WILLOW adds rock composer to her ever-expanding list of talents here, finding success in her willingness to be unpredictable: layering harmonies over shredding guitars, welcoming features from diverse collaborators like Avril Lavigne and Tierra Whack, rapping over melodramatic bass lines and more. Written as an experiment in the midst of adjusting to adolescence, her lyrics balance petulant angst with enlightened wisdom. Initially trained in R&B and pop, the singer-songwriter uses alternative rock as a launchpad on lately I feel EVERYTHING, lifting various elements and refitting them to her strengths as she explores emotional extremes. WILLOW's pop-punk pivot isn't a surprise to anyone familiar with her consistent ability to push and evolve her sound. Like all albums we'd consider 'remarkable,' dissonance - cognitive or otherwise - is a boon, rather than an issue. Pray For Haiti is cocky and somber, languid and drama-dense, bumpy with Westside Gunn's insane modern squall and silken with the likes of Conductor Williams' lapidary, so-Griselda-Records-in-2012 production. His work is often crammed with diasporic twoness, but crammed with other doublenesses, too. That Mach-Hommy's album is already fated by its title to be a lament for Haiti is almost redundant. "Of course – a thousand percent," he replied, in a voice low and serene as a dove's. "Do you ever feel survivor's guilt?" asked host Michel Martin, gently.
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In a recent, curious interview with All Things Considered, Mach-Hommy answered the sort of pointed press query that'd make most stomachs turn. A collection of shred-heavy party songs that showcase Tudzin's goofy sense of humor, Let Me Do One More is a work of daring confidence. Her first release since exiting the label Tiny Engines, Tudzin swerves between pop punk, fuzzy indie rock and '60s girl-group pop fast enough to leave skidmarks. There's a delightful, sugar-high energy to Los Angeles artist and accomplished producer Sarah Tudzin's album Let Me Do One More, and it's not just because she name-drops a host of treats in the lyrics (toasted Pop-Tarts and melty scoops of ice cream included). But past the cacophony there's an ever-present rawness - in the wake of terror, there's potential to find pure and beautiful catharsis. By the Time I Get to Phoenix is packed with pure noise, as if it's going to self-destruct at any minute, and death oozes throughout the record. On the resulting record, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, the experimental rap outfit channels deep-seated grief and uncertainty into a claustrophobic hellscape. Groggs died last year, the group found itself without an essential member right in the middle of recording an album. Injury Reserve By the Time I Get to Phoenix Spotify / Apple Music / Tidal / Amazon Music / YouTube MusicĢ0. Stream NPR Music's 50 Best Albums of 2021:
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You'll find something fortifying to build you up for the road ahead.
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Even when slight they are composed, with a sense of purpose. Many of these albums are stacked with great songs, but these aren't snacks. There's plenty of fun, but little escapism. Everywhere on this list you'll find the thrill of artistic revelation, musicians finding themselves, willing something new into reality. Our list of the year's 50 best is topped by an album that was unmatched in concept, songwriting or performance, but it had so much good company. So maybe that's why, when we sat down together to discuss which albums we loved the most over the course of 2021, NPR Music's staff and contributors found ourselves drawn to albums by artists making breakthroughs, moving forward with clarity, without balking at the obstacles falling in their way. If the year presently coming to a close was a dance, it'd be a hesitant shuffle, tentative steps toward - or heyyyy, maybe away from? - an uncertain future.