I was talking to a friend of mine earlier today about how 2020 and 2021 feel like one long year. While too much was happening with the world at large, our individual lives seemed to drag along in monotony. Looking back on that conversation though, I disagree with the sentiment. This year has given the world a glimmer of hope for better days to come, and some of that is reflected in the songs that marked its progression. Here are my favorite songs of 2021.
15. 0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You) feat. Seori by TOMORROW X TOGETHER
TXT have no right being as good as they are; with the release of their debut single “Crown”, they perfected electro-pop to such an astonishing degree that I felt like they had set their bar too high. Each subsequent comeback has been great, and if I had made a list of my favorite releases from 2020, “Blue Hour” would have been an easy pick. This is all a long way to say that I was excited when they announced a shift towards rock music for their releases this year, and “0X1=LOVESONG” did not disappoint.
It shocks me that more k-pop groups don’t take on pop-punk or britpop adjacent concepts; they go over better than their influences more often than not (i.e. “Chase Me”, “Baby”, or anything Day6 has released but check out “How Can I Say”). K-pop has theatrics and melodrama in its DNA, and that’s exactly the kind of place you need to be coming from in order to pull off an arena anthem. TXT’s take on the genre is just as grand as it needs to be, and whoever is singing the lines “Say you love me / Say you love me / 세계의 끝까지” (tr. till the end of the world) sounds like caramel.
14. The Princess and the Clock by Kero Kero Bonito
I don’t think I have ever seen a critic talk about discovering music through rhythm games, but this has been a large part of my personal process. Everyone had their own coping mechanisms when the pandemic first hit, mine was playing an absurd amount of the rhythm game osu!. And let me tell you, when you’re trying to full combo a farm map to boost your performance points, you’ll end up hearing the same song hundreds of times (I’m not sure why I am voluntarily embarrassing myself here, but isn’t honesty what the people want?). There is a remix of Kero Kero Bonito’s “Flamingo” linked here that I have played more than a sane person should. After that experience, I realized I actually wanted to listen to KKB even more. I was lucky that the group put out some stellar releases this year, my favorite being “The Princess and the Clock”. KKB has a knack for strange lyrical topics, and this track is something like a high fantasy tale of a sailor who is trapped in a tower and dreams of escape. If you have ever wondered what a condensed, poppier version of a Joanna Newsom song sounds like, here it is. I would also like to use this opportunity to request that someone more talented than I create an osu! beatmap for this song.
13. Thot Shit by Meg Thee Stallion
Trying to explain why “Thot Shit” is fucking awesome feels like a stupid task. Just listen to her: Meg’s flow is unstoppable, and she sounds like she has more confidence than Kanye declaring “I Am A God” on an album he literally called Yeezus. I mean, “I walk around the house butt-naked / And I stop at every mirror just to stare at my own posterior”? Come on now.
12. Good Ones by Charli XCX
Even as a longtime fan, I wasn’t sure what post-hyperpop Charli XCX would sound like. With “Good Ones”, she isn’t entering this new era of her career traversing uncharted territory in the vein of “Vroom Vroom”. “Good Ones” is a fairly conventional runway diva jam, but it’s still Charli, so of course it’s great and has a music video I have seen more times than is probably appropriate. Charli claims that she’s letting her label manage the promotion cycle and more of the overall sound of this final album in her contract. So after years of fighting for creative control to do weird shit like this, it will be interesting to see what second-wave sellout-era Charli does with the rest of the album. She and Atlantic seemed to have reached a happy medium with “Good Ones”.
11. Rainforest by Noname
Noname raps like a friend who manages to catch you off guard with something she said every time you have a conversation. A simple question or observation she brought up off the top of her head will rattle around in your mind days after. “Rainforest” reads like snapshots of each of these conversations. She’s never preachy or off-base, just so chock-full of insight that it’s almost like she can’t help but change your worldview.
