Lisa Coverdale's Favourite Releases of 2021

2021 has been an unprecedented year for music across all genres. With that in mind picking my favourite albums by ranking, by what I deem ‘best of show’ is impossible, there’s just too much and no one needs to read a categorised / weighted Top 100, life’s too short and we’re running out of year.

Instead I’ve picked the albums that made me feel the most, whether that’s been happiness, sadness, sheer joy, utter contempt for humanity or something else, the theme here are albums so emotive they’ve made me swing between wanting to kiss kittens to wanting to punch seagulls out of the sky.

Thanks to the bands, the managers, the media and the publicists who threw light on these releases and brought them to my attention and especially to three special people who completely shaped my taste in music more than any other - Beez and his New Music Saturday show, Ted Rock and his shows across Primordial Radio and his Tedbangers Ball on Twitch and Elliot Leaver through his writings, musings and twitch shows.

Ok let’s do this, no one will read it anyway so lets fucking go.

The album that says things I cannot say……

Sleep Token - This Place Will Become Your Tomb 

For whatever reason this year, I’ve been listening to a lot of emotive, soul searching, heart wrenching releases. Sleep Token have delivered what I needed in droves with This Place Will Become Your Tomb. Brimming with great buckets of emotion, cathartic release and oh so much relatability (as much as you can relate to a guy that spooks about in a blanket). I love their vulnerability, I love their ability to craft stunning lyrics, I love their intrigue and I love at points their simplicity. And by god I really love their drummer. Metal usually isn’t tender, but this feels tender. It feels like having my soul seen. Alkaline brought me in to this album, Fall For Me made me lose my shit in a big way, Hypnosis leaves my mouth utterly agape and my skin covered in goosebumps and every track in between is just wow. Its just wow. I always need a hug after listening to Sleep Token.

The album I listen to when I want to disappear into the dark…..

Dordeduh - Har

Whenever I want to embrace my inner darkness this has been the album I’ve turned to this year. You can read about the band’s history online, it involves the masterful Negură Bunget…so with that in mind…..Dordeduh produce an intoxicating mix of Romanian folk, black metal and progressive metal.  Ritualistic to its very core, this isn’t music for the masses, it’s a call to the faithful, to those who are lost, and those who are wandering souls. It’s an ethereal journey of atmospheric soundscapes and chanting infused with haunting vocals. It’s utterly sublime and it’s where I go when I want to transcend realms. 

The album that made me feel like I was being flooded with sunshine 

Boss Keloid - Family The Smiling Thrush

Not a single album came close to Boss Keloid’s Family The Smiling Thrush this year, in terms of its gargantuan sounds and it’s inspiring message of hope and positivity. In a year where pandemic-recorded albums were pouring into the aural cavities of listeners left, right and centre telling tales of isolation, anger and frustration, Boss Keloid threw down their gauntlet in June and immediately shifted the landscape from one of pain to one of soaring hope and endless possibility. From the very opening lines of Orang of Noyn, the message was clear - ‘you will never see me drown, gravity can’t hold me down’. Lyrical thematics based upon life being a learning curve and evolving through the challenges it throws your way as being the only way to thrive absolutely resonate with me on a very personal level. It’s an incredible and inspiring listen written by incredibly inspiring people. They deserve the world. And in 2021 the world agreed because the reviews worldwide were unanimous and the end of year listings are still pouring in- this band fucks! 

The album that made me shout WHO ARE THESE GUY OMG I LOVE THIS a lot 

Swamp Hawk - Monster in Color 

This came out in March this year, I think I read about this via Heavy Blog is Heavy and went to check it out because it sounded like my kind of thing and now here we are….at the end of the year with it in my end of year albums because it’s lush as fuck. These guys are American, they’re heavy as shit, this is some really meandering, sombre doom that just fills my heart with tar. I’ve hardly read anything about these guys online so bless you HBIH for bringing them into my ears and into my life. Perfect for lighting up and disappearing inside their chunky riffs for days. Stoners, this one is for you. I cannot recommend this one highly enough for fans of the genre. Swamp Hawk thanks for existing, you are truly beautiful. 

The album that most accurately sounds like I am as a person…..

