diffidence. While adolescent stardom is n’t precisely the most relatable backdrop, his irrational number obsession with music — and the gladden he feels producing it — will strike a harmonize with anyone who ca n’t stop, wo n’t stop. “ This is why we do it, for the feeling, ” Robinson belts out, his voice pitched up and poignant. And what better way to express that exuberance than that sample distribution of Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock ‘s “ It Takes Two ” ? —Otis Hart
Recap
“Hedera”
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percussion ensembles tend to be populated by white men. So the four young women of color who founded the group Recap in 2020 are, by definition, shifting the percussion paradigm. Their classifiable debut album, Count to Five, features works by six women composers and is anchored by Hedera, a magnetize, 20-minute musical composition by Lesley Flanigan. deafening bass drums and tom-toms predominate, delivering an oscillating groove over which the composer ‘s articulation floats like “ clouds of flip, ” as she told NPR. Like ivy, to which the give voice “ hedera ” refers, the music ‘s roll tendrils wrap themselves around you. [ This follow-up originally appeared in NPR Music ‘s # NowPlaying series. ] —Tom Huizenga
SOPHIE
“UNISIL”
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The year in electronic music started on a mournful note with the personnel casualty of SOPHIE in January. Throughout her ephemeral career, the manufacturer and artist found herself straddling the telephone line between abrasive industrial sounds and glistening bubblegum pop music, often blending the two together on a single racetrack. Her concluding song came two days before her end in the shape of “ UNISIL, ” a thump, voltaic B-side from her earlier 2015 compilation, PRODUCT. As the last let go of from a once-in-a-lifetime endowment, the track stands as a reminder of the artist and electric potential art we lost. —Reanna Cruz
Daniel Bachman
“Coronach”
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This is and ai n’t the Daniel Bachman we ‘ve grown to admire. In the past ten, Bachman has grown past his fingerstyle guitar roots and, much like his early mentor Jack Rose, moved with and beyond the instrumental role ‘s reach. “ Coronach, ” a heavy lament composed and played on a 12-string acoustic, may sound in lineage with his guitar solo oeuvre, but is sandwiched between gurgles of radio static ( “ WBRP 4.75 ” ) and noisy field recordings ( “ Deep Adaptation ” ) near Axacan ‘s end. Over its nine minutes, the objet d’art wades through mud and blood like the atavistic drones that surround it, but steels itself with hard-struck strings in a despairing exuberate to pull beauty from the manure. —Lars Gotrich
Cardi B
“Up”
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Leave it to Cardi B to turn a beastly put-down of haters and rivals into a good time. Rhyming “ uh-gu-ly ” with “ f*** on me, ” she turns misperceptions of her into jokes, and fires back with 10 times the ammunition. At two and a half minutes, “ Up ” is a quick strike of dopamine, with a repetitive hook that gives booties no option but to bounce ( no curiosity it blew up via TikTok dancing ). The song is all ace ego, and its lyrical audacity makes you want to double back and listen again. —Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED
Azealia Banks
“F*** Him All Night”
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Whether you love or hate her, you ca n’t deny that Azealia Banks knows her way around a beat. At its kernel, the aptly-named “ F*** Him All Night ” is very childlike, composed of a minimal Galcher Lustwerk drum and synth under Banks ‘ bouncy hang ; the magic lies in the kinship between the two. Banks has always excelled on acme of house beats, and as she dances about lines that range from the explosively sexual to the suggestively seductive ( “ I ‘m high like Sharon Stone in Casino ” ), the track bears similarity to her authoritative “ 212 ” — both in ageless catchiness and replay electric potential. —Reanna Cruz
Durand Jones & The Indications
“Witchoo”
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I dare you to play this song just once. It ‘s impossible. The popcorn bass and bubbling synthesizers build on each other to form a double-helix of rut. Aaron Frazer ‘s falsetto insinuates itself, the sexiest of earworms. Durand Jones adds heft with his deep whistle and party-starting cry of a refrain. The lights at the roller disco whirl — to stop now would be to risk falling on your buttocks. The only thing to do is press repeat and whirl around the rink again. —Ann Powers
The Baylor Project (feat. Dianne Reeves & Jazzmeia Horn)
“We Swing”
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Buy the album on The Baylor Project’s website.