10. Raw Thoughts by Baby Queen
I’ve always appreciated “Hey There Delilah” for sticking to its concept; the lyrics of the song really do read like a letter a mopey guy wrote to his long-distance girlfriend. “Raw Thoughts” deserves similar praise: Baby Queen is pulling out her notes app and reading all of the tweets she decided not to post. After years of downtrodden, lethargic pop about getting fucked up, it’s refreshing to hear a song sound as fun and dramatic as everything she’s describing. In a better world, this would have been a hit.
9. Troubled Paradise by Slayyyter
In 2010, Swedish pop star Robyn released a little known song titled “Dancing On My Own” whose oscillating beat would reverberate across the industry in the years to come. Heart-wrenching lyrics about jealousy and loneliness sitting on top of pulsating, immaculate production spoke to the pop girls and indie boys alike, the great equalizing track. The song even led imitators to make some of the best pop cuts of the decade (see “Green Light”, “Gone”, and “Heart to Break”). “Troubled Paradise” is the most direct recreation of “Dancing On My Own” that I’ve heard, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. If you’re going to copy something, might as well copy the best thing there is. So now that Robyn, like an absent father, only appears from the Nordic tundra once every eight years, Lorde is all yoga, crystals, and orientalism, and Kim Petras continues to work with Dr. L*ke who both now resort to releasing whatever the hell this is, at least we still have Slayyyter to carry the tear-soaked pink baton.
8. Hardline by Julien Baker
“Blacked out on a weekday / Still something that I’m trying to avoid / Start asking for forgiveness in advance / For all the future things I will destroy” is a hell of a way to start an album. Julien Baker’s narration of her relapse sounds like the midnight conversation you have with your best friend about the worst mental place you have ever been. The two of you are staring at the ceiling and rubbing your eyes in exhaustion, but you both know you won’t be sleeping for a while. At some point in the night one of you plays this song, and neither person says a word throughout.
7. I am not a woman, I’m a god by Halsey
Oh man, the version of me from six years ago would not be happy about this one. Halsey, our tri-bi, legal marijunana smoking, peak tumblr-era queen, came out of the gates swinging this year with their best album to date, If I can’t have love, I want power. Based on my first impression of them all those years ago, I absolutely hated Halsey as (and I really can’t believe I’m admitting this) I saw them as the worst version of myself. I do keep cigarettes and tiny liquor bottles in my Balenciaga, smoke more weed than I probably should, and actually own this outfit:
I was actively rooting for her to fail when I was a teenager and kept getting annoyed when she released music I couldn’t truthfully say I disliked. As much as I want to attribute my recent appreciation for Halsey’s music to their decision to work with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails faim on this new record, I have to admit that I was impressed at multiple points on 2020’s Manic as well. While I still stand by the opinion that pop-punk Halsey is her final form (see “forget me too” and “Nightmare”), if she’s sticking to synths, this is a great place to be. I think I’ve finally developed enough as a person to say I am excited to see what they do next.
6. Diamond Studded Shoes by Yola
One thing you should know about me is that courtesy of living with Hannah I recently became obsessed with Bruce Springsteen. Because of this development, part of my soul now routinely craves a new pissed-off working-class anthem. “Diamond Studded Shoes” managed to scratch the itch in 2021. Yola draws from country and soul to deliver an unfortunately timeless message, “They buy diamond studded shoes with our taxes / Anything to keep us divided”. As far as protest anthems go, it’s hard to get more concise than that.
5. Drunk-Dazed by ENHYPEN
There’s a menacing whirlwind that goes along with losing yourself in the middle of a party. It’s disorienting and self-destructive, yet somehow euphoric. Despite yourself, you keep going back to explore the same crevices and feel your body sink lower and lower as the night drags on. In a genre where most lyrics can be sectioned off as “romantic”, “self-empowering”, or some combination of the two, “Drunk-Dazed” is a strange entry. The track’s swelling bass and rolling melodies dare you to dance, while simultaneously screaming in your face that this isn’t OK; something is wrong; you should be terrified. Complaining about HYBE’s vocal compression over the last few years (with groups like TXT and BTS) has become a cliche at this point. However, for ENHYPEN, the robotic sheen layered onto each of their voices elevates the eerie tone in their music and envelopes you into this chaotic carnival.
4. deja vu by Olivia Rodrigo
It seems to make sense that the year’s most cutting breakup singles would come from Taylor Swift (the “All Too Well” ten minute version) and her protegee Olivia Rodrigo, in which they both bash their J-named exes in vivid detail and ensure that the men feel perpetually uneasy in whatever relationship they happen to be in now. What sets “deja vu” apart though is that no one comes out the better person, and no one’s really at fault here. The scenario Rodrigo illustrates on the track is bitter and petty, but her ex probably can’t deny that she’s right; that’s just how relationships go.
I have to commend Rodrigo’s brutally honest songwriting for making me sympathize with a couple of Glee-watching theater kids (probably a redundant description) and for generating more music discourse than almost anyone else this year. “driver’s license” gave us an industry-shaking debut complete with a messy teen love triangle, and “deja vu” in my eyes cemented Rodrigo as a lasting presence. I remember feeling my heart rate elevate the first time I heard the guitar kick in on the track, the moment I realized she wasn’t following up her debut with another piano ballad. One of the things I love about pop music is that big releases can turn into global events that a music blog gremlin like myself and your minivan-driving mom can both talk about. It has been a pleasure cheering on Rodrigo with the rest of the world this year.
3. Slide Tackle by Japanese Breakfast
Michelle Zauner, frontwoman of Japanese Breakfast, has had the biggest year of her career since starting her band. The release of her memoir Crying in H-Mart was an emotionally devastating reflection on cultural heritage, family obligations, and mourning. The book introduced a much wider audience to her music as it is deeply tied to the experience she narrates, taking care of and eventually losing her mother to cancer. After spending years writing about her grief, however, Zauner wanted to look ahead with her new album and explore happiness, hence the title Jubilee. The album is a fitting evolution of her previous work, sounding clearer and grander than ever, evoking previous dream-pop classics like Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot it in People with its proclivity for subdued bass lines, a massive horn section, and lush instrumental meditations.
“Slide Tackle” comes in at about the halfway point of the record and depicts Zauner’s efforts to attain the overall theme of the album. The opening lines of the song, “I want to be good / I want to navigate this hate in my heart / Somewhere better”, showcase an earnest desire to find peace despite feeling trapped inside yourself. Happiness isn’t granted; it’s hard-fought, and feeling like your own worst enemy is a universal experience. Since I first heard the lines, “Don’t mind me while / I’m tackling this void / Slide tackling my mind”, I’ve repeated the mantra while struggling with my own thoughts.
The saxophone outro on “Slide Tackle” harkens back to “Machinist”, my personal favorite song on Japanese Breakfasts’s previous album Soft Sounds from Another Planet. This time instead of space-age synths and vocoders, an analog touch to “Slide Tackle” presents a more hopeful outlook.
2. Free Woman – Rina Sawayama & Clarence Clarity Remix by Lady Gaga
Anyone who knows me personally could tell you that I had a rough year. My chronic illness incapacitated me to the point of becoming physically and mentally reliant on my support system. It’s a devastating experience at any age, but at 21, the fabled prime of my life, I was completely blindsided and hit rock bottom. It took me a few weeks out of the hospital to get myself out of bed on my own, and it took a few more months before I could go on a walk alone again. Every shred of regained mobility was monumental. By September, the leaves were starting to die, but I felt reborn. At the same time, a remix album managed to give Chromatica an unlikely revival as well.
The pandemic took much more important things away from everyone, but I just need a second to lament over the era Chromatica could have been in 2020. The disastrous timing of the album’s release meant that Gaga’s return to dance-pop (this time packaged as 90’s house music) happened to come out right when the world shut down. This album was made for club catharsis and hedonism, but when you can’t even leave your apartment without fearing for your health, it’s hard to imagine ever feeling safe beside a sea of intoxicated strangers again. As if to protest what could have been, Chromatica’s lead producer BloopPop wrangled up a team of alt-pop A-listers (a bit of an oxymoron, I realize) and essentially said, “Why don’t we just try again?” And it worked.
