Dear friends,
I want to (and will) put together a little best of 2021 list - because if there was anything best this year, music was that anything. This is kind of a challenge for me now that I don’t listen to music pRoFeSsIoNaLlY so I’m not as much knowing or caring when something came out. This is more fun as a listener, but when it comes to things like this, I feel v out of the loop. Sometimes it takes a few listens over a few months for me to realize I love something. Sometimes (a lot of the time), I hear something way late. I must make peace with the fact that I probably won’t hear some of my 2021 faves until at least 2022. So, I’m giving myself to the tail end of 2021 to absorb all that I am meant to absorb . Then and only then shall I proclaim: these are my favorite bangers of 2021.
But, I’ll tell you now that these are my favorite bangers of this week:
And the video has HORSES
My favorite Canadian jazz dorks are back, baby!! BADBADNOTGOOD truly outdid themselves on this new album - and especially on this soaring banger, which spilleth over with “gaze out the bus window and pretend you’re the main character” vibes. I’m just sitting at my WFH desk here and I truly feel a montage coming on.
BADBADNOTGOOD feat. Karriem Riggins and Arthur Verocai - “Beside April”
Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
Those harmonies tho
I have loved the garage-y, surf-y sound of Seattle’s La Luz for quite some time. Listening to their latest album, I was like - something is different here, and I LIKE IT. That difference = production by Adrian Younge, which takes their already primo sh*t and smears it with a veneer of warm, crackling psychedelic ‘70s soul.
La Luz - “Watching Cartoons”
Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
Does anybody still play Yahtzee?
I have Unknown Mortal Orchestra to thank for some of my all-time favorite songs and live shows. “That Life” is an evocative banger about a life that I’m not sure I want to be about. The guitar riff makes my chest cavity feel like the dice shaker thing from Yahtzee.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - “That Life”
Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
If you listen to one, listen to this one
Alewya is one of my favorite musical discoveries in recent memory and “Play” is a hypnotic banger that will have you wining and grining against your will. Just go along for the ride as the track swerves between styles upon styles upon styles. It’s masterful.
Alewya - “Play”
Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
I crave practical effects
If you know me, you know that nothing makes my entire being glaze over faster than hearing about or watching a superhero movie. There are exceptions, but for the most part, I fall asleep. But this banger, which is from a Venom movie, goes quite hard and makes me feel VERY AWAKE. Plus the little children’s rhyme on the hook gives serious Nightmare on Elm Street.
CZARFACE - “Good Guys, Bad Guys”
Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
New Year, New Bonus
The last mixtape theme of 2021 was international artists and I felt this one quite a bit tbh.
Some extreme positivity can be found in this Mixtape Riot episode from Brooklyn Radio.
Let’s stop the Don’t Look Up discourse and just let Tower of Power handle this.
And, OMG Jonny Greenwood’s The Power of the Dog score.
As ever, the official Personal Bangers playlist is here for you!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s can be worse than this one, right? RIGHT? (Insert Natalie Portman meme)
Got any banger recs?! TELL ME.
Love,
Nicole