No one parties harder than marry musical couple The Baylor Project ( singer Jean and drummer Marcus Baylor ) on “ We Swing ( The Cypher ). ” A gay celebration of the jazz tradition, this high energy tune features acclaimed vocalists Jazzmeia Horn and Dianne Reeves. Along with Jean Baylor, they deliver a masterclass in scat, the improvisatory jazz formulation of exemption in birdcall. With phenomenal displays of vocal capacitance, range and a fullness in sound, each woman offers an especial interpretation of the verse and the hook — “ Why must we swing so hard ? ” The solution ? Because they can and they do it therefore well. —Suraya Mohamed
Tion Wayne x Russ Millions (feat. ArrDee, E1, ZT, Bugzy Malone, Buni, Fivio Foreign & Darkoo)
“Body (Remix)”
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I know what you ‘re thinking : nine names ? Yep, and that ‘s barely on this one remix of Tion Wayne and Russ Million ‘s chart-topping drill track. There are four more mixes that hit about as hard, thanks to the one world missing from the metadata, U.K. drill manufacturer Gotcha. His behemoth sub-bass besides powered Wayne and Russ ‘s last rendezvous on the Official Charts, 2019 ‘s “ Keisha & Becky ( Remix ), ” which had four features of its own. The short-circuit of it is : Everyone wants a patch when these two London bore stars put their heads together. Throw in a viral poetry about unprotected sex, and you ‘ve got the beginning exercise lead to hit No. 1 on the popular charts. —Otis Hart
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
“Go Your Way”
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Songwriter and folk music evangelist Anne Briggs recorded this abandoned fan ‘s lament in 1971 as a hauntingly spare conjuring of a pastoral Great Britain. This standout from Raise the Roof, the harmonize Plant and Krauss ‘ first album in 14 years, expands the birdcall ‘s musical skeleton as a room of distilling the calm of its loneliness. Over a strings-driven, keyboard-sparkled musical arrangement that recalls the psychedelic-era Beatles, Plant delivers a intimidate and profoundly emotional conduct song with deft episodic support from Krauss. He is the fool on the hill, knowing his hanker is otiose but still laying out meals and mash notes for the one who will never return. This is heartache as a route to enlightenment. —Ann Powers
Lana Del Rey
“White Dress”
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To Lana Del Rey, white America is an cultural concept, and she its best anthropologist. Whereas the soap-operatic stuff of her past albums glorified a whirly mythology of american artifacts — the cigarettes, the Mustangs, the old Hollywood despondencies — “ White Dress ” is a diaristic murder far closer to reality. Her ballad to making it as a 19-year-old waitress in Orlando — serving people credibly less of the quail-and-mint-jelly sort and more like the Western-omelet-and-Sysco-muffin type — makes this a version of Del Rey with an preternatural update, so far still entirely the Del Rey we know : ultra-mundane and everlastingly out-of-time. Whenever her vape crackles on the track ‘s bathetic instrumental bridge, I return to the think that american Studies scholars would be derelict to not include her on extroverted course of study. —Mina Tavakoli
Doja Cat (feat. SZA)
“Kiss Me More”
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The drift forecasts were right : The bleakness of sheltering in place gave way to a post-vaccine maximalism, and the glittering aesthetics of the ’70s made a comeback in 2021. “ Kiss Me More ” is Doja Cat and SZA ‘s contribution to this corporate energy switch. Over a four-on-the-floor, funky beat, Doja Cat gives us a hearty celebration of desire. She ‘s at her most flirty and begrimed, rapping and singing with a smile and a blink. The song is about arouse, certain, but after the major mood-killer that was 2020, “ Kiss Me More ” pulses with an delirious appetite to experience, feel and live. —Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED
Mannequin Pussy
“To Lose You”
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Mannequin Pussy appeared in Witchblood, the vampires vs. witches comic-book western, doubly this year ; first, a bluish green hair-dyed witch sings the isthmus ‘s song “ patience ” on a motorcycle, then late the band members themselves become illustrate avatars. In that view, Mannequin Pussy performs “ To Lose You ” in a small-town barroom about to be consumed by a cosmopolitan rain ( and reign ) of blood, a match rig for a tender-hearted shoegaze-punk ballad about a relationship ‘s apocalyptic doubt. The swooning grandiosity of “ To Lose You ” screams adolescent rom-com synchronize placement, but there ‘s a dark edification to Marisa Dabrice ‘s histrionic song performance, a love affair deep and possibly, yes, vampiric — coming to terms with a devastate personnel casualty of love adhere by blood. —Lars Gotrich
Kacey Musgraves
“good wife”
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Since Kacey Musgraves ‘ star-crossed was positioned as her disassociate album, listeners were alert for any tell of scandal in the songs. But what Musgraves delivered rather, peculiarly in “ estimable wife, ” was deft ambivalence toward the gendered, domestic role she ‘d taken on. The song lands like a pensive prayer, the quantify subtleties of her vocal inflections acquit even through diaphanous effects, as she contemplates the desire for company on the one handwriting and dreads the emotional parturiency of managing a conserve ‘s happiness on the other. It ‘s conflicted and subtly devastating gorge. —Jewly Hight, WNXP
NPR’s 100 Best Songs Of 2021
100-81 | 80-61 | 60-41 | 40-21 | 20-1
