Blah blah blah something about 2021. Here’s the playlist: my favorite songs of 2021. As always, the songs are in some relative order, meaning I like the first twenty more than I like the last twenty, but they aren’t ranked with extreme precision. Enjoy. And send me what you got! My uncle sent me three records from the 1970s so that’s where I’m starting my 2022.

• Best intro songs
  • Bodies – Intro by Jazmine Sullivan
  • 17 by Indigo De Souza
  • Good Evening, Tennessee by Houston Kendrick

• Songs I like the most that I think you’ll like the least[1]
  • White Horses by Low
  • Any haters out there on Olivia Rodrigo? I mean…I was skeptical but jesus christ I think she wrote the best rock song of the year (Brutal), maybe the last 10 years, and two of the best breakup songs in recent memory (Déjà vu and the ubiquitous Driver’s License). I know we (I) all want to hate the anointed, but sometimes they’re just really fucking good.[2]

• Best Lyrics
  • “Rolls Royce pull up / Black boy hop out / shout out to my mother and my father didn’t pull out” -Lumberjack by Tyler, The Creator
  • “Remembered I was rich / so I bought me some new emotions / and a new boat / cuz I’d rather cry in the ocean”-Corso by Tyler, The Creator
  • “If you like a girl / be nice / it’s not rocket science” -Unsmart Lady by Dry Cleaning
  • “I feel like no one wants me / and I hate the way I’m perceived / I only have two real friends/ and lately I’m a nervous wreck / cuz I love people I don’t like / and I hate every song I write / and I’m not cool and I’m not smart / and I can’t even parallel park” -Brutal by Olivia Rodrigo
  • “In the summer of ’07 / I was sure I’d go to heaven / but I was hedging my bets / at VBS” -VBS[3] by Lucy Dacus
  • “Your poetry was so bad / it took a lot to not laugh / you said that I showed you the light / but all it did in the end / was make the dark feel darker than before” -VBS by Lucy Dacus
  • “aww / you look malnourished / let’s get some bread / fry an egg / drown it in syrup”-WUSYANAME by Tyler, The Creator
  • Look, you could probably put just both Lana Del Rey records on here. They’re so good and dense with lyrical brilliance, so I’m hesitant to just highlight one, but perhaps my favorite moment is a funny one from Sweet Carolina, where she says: “You name your babe Lilac Heaven / after your iPhone 11 / ‘Crypto Forever!’ screams your stupid boyfriend / fuck you, Kevin”
  • “I wanted to text you / but it’d mean I’d thought about you.”-Corncrakes by Anna B Savage (also: “I don’t know if this is even real / I don’t feel things as keenly as I used to”)
  • “Blacked out on a weekday / is still something I’m trying to avoid”-Hardline by Julien Baker
  • “I wanna hold the minister’s hand / strangle the jangle pop band”-Nashville Wedding by Kiwi jr.
  • “Mommy, Daddy, look at me / I went to school / and I got the degree / all my friends call it the big D / I went to school / and I got the big D”-Chaise Longue by Wet Leg
  • “We were up late online / talking about new music / and you sent me a link to a song / that I never heard before / hurried ot get my headphones on / just think about the long pause / after it’s gone / and never forget / the times I was wrong / I swear / I’ll follow along”-New Music by Another Michael
  • “New Year / new you / same me”-Hailey by Cassandra Jenkins

• Best artist from Spruce Pine
  • Indigo De Souza. Seriously—never thought I’d hear of another human from Spruce Pine that wasn’t directly related to me. And here we are.
• Best production[4] touches
  • The open car door sound on Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
  • The sped up Saxophone on Kinney by Rostam
  • The “wooh!”s in the chorus of Unpleasant Breakfast by The Hold Steady
  • The guitar distortion in Déjà vu by Olivia Rodrigo
  • The fake laughter at the beginning of Déjà vu by Olivia Rodrigo
  • The off-kilter screams of “later!” at the end of Guitars Are Better Than Synthesizers for Writing Through Hard Times by Toth.
  • The guitar after mentioning Slayer on VBS by Lucy Dacus
• Best Melodies
  • SING by Jon Batiste
  • …At The Holiday Party by St. Vincent
  • Small Infinity by Houston Kendrick
  • Judy (Wilds) by Andy Shauf
  • I NEED YOU by Jon Batiste
  • Concrete by Houston Kendrick
  • Not All Who Wander Are Lost by Lana Del Rey
  • Die Outside by Wild Pink
  • Cannonball! Pt. 2 by Buck Meek

