The best songs of 2021

If you’ve been a fan of my quarterly reports series during 2021, I’m about to disappoint you: There won’t be any more of them this year (only three texts for a quarter-based series? So unpure!!). Instead I’m making a whole-year list with 2021’s absolute best songs! The happy-go-lucky style of the quarterly reports (where I basically chose songs based on “what has made me happy recently”) is now gone. This list is brutally objective. Only the best songs, all ranked in a definitive order, and only one song per artist (to simplify for me). 2021, what a year. Enjoy!

TOP 10

#1. Danny L Harle – Take My Heart Away (electronic/dance pop)
Danny L Harle bringing back the early 2000s with this Winamp looking ass music video, and this beautiful song with so many varying beautiful sounds. Congrats to the #1 Danny!

#2. Haru Nemuri – Old Fashioned (hyperpop?)
The intro, the heavy guitar riff, the banging drum. This song is simply very good.

#3. Baby Queen – Raw Thoughts (indie pop)
A rateyourmusic user made a list with “Baby Queen” in it, and I chose to listen. Turns out she’s a really good and fun musician, and good enough to get as high as #3 on this list.

#4. Slipknot – Chapeltown Rag (metal)
The OG’s Slipknot reach a surprising #4. “Chapeltown Rag” brings us back to the old Slipknot energy and creativity levels, and I’m banging my head because it’s just so good.

#5. Akkogorilla – I’m Here (pop/rap)
Akkogorilla has released enough good songs this year to take up multiple spots on the list (if there wasn’t a rule against it). She’s mainly a rapper but her music spans very wide, and almost everything she releases nowadays is cool.

#6. BabyTron ft. Since99 – Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy (hip hop)
Somebody said that Since99 “raps in Times New Roman”, which got me instantly interested. This song is nice.

#7. BROCKHAMPTON ft. Danny Brown – BUZZCUT (hip hop)
Getting to know this song before 2021 ended was a good choice.

#8. Tyler, The Creator – LUMBERJACK (hip hop)
Solid hiphop by Tyler, The Creator.

#9. Nani’n’Nerun? – Naughty Naughty (J-pop)
Naughty Naughty, Crazy Monkey. A silly song but deep beneath it’s also a beautiful song about making life into something bigger than what it usually is.

#10. Malcolm Mask McLaren – Life (easycore)
Pop punk with breakdowns in a J-pop way. The anthemic chorus got me bringing it up into the top 10’s.

#11 – #20

#11. SCANDAL – Ivory (Japanese pop/rock)

#12. Marina – Purge the Poison (artrock/pop)

#13. ん・フェニ – 今を燃やす (indie rock/pop)

#14. Femme Fatale – 鼓動 (Japanese pop)

#15. EMPiRE – LET’S SHOW (alternative idols)

#16. Nicki Minaj – Fractions (hip hop)

#17. A$AP Ferg ft. Pharrell Williams & The Neptunes – Green Juice (hip hop)

#18. Nas – Speechless (hip hop)

#19. Poppy – EAT (heavy metal pop)

#20. Scientific – Sakta försvinner vi (Swedish hiphop)

#21 – #30

#21. KAQRIYOTERROR – Not Killed (all genres mixed)

#22. TORIENA – Hot Spots in My Head (electronic/rave)

#23. ZOC – Fake Baby (J-rock)

#24. BABYBEARD – ぴえナイザー (eurobeat)

#25. Li-V-RAVE – MISSING LINK (J-rock)

#26. Yuki – Gokuraku Terminal (pop)

#27. Sabaton – Defence of Moscow (heavy metal)

#28. My Little Airport – QUEEN (indie pop)

#29. STARKIDS – FLASH (electronic/rave)

#30. $UICIDEBOY$ – Materialism as a Means to an End (hip hop)

#31 – #40

#31. Redman – 80 Barz (hip hop)

#32. BURST GIRL – 最底辺ロマンス (alternative idols)

#33. CMH – Russian Ghetto (electronic/rave)

#34. CL – Spicy (remix) (hip hop)

#35. Kuroitori – TORA (rock/pop)

#36. starling – Where the ocean runs free (folk/Disney)

#37. Laleh – Change (pop)

#38. chirinuruwowaka – スノードーム (indie rock)

#39. Mayhem – Black Glass Communion (black metal)

#40. Kanye West – Jesus Lord (hip hop)

#41 – #50

#41. ano – F WONDERFUL WORLD (rock)

#42. BAQABO – Time (guitar pop from Zanzibar)

#43. 15GERM – Paradise (alternative idols)

#44. I’s – DON’t COMMIT SUICIDE (punk rock)

#45. At The Gates – Cosmic Pessimism (melodic metal)

#46. Dorian Electra – Ram It Down (hyperpop)

#47. Strangers With Guns – Fuck the American Dream (punk/grunge)

#48. ZHEANI – Fuck the Hollywood cult (rock, maybe)

#49. Bunily – Drip (alternative idol)

#50. BLACKSTARKIDS – FIGHT CLUB (hip hop)

These songs are good and not necessarily interesting, which is why I didn’t write much about them. The list is also obviously colored by my own taste (I can only judge what I listen to), and 2021 seems to have been the year of alternative pop/rock in different shapes, so even though this should be the definitive objective yearlist, it’s more a yearlist for some specific genre areas. Also, I’ve mostly watched music videos and not listened that much to albums, so this list is pretty single-heavy.

Do you agree with the rankings? If not, maybe you’ve still found something new that you like! If not, I’m sorry that all this was pointless. This was the best of 2021, and now let’s enter 2022 with less music obsession and more of other things. Kbrecordzz OUT!

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