First Pitch: Day Thirty One – Happy New Year!

1 Jan 2022

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a safe New Year’s Eve, and a great New Year’s Day.

Beyond that, I hope MLB and the MLBPA start working toward an agreement, allowing us to see baseball in this new year.

We’ve got a few baseball links below. Pirates Prospects will be undergoing some changes this coming week, with more information in the Updates section below.

With 2021 wrapping up, and with Saturday’s theme being music, I wanted to do a “Best Of 2021” list. Except, music is subjective. What appealed to me might not appeal to others. What appeals to someone else might not appeal to me. And there’s so much music that it’s very easy to completely miss something that gets released.

I listen to a lot of music, and a lot of new music. Below, I put together a list of 25 of my favorite albums released in 2021. I also created a Spotify playlist with samples from each album, along with a few other favorite singles of mine that were released in 2021.

I’ve listened to every album below at least once, and some of them on a regular rotation, or at least parts making my daily playlists. I didn’t want to do a ranking for all 25, but if I had to give a top five, based on what I think I’d listen to long-term, it would be the following:

1. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee

2. Julien Baker – Little Oblivions

3. Kings of Leon – When You See Yourself

4. Leon Bridgers – Gold-Diggers Sound

5. CHVRCHES – Screen Violence

I didn’t include John Mayer’s album here, because if you follow these First Pitch articles, you’d know by now I’m going to be listening to that one. He’d be in the top ten with Aaron Frazer, Madlib, St. Vincent, and CZARFACE/MF DOOM.

Some of the albums below were actually recommendations from readers. I try to listen to everything sent my way. If you’ve got a “Favorites” list to share from your 2021 music discoveries, leave it in the comments below!

Here are my 25 favorite albums and 50 favorite songs released in 2021: