This entry comes a little late into the new year. I tried to tally up a bit year-in-review like I did for 2020, but I couldn’t. I’m not sure what it was, but I didn’t listen to nearly as much music in 2021 as I did in 2020. If I had to guess, it probably has something to do with the fact that I wasn’t sitting at home for the entire year. During lockdown, there wasn’t much to do but listen to new releases. Now that life has moved closer to normal (although we are by no means out of the woods) my time was filled with other things. Visiting with friends, heading out of a bar, and, egads, actually going into work monopolized more of my time this year.

So I don’t have 20 albums that I recommend from this past year. Sorry. I published more individual reviews this year as music was released, so look back at my recent few posts to see a few albums that certainly would have ended up on such a list. I do, however, have my best 5 albums of 2021, listed by order of release. I’ve included a playlist at a bottom that contains a couple choice selections from each. Even though I didn’t sample as much, I stand by these picks as much as anything. If you missed them, do yourself a favor and check them out. Or, use this as a reminder to revisit them, as I surely will be doing in between whatever 2022 throws our way.