November 28, 2021
2021 sucked like no other year has sucked before (except for 2020). But there were some good points, such as QRO’s top-rated records this year:
Arkells – Blink Once Ontario’s Arkells are in the long line of Canadian acts with large & loyal north-of-the-border followings that have never really broken through Stateside. Read more… |
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Nicole Atkins – Memphis Ice Nicole Atkins headed to Memphis to rework the songs with piano and strings, ‘Memphis Ice’.. Read more… |
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Azure Ray – Remedy Azure Ray’s beauty goes big – and small – in the first full-length in over a decade, Remedy. Read more… |
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Julien Baker – Little Oblivions We’ve all heard heartbroken records, yet our heart still breaks over & over again. Read more… |
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Big Red Machine – How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? When Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner teamed up as Big Red Machine, it seemed like a match made in high alt-heaven. Read more… |
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Jackson Browne – Downhill From Everywhere Jackson Browne proves once again that he is not just up to clearing the hero hurdle but still beyond the ninth wave when it comes to writing medieval fables with modern reckonings. Read more… |
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Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – CARNAGE There is no one like Nick Cave – or Warren Ellis. Read more… |
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – New Fragility Back in the heady music-hype days of the early 2000s, one of the quickest to alt-boom was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Read more… |
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Cloud Nothings – The Shadow I Remember What do the punks do when they get older? Read more… |
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Coma Girls – Skyboxer EP Coma Girls, out of Los Angeles, sound like they are from California. Read more… |
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Constant Follower – Neither Is, Nor Ever Was Stirling, Scotland’s Constant Follower has risen with Neither Is, Nor Ever Was, their debut full-length. Read more… |
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Sean Della Croce – Illuminations On her debut album entitled Illuminations, Sean Della Croce will softly tutor your ears in what tulips and windmills would sound like if they were tuneful. Read more… |
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Lucy Dacus – Home Video Lucy Dacus plumbs her teen years for the almost overwhelmingly powerful Home Video. Read more… |
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Dance (RED) Saves Lives Vol. III Dance (RED) Save Lives Vol. III is here courtesy of Mavin Records, and it feels a bit like arriving to the Peloponnese via helicopter with a bottle of fresh Gaga champers in each hand. Read more… |
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Dinosaur Jr – Sweep It Into Space Just when we need them most, Dinosaur Jr are back again, to be great again – again. Read more… |
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David Duchovny – Gestureland David Duchovny has a quite wide artistic arc, which expands past his acting work to directing, writing, and music. Read more… |
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easy life – life’s a beach All here now with their jagged and oddball energy to help you inhabit the incongruous and under-heralded in your own life, and right on time for a swimsuits-are-scary summer! Read more… |
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Elohim – Journey To the Center of Myself, Vol. 1 EP Four is here to espouse the extrasensory electro-ruminations of Elohim on her gracile Journey To The Center of Myself Vol. 1. Read more… |
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The Felice Brothers – From Dreams To Dust While they came up in the same ‘Americana wave’ as other twenty-first century alt-country acts, The Felice Brothers have always stood apart. Read more… |
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Ghost of Vroom – Ghost of Vroom Vol. 1 The debut self-titled full-length from Mike Doughty’s new band, Ghost of Vroom, does sound like Soul Coughing, in the right ways, while also feeling like its own thing. Read more… |
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Grouplove – This Is This One year since Healer & everything shut down, Grouplove surprise drop This Is This. Read more… |
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Juliana Hatfield – Blood Juliana Hatfield brings more alt-diversity to Blood. Read more… |
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IDLES – Crawler IDLES have brought the salacious, socialist snarl once again – and this time drawing on something even more primal and uncanny, presenting a set of sounds adjacent in meaning to the biting of one’s own lip until it bleeds, or the Tyburn Hanging Tree if it could talk. Read more… |
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Jade Bird – Different Kinds of Light Just as country-folk entered a new phase in the first decade of this century/millennium with alt-country, it expanded even further in the last decade, country and indie fans finding a big overlap. Read more… |
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Landlady – Landlady For years now as Landlady, Adam Schatz has been crafting skillful art-rock that’s also accessible to the masses. Read more… |
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SG Lewis – times Surely, we can all use some laser levity and mirror balls to go with our 2021 return to IRL culture! Read more… |
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Anya Marina – Live and Alone in New York Recreate the feeling of being in a club – music or comedy – with Live and Alone in New York. Read more… |
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Maxïmo Park – Nature Always Wins Whereas most indie-rock wallows in sadness, or spits righteous fury, England’s Maxïmo Park have long gone for the more hopeful, without turning treacly. Read more… |
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Modest Mouse – The Golden Casket To hipsters of a certain age, Modest Mouse were their seminal twenty-first century age-of-discovering-music band. Read more… |
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Gramps Morgan – Positive Vibration It was Bob Marley himself who said, “Make way for the positive day.” Read more… |
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The Natvral – Tethers Kip Berman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart grows up into Dylan as The Natvral. Read more… |
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Nefresh Mountains – Songs For the Sparrows Nefesh Mountain brings you a rimbomb blend of bluegrass cut on a bias with their third full-length production, Songs For the Sparrows. Read more… |
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Gary Numan – Intruder Gary Numan becomes the AI-brained humanoid, directing a choir of machines – and doubling down on both the captivation and the chills. Read more… |
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Audrey Nuna – a liquid breakfast Push your Wheaties aside; what you really need in your aural A.M. is a liquid breakfast, Audrey Nuna’s debut full-length. Read more… |
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POSTDATA – Twin Flames Canada has no shortage of impressive indie songwriters, including bands & names that ought to really be bigger on the other side of the border. Read more… |
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Rose City Band – Earth Trip Much like cosmic psychedelic music in general, Ripley Johnson and his Rose City Band always meet the qualifications of aural and ethereal jive. Read more… |
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Sleater-Kinney – Path of Wellness Sleater-Kinney take on the kiss-off & more in Path of Wellness. Read more… |
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Small Black – Cheap Dreams Small Black have been making beautiful electronica that shows its heart, such as on their latest, Cheap Dreams. Read more… |
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Split Single – Amplificado For more than a few years now, Jason Narducy has been a great indie-rock team player. Read more… |
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St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home St. Annie dives into the dirty, tragic, sly funk of the seventies with Daddy’s Home – and delivers, once again. Read more… |
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Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine – A Beginner’s Mind Indie auteur Sufjan Stevens came up making intricate folk about Midwestern states, but has since grown to do many things. Read more… |
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Texas – Hi Out of the vaults & more comes the stuffed and diverse Hi. Read more… |
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The Vaccines – Back In Love City The Vaccines up their game further as they get Back In Love City. Read more… |
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We Are Scientists – Huffy We’ve missed so much, lost so much, over the COVID era that it’s great to see some acts return to what they do best. Read more… |
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We Were Promised Jetpacks – Enjoy the View We Were Promised Jetpacks have evolved without losing their sad ways on Enjoy the View. Read more… |
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The Weather Station – Ignorance Some people have been making beautiful music that you probably failed to notice. Read more… |
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Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend Wolf Alice deliver the wonderfully diverse Blue Weekend, that sees the band go even greater. Read more… |