New Music Highlights: January — May 2021

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“Love More” — Fiona Apple & Sharon Van Etten (via the Daily Advent)

Since the start of 2021 — and really, since April of 2020, I’ve been feeling a lot of anticipation: for lockdowns to end, for the chance to get vaccinated, for real college to resume and for concerts to start again. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a near-total halt in performances of live music. Over the past year, we’ve seen the effects of this on the releases of albums and singles, with countless projects being delayed until a time when touring is more feasible. This has highlighted just how much artists depend on touring — oftentimes, artists make more money from touring an album than from sales and streams of the project itself. So, although unfortunate, it’s far from surprising that the music industry at large slowed down because of the pandemic.

While waiting for things to ramp back up again, the feeling that I’ve been getting from many of this year’s releases so far is also one of anticipation. New albums and singles have been released every week at a slow, but steady pace, but for every huge artist that does release a project, like the poorly conceived Justice by Justin Bieber, it feels like there are two artists that are rumored to have near-complete projects that are still radio silent. Artists like Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Lorde, and Adele are likely sitting on full projects, with no word so far as to when these projects will be released. By this point in 2020, albums such as After Hours, Future Nostalgia, Fetch The Bolt Cutters, and how i’m feeling now were dominating conversations and pushing popular music into new places. 2021, by comparison, has had its fair share of great music so far, but it’s been relatively devoid of album releases that really feel like events. 

Because of this year’s relative lack of tentpole releases from some of music’s biggest stars, the spotlight has been able to be shifted over to newer voices, as well as smaller, independent artists. One of music’s biggest stories so far this year has been the meteoric rise of Olivia Rodrigo, who released her debut single, “drivers license”, in early January, to massive commercial success. Her debut album, SOUR, was released in May, positioning her as a strong new voice in pop with a lot of potential to grow. Meanwhile, pop’s underground has continued to push boundaries. A. G. Cook and other artists associated with PC Music have engaged in a streak of collaborations and remixes, with seemingly every week bringing a new look into the glitchy, surrealist world that they have built.

After all of this anticipation, it finally feels like events of all kinds are starting to happen again. Here in Chicago, Lollapalooza and Pitchfork Music Festival are returning in the summer. Artists from Billie Eilish to Lucy Dacus have announced albums and tours. Lorde was just announced to be headlining Primavera Sound 2022. Music is coming out of hibernation. 

Below are some of my favorite singles, EPs, and albums from the first half of this year. Take some of these with you this summer as we put the pandemic behind us. 

Sha Frasier

Managing editor and editor of News/New Releases

Singles

Hip-hop

• JID — “Skegee”

• Noname — “Rainforest”

• Polo G — “RAPSTAR”

Folk/Country

• Phoebe Bridgers — “Summer’s End - Spotify Singles” [John Prine cover]

• Taylor Swift — “Mr. Perfectly Fine (From the Vault) (Taylor’s Version)”

• Taylor Swift — “right where you left me - bonus track”

• Waxahatchee — “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” [Dolly Parton cover]

Rock

• Lucy Dacus — “Hot & Heavy”

• Paul McCartney — “Seize The Day (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”

Pop/R&B

• Angel Olsen — “Alive and Dying (Waving, Smiling)”

• Fiona Apple — “Love More” [Sharon Van Etten cover]

• Hypnotic Brass Ensemble — “Soon It Will Be Fire (feat. Moses Sumney)”

• Jessie Ware — “Please”

• Mykki Blanco — “Love Me”

• Olivia Rodrigo — “deja vu”

• Post Malone — “Only Wanna Be With You”

• Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen — “Like I Used To”

• Silk Sonic [Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak] — “Leave The Door Open”

• Slayyyter — “Over This!”

• Tkay Maidza — “Where Is My Mind?” [Pixies cover]

Electronic

• CFCF — “Heaven”

• Cola Boyy & The Avalanches — “Don’t Forget Your Neighborhood”

• DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ — “Try Not To Be Afraid”

• Kero Kero Bonito — “The Princess and the Clock”

• Perfume Genius — “Describe (A. G. Cook Remix)”

• SOPHIE — “UNISIL”

EPs

• No Rome, Charli XCX & The 1975 — Spinning (A. G. Cook Remixes)

  • Bubblegum bass, hyperpop

Albums

Hip-hop

• BROCKHAMPTON — ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE

  • West Coast hip hop, pop rap

• slowthai — TYRON

  • UK hip hop, trap

Folk/Country

• The Antlers — Green to Gold

  • Indie folk, dream pop

• Lord Huron — Long Lost

  • Americana, indie folk

Pop/R&B

• Arlo Parks — Collapsed in Sunbeams

  • Neo-soul, bedroom pop

• girl in red — if i could make it go quiet

  • Indie pop

• Lana Del Rey — Chemtrails Over The Country Club

  • Singer/songwriter

• St. Vincent — Daddy’s Home

  • Psychedelic soul, art rock

Global

• Arooj Aftab — Vulture Prince

  • Chamber folk, ghazal

• Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés — CLAMOR

  • Art pop, glitch pop

• Mdou Moctar — Afrique Victime

  • Tishoumaren, psychedelic rock

Electronic

• A. G. Cook — Apple vs. 7G (Silver Edition)

  • Hyperpop, EDM

• Danny L Harle — Harlecore

  • EDM, trance

• Iglooghost — Lei Line Eon

  • UK bass

• Porter Robinson — Nurture

  • Electropop, synthpop

• Wavedash — World Famous Tour

  • Future bass

Edited by Sha Frasier

Cover art by Miriam Sills