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Lil Silva: Yesterday Is Heavy
Debut album: Strikingly innovative electronic and funk full debut by Bedford’s Tyrone Jermaine "TJ" Carter, who has been releasing singles and EPs for over a decade, but here includes guests including Sampha, Little Dragon, Ghetts, Serpentwithfeet, BADBADNOTGOOD, and Charlotte Day Wilson
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Steve Lacy’s second album Gemini Rights
New album: Effortlessly cool, sometimes oddball and infectiously laid-back funk, soul and 70s-style pop in this second LP by the guitarist, singer and producer from Compton, California, with some distinct echoes of Stevie Wonder and Prince
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Lizzo’s back with her album, Special
New album: Back with a bang (there’s no other way), the wonderfully charismatic American star Melissa Jefferson returns with a mixture of disco, funk, pop, soul and R&B, with bags of attitude, fun, female empowerment, and music to make you dance
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Sunflower Bean’s third album, Headful of Sugar
New album: The smart New York indie-rock trio return with their third album after 2018’s acclaimed LP Twentytwo In Blue with a diverse set of new sounds and songs created mainly in a home studio over lockdown and perhaps their most innovative yet
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!!! (Chk Chk Chk): Let It Be Blue
New album: Nic Offer and the Sacramento dance-punk band return with their ninth, but while they remain one of the best live acts around, this LP offers their bigger range of styles from acoustic to electronic, house, fun to Latin
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Toro Y Moi’s seventh album, featuring his fun new Filipino jeepney truck
New album: A wonderfully eclectic, playfully stylish seventh LP by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and graphic designer Chaz Bear, who integrates wonky and squishy funk, pop, psych, rock, and electronica, and his rich Filipino and African-Columbian heritage
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Red hot in lights: Unlimited Love
New album: The LA rock band have had their ups and down, bu this, a double LP, is their best for some time, largely perhaps due to the return of guitarist John Frusciante, key to their heyday albums, that one captures much of their original chemistry, funk and energy, if at times slightly mellower
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Hedonism unbound: Warmduscher
New album: New sleazy mischief and hedonistic humour at the hands of the British krautrock-style disco-pop funksters fronted by the engaging American drawl of Clams Baker Jr – the gang with something that certainly is, as billed, crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside
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Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer
New album: Super-sharp electro-pop by the Ghent-based duo, packed with crisp, inventive sounds created in Soulwax’s Deewee studio and clever lyrics about race issues, political correctness and cultural identity
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Melt Yourself Down: Pray For Me I Don't Fit In
New album: This fourth LP by saxophonist Pete Wareham, Mauritian vocalist Kushal Gaya and co is perhaps their best yet mix of fabulously stompy, staccato, dance-punk, Afrobeat, jazz, with Egyptian and another influences, buzzing with frenetic fervour
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Raveena; smooth, cross-cultural blending
New album: Eclectic, striking mainstream label debut LP for the 27-year-old American pop artist Raveena Aurora who mixes rhythms and more from her Sikh Indian heritage with traits of R&B, soul, funk, 00s trip-hop and ambient electronica
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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From the cover of Parcels’ new album Day/Night
New album: Released in last month by the Australia-Berlin electrofunk/disco quintet, a superbly catchy package of sounds, styles and danceability based on a 24-hour concept across a truly diverse 19 tracks
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Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars
New album: Something of a perfect pairing – two superstars come together with a shared niche passion for 70s funk and soul, and with guests including bassists Thundercat and Bootsy Collins, this brings rich, scintillating results
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The Solution is Restless
New album: Joan Wasser and her long-time collaborator’s brilliant, beautiful, dark, and perfectly paced blend of funk-afro-jazz with vocals, bass, piano, strings, horns, and stored sessions from the great departed afrobeat drum pioneer
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Sam Evian’s third album, Time To Melt
New album: Warm, woozy and fluid, an appropriate title for this super smooth third album by Sam Griffin Owens, the Brooklyn based artist, decorated with light funk, 70s psychedelic soul and lush, orchestral instrumentation
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Rebecca Taylor’s back
New album: Rotherham’s Rebecca Taylor returns with a second LP under her liberated moniker after Compliments Please with an even greater triumph of darkly humorous and caustic honesty topped with glorious gospel harmonies, big drums, orchestration and a celebration of emancipated womanhood
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Sympathy For Life by Parquet Courts
New album: After 2018’s acclaimed LP Wide Awake!, the Brooklyn band return with a sharp collection of post-punk intermingled with dance music that mixes funk, electronica, psychedelia and krautrock with improvisational energy
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Remi Wolf’s full LP debut Juno
New album: This full debut by the charismatic 25-year-old Californian matches her persona – fluorescent, fizzy funk-psych-pop full of bright singing, bursting with sugary, almost wieldy but playfully imaginative energy
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