Best of Month: Top 10 Singles of 2021
Singles might be the most important releases in the industry yet for years I more or less just ignored them. This year I really tried to be on the ball listening to upwards of sixty new tracks a week to really get a feel for the whole year. By the end of the year I had collected hundreds of tracks on a playlist but I managed to narrow it down to fifty. The only rules being I could not repeat artists (barring features) and I had to eliminate all singles that were on an EP or album present in my lists of those categories. Below you’ll find my presentation of the top ten and if you’d like to check out the other forty there’s a link for that as well;
For a record I was very much looking forward to, Armageddon didn’t really make an impact on me. I don’t really mean that in an insulting way it just didn’t quite check the boxes I needed it to and the wait for it was a little longer than what it was worth. All that being said, it’s lead single is still something really special. For a really fun pop punk track with an undeniably catchy hook to come out of a topic like Twitter discourse is something worth a head turn. Lyrically it poses the entire problem with call outs in the first place;
“You can drag me all you want now baby, I’ll get twenty seconds in the spotlight.”
No matter how much they deserve it, they’re still getting attention and nine out of ten times that’s exactly what they thrive on, sometimes if they have a certain level of power it benefits them directly. I’m of course not talking about pointing out harmful abuse, but I think you can understand the nuance of what I got out of this one.
#9: chloe moriondo feat. mazie - not okay (Fueled by Ramen)
Chloe Moriondo had one of the busiest years in music between releasing a ton of features, a debut on Fueled by Ramen and touring extensively with names like Ashnikko and more. All that and she managed to release even more singles right at the end of the year and “not okay” is huge. The song has their usual pop rock styling and undeniable vocal chops with an almost artpop production that throws you for various loops with sound effects and structural turns as the track progresses. The week Blood Bunny dropped, I had put in my weekly column that I absolutely loved the record but felt Moriondo really needed to grow as a lyricist and this is undeniable proof she’s gotten there. I don’t even really want to point out a single line, go listen and pick out your favorite.
#8: With Sails Ahead - Murder Mountain
I’ve been pretty aware of With Sails Ahead for a couple of years now and even got into their track “In Fear and Loathing” in 2020. Nothing drew me in quite like “Murder Mountain” and it’s pretty clear to me why. With an opening riff that’s so hard to ignore that the band didn’t even really write anything around it, vocals that sound almost live but also crush in just the right moments and a progressive song structure that transitions between parts in fascinating ways this is the best song by this band. It’s something I went back to constantly and I hope it makes its way to the upcoming full length as well.
#7: Coheed & Cambria - Shoulders (Roadrunner)
A new record has been a long time coming. Last week in my anticipated list I talked about how Claudio Sanchez promised four sequels to Vaxis I back in 2018. Yet in 2020 all we got was a sequel to an 80’s song of all things. Now Coheed is back in full force releasing two distinct singles and headlining a cruise in the past year. Of the two new tracks I’d recommend “Shoulders,” especially if you don’t really have an experience with this band yet. It has a southern metal flair, shredding guitar work and an aggressive but easy and fun to sing along to melody as opposed to the lore rich, prog rock “Cut the Chord.” Both tracks have me all kinds of excited for what this band brings into the new year but I’ve already been on board since I was a kid.
#6: Silverstein - Bankrupt (UNFD)
If you’re a metalcore fan you’ve probably heard the statement “this is the heaviest material we’ve ever written” and rolled your eyes or groaned. You knew exactly what that track would sound like. A radio rock anthem with unbelievably cheesy lyrics that would make perfect sense over a monster truck commercial. So when Shane Told promised that “Bankrupt” would be the heaviest Silverstien song in their twenty years as a band I was expecting some ripe butt rock. Here’s the thing though, they actually delivered. This thing really kicks you in the face from the mosh-call intro to the explosive breakdown and even a politically charged message, which, the band had done before but never quite this direct or obvious. “Nobody’s life is worth as much as a check” is a killer line to a killer metalcore song and I’m glad to see all these years later this band stays as consistent as they’ve ever been.
#5: soccer mommy - rom com 2004 (Loma Vista)
Sophia Allison didn’t have the content heavy year that she did last year dropping only two new songs, one of which she admitted was a throw-away, a cover that had been in the vault for awhile and a remix of one of those songs. She did however get back on the touring horse, which I was able to catch, as well as promised a record in the works. The second of the two new songs, the not throw away one, was incredible in that it has that usual soccer mommy flair of a deep dive of emotion and confession over gentle guitar strumming and indie rock but with a bit more of a twist. Laced throughout the track is a lofi almost-noise aspect that adds some edge to the otherwise chilled out love song. Something I would expect from Kero Kero Bonito more so than this project. To my point, KKB had their own remix of the track and while I adore both bands it didn’t really capture the same magic as the original.
#4: I Met a Yeti feat. pulses. - Opulence
This year I was blessed by the Yeti. They allowed me to peek past the curtain and listen to both singles weeks before they dropped. As someone who puts a lot of work into writing about music I don’t quite have an insider status but I want to thank IMAY for allowing me that chance in the past year. That being said, that isn’t even why this is here or as high as it is.
This track in particular is a rollercoaster in progressive post-hardcore. It feels like at every part switch it’s a brand new experience yet it all coherently holds together and it made it so I went back and threw this on numerous times in a week all the time. All that and pulses. comes in with a verse toward the end that sounds like it could branch into its own track and you have the recipe for something really special. This single and “Red-Eyes B. Yeti” are attached to a future EP and I really hope to see that soon given how much I enjoyed these two songs.
#3: Shelia feat. Ricky Hoover of Ov Sulfur - Departures
From Sam Arrag, the former vocalist of Shrezzers, comes Shelia. This band is pretty much in the stylings of his old project but instead of a sax solo in every tack you’ll find some more of the R & B influences that people sort of tie to swancore. The band didn’t make a huge splash in the past year only dropping a few singles that sort of flew under the radar but this one made a huge impact on me. In “Departures” the band delivers a fun bop with an incredible chorus, solid production and a breakdown from Ov Sulfur’s Ricky Hoover. I still forget that the lofi outro is there and it’s always a pleasant surprise.
#2: Wet Leg - Wet Dream (Domino)
If I didn’t make the no-repeating-artist rule Wet Leg may have been on this top ten three or four times. I already told you about their upcoming record in the post last week, but of the four singles “Wet Dream” trumps them all. In this one the band sort of drops the humor found in “Chaise Longue” but keeps the spirit of that lyrical style with cleverly placed lines attacking the predatory sexualization of women with double entendres like saying;
“It’s enough to make a girl blush”
While hanging onto “it’s enough” multiple times more to remove itself from the polite excuse to a call to actually stop the behavior behind it. The track itself is catchy, has a fun bassline and is another reminder why the actual record is probably already a top-of-the-lister for next year.
While I’m struggling to come up with a way to introduce this point I know that there are two key factors I would like to point out about this track;
Both these points aside I will say that outside of singles, for the entire year, I thought nothing could top “Love Sick” from Blame Game as my favorite song period. It took Beach Bunny themselves to top what they had already done, so I had to applaud it, and it had to be number one here.
- Something I see all too often is bands really try to escape their own past. No, I’m not talking about any personal blemishes, I mean their first record and beyond. That sort of point where they in no way sounded the way they do now, the production quality wasn’t as crisp or maybe they have bad memories tied to it. We’re only a year removed from the debut Beach Bunny record and maybe as a result of that this is a silly thing to say, however I want to point out this sounds like a track straight off of of those pre-signed EPs but with a much higher quality of production and a much happier messaging to it. If you stuck this on Prom Queen or back it would sound right at home sonically and I love that Beach Bunny isn’t afraid to sound like their old selves.
- One thing that struck me with the release of Blame Game in the first two weeks of 2021 is that Lili Trifilio almost sounds like a different vocalist altogether than what she delivered on Honeymoon. I basically dismissed this back then as just an evolution in her technique as she became a more experienced musician. With this track I see that, that may not be the truth. In this track, similar to my point one, she summons a voice in herself that she hasn’t used since pre-Honeymoon and it’s a beautiful thing to see. I see now that her range is incredible even sounding like the front woman of Boa on this track toward the end.
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