• Best Stories
  • Turnaround (Cocaine Song) by Toth
  • The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming by No-No Boy
  • Baby Grand by Anna B Savage
• Best vocal Inflection
  • Tyler, The Creator on Corso when he says “played a couple demos at Madison Square Gawden”
  • Almost every word on Dry Cleaning’s Scratchcard Lanyard, but especially when she says “wristband thempark scratchcard lanyard.” Something about that just gets me.
• Best Love Songs
  • From the Back of a Cab by Rostam
  • Baby Grand by Anna B Savage
• Best Breakup Songs
  • Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
  • Drink the Lake by IAN SWEET
    • Just the line” “I’ll start saying your name / backwards / so I’ll forget it” has me in my feels.
  • Déjà vu by Olivia Rodrigo
  • Guitars are Better Than Synthesizers by Toth
  • Power by IAN SWEET
  • Valentine by Snail Mail

• Give me the fun songs you sad sack[5]
  • Pool Hopping by Illuminati Hotties
  • Grumpy Old Man by Remi Wolf
  • I NEED YOU by Jon Batiste
  • Out of Touch by Shad
  • Summer Never Dies by The Foxies
  • Sidney Poitier by Jesse Markin
• Best Guitar
  • Unsmart Lady by Dry Cleaning
  • Tyler by Kiwi Jr.
  • Brutal by Olivia Rodrigo: Reminiscent of Hole or Green Day and I mean that in the best way.
  • Darker than Death by Indigo De Souza: it’s just so restrained for the first minute and then when it comes in it feels like such a relief. And then as quick as it was there, it’s gone again. Masterful.
  • Feel A Thing by Meet Me @ The Altar
• Best Bridges
  • Dance Til We Die by Lana Del Rey
  • Déjà vu by Olivia Rodrigo
• Best Wordplay
  • Hard Drive by Cassandra Jenkins
• Best Adam Peindl Recommendation
  • *pulls up texts….scrolls…didn’t listen, didn’t listen…ah! I think Adam was the first one to send me Dry Cleaning. So that record, although I think we disagree on our favorite songs.
• Bman Travis (Baby…) Nexus
  • Feel A Thing by Meet Me @ The Altar
• Best B-Side
  • Fruits of My Labor by Waxahatchee

Favorite Records: Just to be clear here, it means I really liked the whole record—I’m not weighting my favorite songs or anything ridiculous like that—so while Olivia Rodrigo wrote my favorite song of 2021 and three of my top ten, I don’t like listening to that whole record so it’s not on here. This is more like, I’m at the record store, what would I actually want to buy, take home, and listen to in full?

1. HEY WHAT by Low
2. Any Shape You Take by Indigo De Souza
3. Cooler Returns by Kiwi Jr.
4. Chemtrails Over The County Club by Lana Del Rey
5. Small Infinity by Houston Kendrick
6. CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST by Tyler, The Creator
7. WE ARE by Jon Batiste
8. Small Infinity by Houston Kendrick
9. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
10. OK ORCHESTRA by AJR

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[1] From here on out, maybe we’ll call this the Insecurity Filter.

[2] See, for instance, The Strokes. Etc.

[3] I was sent to a couple instances of Vacation Bible School (VBS). Not really sure how common they are? I was raised in the south. My prevailing memory from overnight VBS was lip-synching Beck’s “Loser” at the talent show with the other kids in my bunk and being very, very homesick.

[4] I’m using “production” here pretty broadly. Basically any element that isn’t the actual written lyrics and notes could be included here.

[5] First, fuck you. But I get it. There are back-to-back songs on this playlist called “Kill Me” and “Bummerland,” so, yeah.