{"id":22189,"date":"2021-12-27T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22189"},"modified":"2021-12-17T11:12:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T16:12:02","slug":"musoscribes-best-of-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/27\/musoscribes-best-of-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Musoscribe&#8217;s Best of 2021: New Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Picking my favorite new releases for 2021 has been exceedingly difficult. I have no way of knowing to what degree (if any) the infernal and tragic pandemic had the silver-lining effect of inspiring so many of these artists to create superb works, but whatever the reason, I stumbled across a bounty of great new music this year.<\/p>\n<p>My first-draft \u201cshort\u201d list had 20 titles on it; I\u2019ve whittled that down to a mere ten, but it\u2019s worth emphasizing that the others are nearly as great (and as my mood might strike me on some given random day, as good or better). Nevertheless, without further ado, in no particular order, my ten favorite new releases of 2021 (with links to further reading) are below.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22190\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021_top9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021_top9.jpg 550w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021_top9-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021_top9-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/08\/album-review-wesley-stace-late-style\/\">Wesley Stace \u2013 <i>Late Style \u2013<\/i><\/a> a departure from form that really works<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/23\/album-review-richie-mayer-the-inn-of-temporary-happiness\/\">Richie Mayer \u2013 <i>The Inn of Temporary Happiness<\/i><\/a> \u2013 a collection of superb ear-candy pop songs<i> <\/i><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/27\/mushroom-dont-sit-this-one-out\/\">Mushroom \u2013 <i>Songs of Dissent<\/i><\/a> \u2013 Weird, wonderful, free-form and unclassifiable<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/06\/album-review-mark-the-clouds-waves\/\">Mark &amp; the Clouds \u2014 <i>Waves \u2013<\/i><\/a> Psych-flavored melodic rock that\u2019ll take you back<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/22\/album-review-the-bablers-psychadilly-circus\/\">The Bablers \u2014 <i>Psychadilly Circus \u2013 <\/i><\/a> How to channel Beatles influences into originality<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/13\/album-review-trees-speak-posthuman\/\">Trees Speak \u2014 <i>PostHuman \u2013 <\/i><\/a> Krautrock from Arizona; they get better with each release<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/29\/album-review-rick-hromadka-better-days\/\">Rick Hromadka \u2014 <i>Better Days \u2013 <\/i> Superb solo outing from Maple Mars\u2019 main man<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/18\/hundred-word-reviews-january-2021-2\/#lee\">Douglas Lee \u2013 <i> Themes for Falling Down Stairs \u2013 <\/i><\/a> Eclectic, original and highly compelling<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/07\/album-review-rachel-flowers-bigger-on-the-inside\/\">Rachel Flowers \u2013 <i>Bigger on the Inside \u2013 <\/i><\/a> Prog that\u2019s equal parts adventurous, accessible and moving<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;and the hands-down winner as my<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/07\/album-review-the-orange-peels-celebrate-the-moments-of-your-life\/\"> <b>Favorite Release of 2021<\/b>: The Orange Peels \u2014 <i>Celebrate the Moments of Your Life<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21756\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/orange_peels_celebrate3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/orange_peels_celebrate3.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/orange_peels_celebrate3-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/orange_peels_celebrate3-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Highly honorable mentions go to these as well:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/02\/hundred-word-reviews-for-november-2021-five-new-jazz-releases\/#younger\">Brandee Younger \u2013 <i>Somewhere Different<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/16\/album-review-sorrows-love-too-late-the-real-album\/\">Sorrows \u2013 <i>Love Too Late\u2026the real album<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/06\/wind-up-happening-musoscribe-meets-lmnop-part-1-of-5\/\">LMNOP \u2013 <i>whatNOP<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/22\/album-review-wanderlust-all-a-view\/\">Wanderlust \u2014 <i>All a View<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/12\/album-review-the-eyebrows-fight-flight\/\">The Eyebrows \u2013 <i>Fight\/Flight<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/17\/album-review-your-academy\/\">Your Academy \u2013 <i>s\/t<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/25\/album-review-the-tummies-930-girl\/\">The Tummies \u2013 <i>9:30 Girl<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/17\/hundred-word-reviews-february-2021-part-2\/#palermo\">Ed Palermo Big Band \u2013 <i>Great Un-American Songbook Vol. III<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/20\/album-review-gretchens-wheel-such-open-sky\/\">Gretchen\u2019s Wheel \u2014 <i>Such Open Sky<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/18\/hundred-word-reviews-january-2021-2\/#philippe\">Louis Philippe &amp; the Night Mail \u2013 <i>Thunderclouds<\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picking my favorite new releases for 2021 has been exceedingly difficult. I have no way of knowing to what degree (if any) the infernal and tragic pandemic had the silver-lining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,49],"tags":[4737,4403,1195,4608,2980,2684,4714,4674,1842,4598,4167,4136],"class_list":["post-22189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-of-list","category-new-release","tag-best-of-2021","tag-douglas-lee","tag-john-wesley-harding","tag-mark-the-clouds","tag-mushroom","tag-pat-thomas","tag-rachel-flowers","tag-richie-mayer","tag-rick-hromadka","tag-the-bablers","tag-trees-speak","tag-wesley-stace","cat-8-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22189"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22200,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22189\/revisions\/22200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}