25. Ruen Brothers – Awooo (Yep Roc)
Going all the way back to their earliest EP (Point Dume) and single (“Aces”), both released in 2015, the Ruen Brothers have fused a variety of musical genres (a little rockabilly here, some country twang there, a touch of alt-rock) into a unique sound drenched with atmosphere. The brothers have gone even further into the mystic to create their moody and evocative new album, Awooo. Given the general mood of the album, it’s no surprise that ghosts show up at the end. “Seeing Ghosts” finds Henry intoning, “You’re seeing ghosts if you’re seeing me.” It’s an appropriately ghostly ending to the thoroughly haunted record. – Rich Wilhelm
24. Katy Pinke and Will Graefe – Patterns (Glamour Gowns)
Katy Pinke, whose sophomore album, Strange Behavior, was released earlier this year, and Graefe – a highly skilled guitarist who’s worked with Okkervil River, Kesha, Orville Peck, Sam Wilkes and more – conceived the idea of a covers project during a series of duo gigs before recording a series of songs live to tape “in a single-day burst of inspiration”, according to the press notes. The result is refreshingly simple: Pinke on vocals and Graefe on guitar.
While her first two records showed a gifted songwriter at work, she’s also known as a tremendous interpreter of other people’s songs: Strange Behavior included a breathtaking cover of Blossom Dearie’s “You Are There”, which stopped me dead in my tracks when I heard her perform it in a tiny Boston-area club a few months ago. She and Graefe do not disappoint here. – Chris Ingalls
23. Wilder Maker – The Streets Like Beds Still Warm (Western Vinyl)
Wilder Maker’s The Streets Like Beds Still Warm is, in Gabriel Birnbaum’s words, “the inverse of the typical songwriter record”, as the dreamy nature of the music, culled from improvisation, is notably set apart from Wilder Maker’s contemporaries. The record beautifully drifts in and out, and, like its protagonist, seems unconcerned with deadlines or run times, simply walking the streets and taking whatever characters or adventures come to mind. – Chris Ingalls
22. Adeline Hotel – Watch the Sunflowers (Ruination)
As the leader, brainchild, and sole consistent member of Adeline Hotel, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dan Knishkowy approaches each new release as an opportunity to present a new (or modified) version of his stellar band. The new Adeline Hotel record, Watch the Sunflowers, draws on elements from previous releases but remains a fresh-sounding album with tons of great, beautifully arranged ideas. While it doesn’t provide direct answers or a clear picture, the abstract yet enjoyable sounds that emerge are richly rewarding and characteristic of the deep, emotional pull of Adeline Hotel. – Chris Ingalls
21. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Purple Bird (No Quarter)
Will Oldham, usually performing as Bonnie Prince Billy, has spent his prolific career exploring new approaches to old styles, often partnering with new collaborators. The Purple Bird suggests that Oldham doesn’t sound restless if he remains busy and curious. The new primary collaborator this time is David “Ferg” Ferguson, a Nashville producer, engineer, and musician. Ferguson receives some songwriting credits and had a hand in creating this record, but it still sounds like Oldham (as much as that means anything). Rather than sounding like a modern Nashville record, The Purple Bird comes across as a comfortable spot for Oldham, well built on Americana traditions without sounding stodgy or artless. – Justin Cober-Lake
20. Colin Miller – Losin‘ (Mtn Laurel Recording Co.)
Asheville, North Carolina-based Colin Miller’s Losin’ was written after the death of his close friend Gary King, who was a father figure to Miller over the past several years. Asheville luminaries Wednesday also paid tribute to King on “Gary”, a highlight of their 2021 record Twin Plagues. That space, the tension between needing to move on and not yet knowing how, is a central theme of this collection. He says that if he stays in the place he and King shared, he will die in silence there. This collection of songs is the alternate plan. There’s something hopeful Miller is reaching for here, even in the darkest places, that makes Losin’ endlessly replayable. Put it on and remember the good times with those you have lost. – Brian Stout
19. El León Pardo – Viaje Sideral (AYA Records)
Jorge Emilio Pardo Vásquez, also known as El León Pardo, calls Cartagena, Colombia, home to one of the richest musical regions in South America. On his latest album, Viaje Sideral, the trumpet player wades mystically through the deep trough of gems the region has on offer. However, this is not an LP of hardcore Champeta or Afro-Colombian Bullerengue.
