This year’s stats: 25,605 tracks logged. 1,870 different artists. 2,735 different albums. 7,639 different songs.
All year long I filter new releases into monthly album folders, then favorite albums from that month, then select albums to get put into a favorite albums of the year folder. The below list is basically trying to sort it in order of how much affinity I have for each album in descending order. I’m hoping in 2022 to start grading/ranking albums to make this easier and a bit more objective going forward. And to be totally honest, if I remade this list 6 hours from now it’d probably be re-ordered considerably different, especially when you start getting into the middle and end of it.
1. Common Sage – It Lives and It Breathes
2. Black Country, New Road – For the First Time
3. Hawak – Nuoc
4. Drip-Fed – Kill the Buzz
5. Genesis Owusu – Smiling with No Teeth
6. Worst Party Ever – Dartland
7. Sault – Nine
8. Militarie Gun – My Life is Over
9. Tyler, The Creator – Call Me If You Get Lost
10. For Those I Love – For Those I Love
11. Home Is Where – I Became Birds
12. Katy Kirby – Cool Dry Place
13. Runnner – Always Repeating
14. 156/Silence – Don’t Hold Your Breath
15. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
16. Boyfriends – A Discography of Mediocre Punk Rock
17. Parting – Unmake Me
18. Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning
19. Stevenson – Loser Friendly
20. Rhye – Home
21. James Blake – Friends That Break Your Heart
22. Youth Novel – Youth Novel
23. Fiddlehead – Between the Richness
24. Faye Webster – I Know I’m Funny haha
25. slowthai – Tyron
26. Pono – A Great Big Pile of Leaves
27. Midnight Sister – Painting the Roses
28. Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
29. Jodi – Blue Heron
30. Lontalius – Someone Will Be There For You
31. Oreo Jones and Sirius Blvck – Unconcerned.
32. Mud Whale – Everything in Moderation
33. Hovvdy – Cranberry
34. Leon Bridges – Gold-Diggers Sounds
35. Kowloon Walled City – Piecework
36. Paris Texas – Boy Anonymous
37. Alexalone – Alexaloneworld
38. Mono – Pilgrimage of the Soul
39. Cloud Nothings – The Shadow I Remember
40. Regional Justice Center – Crime and Punishment
41. Valley Maker – When the Day Leaves
42. Bachelor – Doomin’ Sun
43. serpentwithfeet – Deacon
44. Ira – Iosonouncane
45. Typhoon – Sympathetic Magic
46. The Weather Station – Ignorance
47. Another Five Minutes – Fil Rouge
48. Turnstile – Glow On
49. Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark
50. Vince Staples – Vince Staples
Honorable mentions?
Fog Lake – Tragedy Reel
81355 – This Time I’ll Be of Use
Inigo De Souza – Any Shape You Take
Pile – Songs Known Together, Alone
Liars – The Apple Drop
Tigers Jaw – I Won’t Care How You Remember Me
FACS – Present Tense
Foxing – Draw Down the Moon
Low – Hey What
Milly – Wish Goes On
Death Goals – The Horrible and The Miserable
Quadeca – From Me To You
Spirit Was – Heaven’s Just a Cloud
Drug Church – Tawny
Wild Pink – A Billion Little Lights
Snag – Death Doula
Wavves – Hideway
Blood Cultures – Luno
Pet Symmetry – Future Suits
Skirts – Great Big Wild Oak
BADBADNOTGOOD – Talk Memory
Efterklang – Windflowers
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Illusory Walls
Gone to Color – Gone to Color