Top Songs of 2021

Well, look at that, it's the end of 2021. Somehow we made it yet another lap around the sun. It was a year that started out pretty low for a lot of people, then vaccines became widely available and things started to get back a bit more to normalcy! Then variants hit, making things still not feel 100% over by the year's end. Add to that, for me, a plethora of other health problems and what a roller coaster it was!

But on the bright side of things, some good music did make it to my ears during the ride. Below are the best songs, in my opinion, that I first heard in 2021. As in year's past, I try to stay away from posting any songs that went completely mainstream as you all are probably aware of them already, so here are some ones that may have flown under the radar that I really appreciated and why. Some you may like, some you may not, that's fine- but if you do like them, please try to show some appreciation to the musicians by either supporting them or just sharing their music with others. Enjoy!

"Christine's Coming Over" by The Airport 77's

Probably my favorite song of the year. I've always loved more goofy/non-traditional lyrics (like most Fountains of Wayne songs) and this one has got those plus a super catchy hook. Some of their other songs are pretty good as well, this one just takes the cake for me.

"Crawling Kingsnake" by The Black Keys

The whole Delta Kream album is a good listen as it is a tribute to the old Mississippi blues sound from what I read. This isn't exactly an exact cover of the John Lee Hooker song, more like the Kimbrough version- but very smoothly done. Was a good song/album to put on the headphones when doing work.

"Drifter" by Hippie Sabotage

The highlight of the year was that I got to finally get married to my wonderful wife Courtney in 2021! A big chunk of the year was planning for said wedding that we were doing in Las Vegas. So, during one of the Vegas vlogs I was watching, this song was on in the background and it caught my ear. Yes it's from 2017 but I never heard of it. I also happened to listen to this during both "waiting periods" after my vax shots unintentionally. My mind will probably always associate it now with that... and Vegas. (Ok and maybe "Pins and Needles" with that bass drop right?)

"Witchoo" by Durand Jones & The Indications

Definitely in the realm of the Mayer Hawthorne/Bruno Mars retro-sound and "I dig it". Just a fun song to maybe walk into a bar with it playing on the Touch Tunes, no? (Any other Touch Tunes fanatics out there besides me?).

"TAKE MY HAND" by BARDO

Has a beat that, to me, sounds like a boxing match of the late 90's. For it's simplicity in lyrics, it counters with a bunch of different sounds on the music side of things. (see what I did there?). The rest of his stuff is pretty good as well and with similar sounds.

"Last Train Home" by John Mayer

I had a good laugh when I first saw the album cover to John Mayer's 2021 Album "Sob Rock". First, I honestly couldn't avoid it because of the "Sob" part, but then also how ridiculously 80's it was. But after hearing that it was inspired by a bunch of 80's music he had been listening to during the pandemic, and along with that although sometimes corny, John Mayer does have some serious music chops, I gave the album a spin. This song kicks off the album, and yes there are some other good songs on it, I kind of wish he followed the tone and energy of this song instead of going a bit slower in a lot of the other tracks.

"Steam" by Leon Bridges

Went to the R&B well here with this one. Got a toe-tapping groove to it. I really wish more acts like him would break through into more mainstream success instead of the current state of the Top 40/Top 100. This is just a nice smooth, not quite-relaxing but not-quite energetic pleasant middle-ground to it type of song.

"Be Sweet" by Japanese Breakfast

I'm starting to now see a trend of bass lines in the songs I picked for this year. This song is just a complete earworm and I can't get it out of my head anytime I listen to it. This song also has a little emotion behind it (something that A LOT of songs lack these days imho). It's not earth-shattering Janis Joplin "Piece of My Heart" emotion by any means, but it's SOMETHING at least. Sidenote: Speaking of emotion, Kacey Musgraves on SNL this year was so refreshing to see somebody perform something with feelings like that on that stage.

"Back of My Hand" by Bachelor

This song is kind of the "Stan" of the indie rock world I guess you could say. So catchy too with an awesome distorted drop into the pre-chorus/chorus that sounds great. However I did see there's an acoustic jam version they did where it's really just the chord change that hits, still sounds really good.

"Jimi & Stan" by Strand of Oaks

So I was really going to put the song Galacticana (or live version at 5:43 of that video above) by them here because of the whole first line of the song, how the best times that I've had are usually hanging out with friends and such, and it's a really good song. They actually have a lot of really good songs, but when I listened to their whole album Jimi & Stan stood out a bit more.

"Drunk Voicemail" by Pom Pom Squad

Ok, so not the happiest of songs, but has that nostalgia of the grunge era of music. Heavy Nirvana influence can definitely be heard in the production of this and I like it. Lyrics definitely convey somebody who is dealing with some inner conflict, a subject of many successful songs of the past.

"Wayhome" by Young in the City

Had to squeeze this song in, yes it's a 2016 song, but again flew waaaaay under the radar. Also it's the last song on the list... it's on the way home 😉. But yes I love the way the song builds throughout, it's actually a band playing rock, and feels like a good road trip song (although I've had so very few road trips since living in NYC... some road trip in the near future).

So that is it, that's the list for 2021. There we a few other songs I could have put on here but the list was getting pretty long (which is a good thing- hey they are still making some good music out there!). Some other songs/artists that missed the cut were Indigo De Souza, some War on Drugs, and some older songs that I didn't put on because I wanted to keep it more 2021 related. Hope you maybe found something new to listen to, or if you have suggestions for me, definitely send em over! I'd love to hear them. All the best and here's to a great 2022!