While there are indeed a few hints of raw Cumbia or Afrobeat-inspired experiments found on vintage Discos Fuentes or Discos Machuca releases, Pardo often carves out new corners while slipping in a few nods to pre-colonial indigenous musical concepts, soaking them in reverb and gussying them up with slippery grooves. – Bruce Miller
18. Nathan O’Flynn-Pruitt – Songs From Behind a Mountain (Figure & Ground)
A dozen years ago, Nathan O’Flynn-Pruitt was touring with Chicago street music legend Little Howlin’ Wolf. He began to lose confidence in the guitar feedback projects he was working on, so he pulled up stakes and moved to rural Humboldt County, California. Without an experimental scene to speak of, O’Flynn-Pruitt began concentrating on acoustic guitar and vocals, re-learning how to sing and eventually releasing his debut album on Lily Wen’s Figure & Ground label. The primitivist leanings of Songs From Behind a Mountain are often disarmingly raw, making the record a deeply intimate listening experience. The album is a rich tapestry of rough edges. – Chris Ingalls
17. Jessica Risker – Calendar Year (Island House)
Calendar Year, the new album from Chicago-based psychedelic folk songwriter and musician Jessica Risker, evokes a timeless, dreamy vibe that sounds like it could have come from this year or maybe even 1972. The songs are impeccable, but the arrangements have an indefinable quality that is both comforting and mysterious. Coming off a seven-year hiatus from her debut album (I See You Among the Stars, which followed her stint from 2011 to 2018 when she made albums under the moniker Deadbeat), Risker released the new album from songs she wrote in 2020. However, she hesitates to call it a “pandemic record”. – Chris Ingalls
16. Thin Lear – A Shadow Waltzed Itself (Metropolitan Groove Merchants)
Witnessing the artistic arc of Matt Longo, recording as Thin Lear, has been a fascinating activity over the past five years. In 2020, the New Jersey-based singer-songwriter released Wooden Cave, a matchless collection of elegant chamber pop that seemed to fuse the collective inspiration of Leonard Cohen, Harry Nilsson, and Randy Newman, among others, earning rave reviews and spots on year-end best-of lists. Last year, his EP A Beach of Nightly Glory reiterated those influences while also reflecting his newfound status as a father. With A Shadow Waltzed Itself, Longo continues to tread much of the same sonic territory, but with a darker edge and more sinister themes. – Chris Ingalls
15. Marissa Nadler – New Radiations (Sacred Bones / Bella Union)
While much of Marissa Nadler’s music is inspired by personal events, she tends to cloak her feelings in narrative and metaphor. In the case of New Radiations, Nadler returns to themes of departure and escape to explore the infinite complexities of decaying relationships. In album opener “It Hits Harder”, she transforms the end of a relationship into a small airplane flight into the mountains, the bird’s eye view providing some much-needed clarity and perspective.
New Radiations may be intimate and personal, but it’s more of a short story collection than a diary. That is to its credit, as it makes the material more universal, more relatable. If someone hasn’t had the experience of watching a relationship dwindle in the rearview, they can still pick it up for its story of female aviators and solo flights, cosmonauts and rocket scientists. – J. Simpson
14. Lisa Harres – Time As a Frame (Independent)
The Berlin-based, multidisciplinary artist Lisa Harres brings their poetic sensibility to their debut album, Time As a Frame. Some albums are purely records, others are worlds—Time As a Frame is firmly in the second camp. Across nine songs and three interludes, Harres sets oblique imagery to sparse, classical-inspired arrangements, bolstered by orchestral flourishes—the result: a spellbinding record of elusive beauty and staggering depth.
Time As a Frame features an otherworldly aesthetic that, at its most ethereal and insubstantial, evokes PJ Harvey’s White Chalk—though without the ghosts, the devils, and damnation. Yes, Harres is far too innocent to be having the devil wandering into their soul, unlike Harvey, who has no qualms with receiving muses in all forms. However, Harres is not ingenuous and Time As a Frame is not without its melancholy. – Jack Walters
13. Sami Galbi – Ylh Bye Bye (Bongo Joe)
There’s nothing plastic or inauthentic about Sami Galbi’s debut for the Swiss label Bongo Joe. It’s as earthy as a DIY block party, sweltering with the scent of street vendors and the sound of battery-powered sound machines. Coming from a background in anarchist punk squats, Galbi approaches his unique take on North African folk music and international club pop with revolutionary vigor, leaving you a sweaty, breathless, exhilarated mess by the time it’s all said and done.
Although it’s rooted in real life and a folk sensibility and fired with a punk rock spirit, there is nothing archival or archaic about Ylh Bye Bye. Any of its three-minute bangers would sound as at home in a modern Middle Eastern dance club as it would at a wedding party. – J. Simpson