July is here, which means we’re just about at the halfway point in 2021. With multiple vaccines readily available and shows starting to happen again, things are looking a lot different for music than they were just a year ago. That all said, let’s take a look at what’s come out so far this year. I’m not going to boil this down into a top 10 list, I’m just going to blurt out a stream of conscious ramble of everything I enjoyed.

Let’s get this one out of the way. Yes, Jeff Rosenstock did a complete remake of his last album No Dream as a ska album called Ska Dream. Yes, it’s one of the best albums of the year. Yes, it’s almost unfair to just drop the same album twice in a row and have it top the Best Albums list both times. Honestly, it’s wild how good Ska Dream is, and it’s a testament to just how good of a songwriter Jeff is that he can completely shift genre and have everything still work. Ska Dream feels like a joke that was executed with such earnestness that it stopped being a joke somewhere along the way. It’s just a really damn good ska album.

If that one whetted your appetite for ska and you’re tired of revisiting the same old third wave bands, then there’s also been a ton of really great original work coming out. Flying Raccoon Suit and Joystick both dropped really solid albums this year. Joystick lean pretty heavy into a skate punk influenced sound while FRS are a bit more of a vibe and Jessica’s vocals easily make them stand out. Best of the Worst dropped their new album Better Medicine as well and if the idea of mixing metalcore and ska sounds like something you’d be into then that’s the one for you. Heavy breakdowns, blast beats, three different vocalists all filling different roles. High recommend. We Are the Union have had one of the biggest releases in the genre in a while, with Ordinary Life. Their singer Reade recently came out as a trans woman and the album delves into what that means and what that transition has been like without mincing words at all. Musically, there’s just as much pop punk and emo influence as there is ska, but that was also the case on Self Care so the genre-bending shouldn’t be any surprise. It’s a great record full of honest and emotional bangers that’ll get stuck in your head. All of the music videos they’ve put out to promote it have been on point as well.

Shifting gears into heavier territory, that new Gravesend album absolutely rules. It’s war metal / blackened grindcore with sort of a 70’s NYC vibe. There are old-school John Carpenter-esque synths used in the intro and a nun reading the newspaper on a graffiti covered subway on the cover. Honestly, I’m happy any time a black metal adjacent project isn’t just named Necrofrost of the Wintermoon or something, and this has been a breath of fresh air. Over on the death metal front, that new Sanguisuggabogg album is pretty fun. I don’t listen to a ton of death metal these days, but I got sucked into the hype a little bit and this is some caveman shit. It’s exactly what I wanted from them. No think. