Music
The Best Album of 2021: “Fatigue” by L’Rain
“Taja refrains from the familiar until she feels that the sonic journey has reached its logical conclusion, and the magnetic pull of normality is at its climax. The tension is the meat and potatoes of this album, and the release nothing but a condiment that helps the consumer tie it all together, digest it, compare it. ”
A Philosophy of Optimism: “When There’s Love Around” by Kiefer
“What better score to one’s recollections than the debaucherous bounce of House music peppered with the soft-touched sentimentality of jazz?”
“FEMINISTA” by Tomu DJ
Written while confronting psychosis in the aftershock of a life-threatening car accident in 2019, Tomu set out to create “uplifting anthems about loneliness and togetherness, both minimalist and maximalist in sound”
“A Softer Focus” by Claire Rousay & Dani Toral
“The whole reason I want to do art or music or whatever for a living is so I can hang out with more people, because people are ultimately what I’m interested in.”
“Little Oblivions” by Julien Baker
“Enter Julien Baker, who has chewed herself up and spat herself back out into a third album that writhes with catharsis in the chaos of her mind’s muddiest waters.”
“Threats” by Jean Grae
“She somehow echoes the rage behind Jay’s song while elevating the intelligence of its form, primarily by drawing attention to a menacing and unquestioned prevalence of sexualization and objectification of women within the gangster rap world.”
“Grits” by RZA
“RZA, somehow, through as few words as possible, beautifully conveys the impossibility of poverty, its social entrapments, and its natural liaison into crime and self-destruction.”
“Vice Rag” by A.A. Bondy
“I listen to Vice Rag on sloppy, dopey nights that end in solitude behind deadbolted doors, legs sprawled on the arms of a crusty loveseat as I succumb to the final of tonight’s many failures: brushing my teeth, taking my pills and climbing up onto my lofted bed above the city which innocently birthed me.”
