Under the Radar's Top 100 Albums of 2021

Walker’s fifth solo effort is a perfectly imperfect package with significant potential and just enough expanse to keep things interesting.

Like a Stone continues to deliver on the band’s perennial promise of adrenaline-fueled melodic punk and passionate communal joy.

This is what Middle Kids do best. Big songs about big emotions. While the record may lag somewhat in the middle section, the band is closer than ever to honing their indie rock style to a razor’s edge, improving in most every aspect over their debut.

The confidence and style with which black midi has taken these risks has led to every gamble paying off. It’s hard to imagine any rock album this year beating Cavalcade in pure genius.

My worry is that in the long run they may become a one trick pony and if Kiwi Jr. continue to cling too close to Football Money, their appeal will begin to wilt and they will find themselves alone and dejected, like an now overweight jock in the basement clinging to their memories and a now tarnished high school trophy.

On All Fours is the sound of a young band willing to take risks and expand their sonic palette and whilst it sounds less confrontational than their debut it’s every bit as innovative and compelling.

Most of the songs seamlessly track into the next while maintaining a distinct identity of their own. With each rotation of the record, Albarn’s artistry allows for discovering new puzzle pieces in a masterfully crafted way.

Acquainted With Night is the type of album where there is not much need to dissect individual songs. It’s a complete work best taken in its entirety, with Neale’s ethos stamped all over it.

Viagra Boys come off as less as comedic satirists and more as representatives of the very characters they critique, turning inward for a fascinating, though no less manic, follow up.

Though Gillespie and Beth both break from their established styles on Utopian Ashes, they strike on something truly special in the process—a bountiful collaborative relationship and a resulting record of powerful drama and sweeping instrumental beauty.

Drunk Tank Pink comes three years nearly to the day after Songs of Praise, bruised and bruising, fitter and angrier.

Whether it’s maturity, finding true love, or a move to the West Coast, DEACON’s disposition is perennially sunny with little effort put to questioning the outcome.

While the two albums seem to be beating to a similar drum, Any Shape You Take makes a concerted effort to clean-up the messes left behind and unfinished in 2018.

The fusion of all these elements leads to an intriguing, if uneven listen.