Music Suitcase: Favorite Albums of June 2021
June was a glorious hodgepodge for me, the first six albums here representing five different nationalities, and a variety of styles. A few of these albums were by badass women rockers from the 90s or earlier, and overall there’s a good mix here of established bands and newcomers…
Along with the blog, here’s a playlist of some of my favorite songs from June!
Wolf Alice, Blue Weekend
An arena-sized studio album that still manages to be emotionally engaging all the way, Ellie Roswell and her band’s third record would feel fresh and relevant in any of the last 5 decades. It murmurs, it rocks, and it soars in equal measure, shifting between modes and moods as deftly as it does between rock, synth-pop and punk. This is gonna be a lot of folks’ AOTY. Highlights: “How Can I Make It OK?,” “Smile,” “Delicious Things”
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Butterfly 3000
The Australian psych-rockers keep the adventurous rhythms and time signatures but swap out most of the guitars for bright, colorful synths, on their second album this year. No one is surprised that they nail it; KGLW can do anything, and they’re clearly having a blast pushing their boundaries with each new album. Highlights: “Interior People,” “Catching Smoke,” “Shanghai”
Ches Smith and We All Break, Path of Seven Colors
A collaborative effort between Haitian activist-musicians representing a variety of Afro-Carribean traditions (both sacred and common), and American jazz musicians, this band‘s profoundly polyrhythmic second album is vital, intricate and spellbinding. Highlights: “Here’s The Light,” “AWoule Pou Mwen,” “The Vulgar Cycle”
Angélique Kidjo, Mother Nature
The legendary Beninese singer embraces a broader stage and audience, by collaborating with mostly younger musicians from many parts of Africa, incorporating diverse elements of modern pop, and singing in English more than usual. Highlights: “Do Yourself,” “Take It Or Leave It,” “Flying High”
Liz Phair, Soberish
Liz Phair’s first album in over a decade draws inspiration from 80s art rock and new wave to strike a delicate but ultimately workable balance between her indie rock roots and her later pop star aspirations. The second half is much stronger. Highlights: “Ba Ba Ba,” “Lonely Street,” “Bad Kitty”
Sault, Nine
Available to stream for just 99 days, the London-based R&B outfit’s latest is more intimate and mostly a quieter affair, but keeps social justice at the forefront, and all of the dancier songs still wed to an uncompromising social consciousness. Highlights: “Trap Life,” “9,” “Bitter Streets”
Lucy Dacus, Home Video
A set of songs chronicling formative moments of her teen years, the Virginian singer/songwriter’s 3rd album is as personal as it gets, and is all the more heartfelt for Dacus’s penchant for show-don’t-tell lyrical storytelling. Highlights: “VBS,” “Thumbs,” “Triple Dog Dare”
Tyler, The Creator, Call Me If You Get Lost
It’s a rare talent to be able to accommodate mainstream hip hop’s appetite for songs about living the high life, and still come off authentic and human, but Tyler Baudelaire leans into that skillfully, while continuing to perform rewarding sonic experiments as a beatmaker. Highlights: “Lumberjack,” “Massa,” “Juggernaut”
The Mountain Goats, Dark In Here
John Darnielle and company offer up songs about disaster here — at times pitch dark, but somehow never bleak — in a folk-rock vein, with jazzy moments. TMG have made a lot of records lately; this is the best one in recent years. Highlights: “Lizard Suit,” “The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower,” “Mobile”
Sleater-Kinney, Path to Wellness
Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, now a duo after their longtime drummer Janet Weiss left in the wake of a poppier, synth-driven album in 2019, return to gritty, feminist guitar rock on their first self-produced album ever. Highlights: “Worry With You,” “Method,” “Favorite Neighbor”
Garbage, No Gods No Masters
Subtle as a Mack truck, with churning guitar grunge amped up as always by power-synths, Shirley Manson and company go for the jugular in the name of love on their passionate, politically driven 8th album. Highlights: “Uncomfortably Me,” “Wolves,” “Flipping The Bird”
Modest Mouse, Golden Casket
Loud, colorful and a little all-over-the-place, the band’s 7th album finds its growth edge in quirky, layered instrumentation. Lyrically, the band takes a couple steps toward the whole “aging gracefully” thing but mostly it’s raucous fun. Highlights: “Walking and Running,” “Lace Your Shoes,” “Back to the Middle”
James, All the Colours of You
Earnest and direct as ever, the British alt-rock stalwarts enter their 5th decade speaking peace to a world-weary world, acknowledging much of the tumult of the last two years and striving for hope and resilience. Highlights: “Wherever It Takes Us,” “Hush,” “Isabella”
De’Wayne, Stains
Lots of swagger and style in this Texan rap/rocker’s punk-inflected firestorm of a debut. De’Wayne runs the risk of coming off as America’s answer to Genesis Owusu, with some of these production choices, but he definitely shows promise of his own. Highlights: “National Anthem,” “Land of Snakes,” “Super 8”
Rostam, Changephobia
Vampire Weekend alum Rostam Batmanglij’s sophomore set benefits from weightier songwriting, which make the inventive instrumentation and clever production all the more enjoyable. A big step forward. Highlights: “These Kids We Know,” “From the Back of a Cab,” “Kinney”
Hiatus Kyote, Mood Valiant
Having recently survived a battle with cancer, frontwoman Nai Palm and her band rebound with more trippy, experimental but romantically tinged R&B, full of ambitious polyrhythms. Highlights: “Chivalry Is Not Dead,” “All the Words We Don’t Say,” “Rose Water”
Chris Thile, Laysongs
Thile‘s exploration of faith and community features only his voice and his mandolin — unlooped, unlayered — and is far, far wilder and more unpredictable than you’d imagine an album of that description would be. Highlights: “Dionysus,” “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot,” “Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth”
Japanese Breakfast, Jubilee
Michelle Zauner’s third album of mostly synth-based indie pop functions as an artful, vibrant companion piece to a memoir released earlier this year, but also stands on its own. Highlights: “Paprika,” “In Hell,” “Kokomo, IN”
If you’d like to hear just the best of the best, here’s a playlist with 41 of my favorite songs from May, which includes one or two songs from each album above, and some great songs from albums that didn’t make onto my list too — Playlist: Highlights of June 2021.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1fndtBYhauRYOp1nZn9A7s?si=HAwAT7OERAmS7cM-ckbinA
While we’re here…
Did you enjoy this article? Awesome! It was written by a white guy privileged enough to have time listen to like 40 albums every month and write a blog as a passion project, for free.
If you are white and you are also are privileged enough to have some time on your hands, or some money to donate, please check out some anti-racism resources and help fight the good fight.
Nerding out over music is fun, but let’s not forget that we live in a burning world that needs our help! Black Lives Matter.