MØL - Diorama 

MØL continue to be one of the most exciting, most interesting, most forward thinking bands that exist (imo). From my first discovery of their sound via a 30 second clip on Instagram years ago, to begging their then label to let me launch them and their debut, to watching their evolution and meteoric rise via Nuclear Blast has been the most epic journey. If any band most accurately sounds how I feel inside, it’s MØL - that beautiful juxtaposition of light versus dark, beauty injected with ferocity and wrapped in a bow of mystery and intrigue. I just love everything about them. I describe them as nasty glitter. The unfortunate thing about being so in tune with a band is that any time I listen to their music, I cry and I cry a lot. Not because I’m sad. I genuinely have no idea why, but there’s a sound, a vibration that just resonates inside me, courses through my veins and away I go. Maybe it’s pride for all that they’ve done and the hope for all I know that they will be. Diorama is a fantastic effort, it’s swept the board worldwide with critical acclaim and deservedly so. They’re very special people making very special music. These guys will be huge.

The album that made me wanna dance and smile and shout fuck yeah a lot 

Turnstile - Glow On

So much joy, so much bounce, so much happy 90’s sounding vibes to cherish that from the very first play of this I was absolutely enchanted (and shouting FUCK YES a lot). Although in 2021 you couldn’t escape Turnstile and the very rightly deserved hype for this album, it was Beez on his New Music Saturday show where I first stumbled across this and I haven’t stopped playing it since. The singles were absolutely the soundtrack to my summer of 2021 - lazy, hazy days filled with Turnstile’s energy and massive hooks. An amazingly upbeat album filled with banger after banger. This is a band at their pinnacle, tight, ambitious, infectious and not only reshaping a genre, but producing an absolute genre classic in the process. 

The album that made my heart feel like it was bursting out of my chest……

The Hyena Kill  - A Disconnect

This is a phenomenal album, a really giant piece of UK alt rock by one of the most underrated song-writers and lyricists (Steven Dobb). The album gives an incredible window into a world of pain, torture, heartache, suffering and someone beyond breaking point and it genuinely almost broke me working it. Given to me to PR during the worst personal period of my life, my days would be spent feeling utterly wretched and yet somehow ‘heard’ by listening over and over and over, poring over every word, feeling every anguished scream. Disappearing inside this album was cathartic and often painful but it is absolutely the only thing that pulled me along like a lifeline during the darkest of those days and I’ll be forever grateful to the band for making it as it’s one of the most real, gritty and heartfelt listens. Every single time I hear it I’m both plunged into darkness and given wings to fly. Music can be life changing, this album certainly was. Incredible artistry by incredible people. 

The album by my favourite band ever….

Between The Buried and Me - Colors II 

At this point, anyone who knows me and doesn’t know that Between The Buried and Me are my all time favourite band truly aren’t real friends. I bore people to tears with how epic I think this band are. I haven’t given this album as much time as it deserves and I plan to spend a long time with it over the holidays. BTBAM are not a simple band putting out simple music and sometimes that means you have to put a bit of work in as a listener. Colors II is a phenomenal album from a phenomenal band and a genuinely nice bunch of guys who are really into what they do and that is so apparent by their output. Best in the business.

The album I listen to when I feel like the world is against me….

Cult of Luna - The Raging River

Cult of Luna have always been massive sounding, gargantuanly heavy, anguished and oh so deliciously suffocating. Whenever the world has felt too much at points this year (and it’s felt like that a lot!) then Cult of Luna have been my comfort blanket. The aural equivalent of a weighted blanket, they’ve been both soothing and crushing at times with the ability to comfortingly re-align senses in the most immersive of ways. They just make me want to rip my heart out of my body and fire it into the fucking sky. What an epic, epic, release. Just utter skull fuckery. 

The album that made me think ‘what the fuck is this’ a lot (mostly whilst cooking)

Monobody - Comma 

Sometimes I just wander into albums blind, unaware of genre, previous band history, just maybe liking a cover, liking a track name and off I go and Monobody was one such band I did that with this year AND I’M SO GLAD I DID. This is monumental instrumental post-rock experimentation, math rock and jazz fusion from a band based out of Chicago. With a sound that loops and dives all over the place, mesmerising in its fluctuations, and just had me shouting..WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS I LOVE THIS a lot. I spent a lot of time cooking and writing to Monobody this year. Head melting beauty.