Almost every remix on the album improves the original or is a true re-imagination. The record feels like the triumph of the last ten years in hyperpop since A.G. Cook released “Beautiful”; it’s a sign of recodnition to pioneering queer artists from one of the biggest pop stars in history. We’re loving it too; every weekend I’ve gone out to gay clubs in my city since the release of this album, I’ve heard at least one of the remixes.
For me, the easy standout and most important moment on the record is, of course, the “Free Woman” remix. Rina Sawayama has been on a monstrous trajectory since her debut, and she somehow continues to outdo herself in every way a performer can. Her vocals manage to stay on par with Gaga on the track; the two of them soar over Clarence Clarity’s massive new sonic playground. Self-empowerment anthems will typically make me convulse as they tend to be full of empty platitudes. So to every “Stronger” and “Fuckin’ Perfect” I say, this is how it’s done; this is what fighting for yourself should sound like. At the end of the song when Sawayama belts out “I’m free”, despite the fact that neither I nor the world has completely healed yet, I believe her.
Honorable Mentions
Tamed-Dashed and Fever by ENHYPEN, Chaeri by Magdalena Bay, Posing for Cars and Paprika by Japanese Breakfast, Hot N Heavy by Jessie Ware, After School by Weeekly, Ex For a Reason (with JT of City Girls) by Summer Walker
1. Chi Mat Ba Ram by Brave Girls
It is impossible to discuss early 2010’s k-pop girl groups without mentioning production powerhouse Kang Dong-chul, better known as Brave Brothers. After a four year stint at YG Entertainment from 2004 to 2008, Kang went on to start his own label, Brave Entertainment, and has since catapulted groups like AOA, Sistar, and After School to success. Prior to 2021 however, few k-pop fans knew that for the last ten years, Brave Entertainment had been churning out singles from their own girl group, Brave Girls, who seemed doomed to spend their career in obscurity despite having a fantastic string of releases. The vast discrepancy between Brave Girls’s success and the singles Kang would produce for other groups was treated like a joke for years, even prompting a few snide remarks from then CEO of YG Entertainment and Kang’s former boss, Yang Hyun-suk, who claimed Kang was inept when it came to managing his own group.
K-pop is a brutal industry, and more often than not, groups fall to the wayside despite undeniable talent and effort for no reason other than not having the right connections. At the start of 2021, Brave Girls were on the brink of disbandment when a fanmade performance video of their song “Rollin’” went viral. Apparently, the track had become a not-so-quiet cult favorite among Korean men during their time in mandatory military service, and Brave Girls became an overnight sensation when a song from another decade turned into one of the biggest k-pop singles of the year.
Since 2017 when “Rollin’” was first released, it seems like things have gone from bad to worse, and at the start of this year, life felt like it was in limbo. During a downward swing, nothing satiates my escapist fantasies like a bright, pop-turned-to-eleven k-pop song. Pairing that with a frankly miraculous underdog story was one of the few moments that got me through much of this year. “Chi Mat Ba Ram” was Brave Girls’s follow-up single after their newfound success, and it embodies joy. From the track opening with an immediately gripping saxophone riff, then stacking hooks on top of hooks in the chorus, and culminating in an explosive bridge that has had me screaming “We’re just falling in love, love, LOVE!” more times than I can count, the song hardly gives you a moment to breathe.
Bubblegum summer singles are a well-established concept in k-pop (favorites include “View”, “Navillera”, and “Crying”) with many fans citing Sistar as the undeniable poster girls for the genre. It seems fitting that five years following Sistar’s disbandment, Brave Girls would title a mini album “Summer Queens” and live up to the claim.
2021 In Retrospect:
My top two picks on this list are both grounded in looking to the past to grow beyond established legacy and above all else, a shot at a second chance after years of hard work. I needed something to believe in this year, and I’m grateful that I was able to find it. At the end of the day, music is life. And music is death. But most of all, music is music.
