Original Stranger

My favorite album of 2021 was Del Water Gap’s self-titled.

A few others worth mentioning: Angus & Julia Stone – Life is Strange, Caveman – Smash, Middle Kids – Today We’re The Greatest, and Griff – One Foot In Front Of The Other

The track listing for Del Water Gap is:

• Better Than I Know Myself
• Sorry I Am
• Perfume
• Hurting Kind
• Alone Together
• Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat
• Distance
• It’s Not Fair !
• I Hope You Understand
• Bug Bites
• Uh-huh
• Shortest Love Song

My past albums of the year include:

• Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers (2020)
• Heard it in a Past Life by Maggie Rogers (2019)
• Mt. Joy by Mt. Joy (2018)
• I Love You Like a Brother by Alex Lahey (2017)
• Painting of a Panic Attack by Frightened Rabbit (2016)
• The Positions by Gang of Youths (2015)
• Islands by Bear’s Den (2014)
• White Lighter by Typhoon (2013)
• Lonesome Dreams by Lord Huron (2012)
• The Year of Hibernation by Youth Lagoon (2011)
• Passive Me, Aggressive You by The Naked and Famous (2010)

The cathartic screams at the end of Phoebe Bridger’s I Know The End are the single musical contribution of this year that I immediately associate with this year. All other albums and songs could be from this year or another time in my mind.

Without revealing too much, I tend to silently process things and keep my thoughts to myself, but those screams…they are my vicarious reaction to this year. I don’t want to dwell on the trials, tribulations, losses, difficulties, and all that made 2020 an all-round terrible year. I don’t want to put a positive spin on 2020 for all the things that I have to be thankful for. I just want to let it go with a scream and start 2021 with a new beginning.

This is one of, if not the first, times that I am choosing an album that wasn’t my most listened to for my favorite album of the year. I normally choose my most listened-to album because I think my actions across the year signal what my favorite was. In a typical year, that would have meant Glass Animals’ Dreamland. This year with so much and so little, I don’t think what I would normally do really signals that accurately. This year was one for Punisher.

The album had a number of favorite songs this year with a few standouts for me including Kyoto, Chinese Satellite, and especially Graceland Too with its boygenius backing. On a somewhat related note, Bug Eyes from Mt. Joy ended up as my most listened-to song for 2020.

The track listing for Punisher is:

• “DVD Menu”
• “Garden Song”
• “Kyoto”
• “Punisher”
• “Halloween”
• “Chinese Satellite”
• “Moon Song”
• “Savior Complex”
• “ICU”
• “Graceland Too”
• “I Know The End”

My past albums of the year include:

• Heard it in a Past Life by Maggie Rogers (2019)
• Mt. Joy by Mt. Joy (2018)
• I Love You Like a Brother by Alex Lahey (2017)
• Painting of a Panic Attack by Frightened Rabbit (2016)
• The Positions by Gang of Youths (2015)
• Islands by Bear’s Den (2014)
• White Lighter by Typhoon (2013)
• Lonesome Dreams by Lord Huron (2012)
• The Year of Hibernation by Youth Lagoon (2011)
• Passive Me, Aggressive You by The Naked and Famous (2010)

Music is a way for me to soundtrack life and the moments in it. My favorites–songs, albums, EPs–are often part of my soundtrack, tying back to memorable moments that can be invoked and re-invoked by just hearing the notes. I think the sentimental attachment can take a great piece of work and make it personal, where you explore the contours of the sounds and feel a bit closer to the art and the moment. My favorite album of 2019 is no different.

2019 started with a terrible illness that took weeks to shake and then recover from. When the time came, a song came out on an amazing album. That song, Back in My Body, on that album, Heard it in a Past Life, was quite literal to me at first. It stuck with me throughout the year because it was a pivotal moment in my life: I met the love of my life at the same time.

We shared a love of this album from early on and we were lucky to see Maggie Rogers together later in the year.

This is a my favorite and the most important album of the year for me; for what I go back to, for what I associate with it, and for what I love. I hope everyone’s album of the year is similar.

• “Give a Little”
• “Overnight”
• “The Knife”
• “Alaska”
• “Light On”
• “Past Life”
• “Say It”
• “On + Off”
• “Fallingwater”
• “Retrograde”
• “Burning”
• “Back in My Body”

Albums of the year from years past, include:

• Mt. Joy by Mt. Joy (2018)
• I Love You Like a Brother by Alex Lahey (2017)
• Painting of a Panic Attack by Frightened Rabbit (2016)
• The Positions by Gang of Youths (2015)
• Islands by Bear’s Den (2014)
• White Lighter by Typhoon (2013)
• Lonesome Dreams by Lord Huron (2012)
• The Year of Hibernation by Youth Lagoon (2011)
• Passive Me, Aggressive You by The Naked and Famous (2010)