In 2021, indie pop had the job of scoring the world’s reopening, marrying joy and uncertainty. From Wolf Alice to Illuminati Hotties, these albums got the gold.
The Phish fall 2021 tour has been one for the ages, with a run that’s had fans praising it as their best tour since their prime years in the late 1990s.
The Kinks’ landmark album Muswell Hillbillies turns 50 and endures as a prophetic masterpiece that anticipates our messy political moment.
On her last truly great album Hejira, Joni Mitchell designed a travelogue, awash with lush textures, and explored the implications of her lifelong itineracy.
Kate Bush’s 50 Words For Snow is a jazzy wonderland of mystical creatures and fleeting romance with nuanced themes of impermanence and ephemeral love.
Losing Streak is the best recording of Less Than Jake’s full-on ska-punk days. It has the feel of a time capsule from that brief mid-’90s period.
Damu the Fudgemunk, Deca, DJ Credit One, Jared Boxx, and EMI’s Peter Clarke take PopMatters along in their deep dig into KPM Music’s Crate Diggers series.
San Francisco’s marquee festival Outside Lands returned on Halloween for a monstrous mash of musical celebration with Angel Olsen, Tame Impala, Lizzo, and more.
Belle and Sebastian’s 1996 showpiece If You’re Feeling Sinister balanced poignance and exuberance with its character-driven stories and became an indie-pop classic.
Former Wild Beasts vocalist Hayden Thorpe explores new headspaces, psychedelics, and sonic territory on solo album number two, Moondust For My Diamond.
This might not be so far away from a best-of list of all Belle and Sebastian songs, considering how these tracks show the breadth of the group’s styles and moods.
