This year’s best country albums range from hard-country bands to traditional true-believers to indie-country renegades to pop-country superstars.
Our 10 Best Country Albums of 2021 reveal artists of every stripe producing some of the most satisfying country music we’ve heard in years.
The synthesis of the past, present, and future was so much of what country music was about in 2010. Country was still fairly male-dominated in the era, although the changing winds, wherein women would create the most forward-looking music, were already beginning to blow.
This was a major year for country music. With Lil Nas X, the world saw the shift. But others are helping to move country from near homogeneity to a diverse pastiche.
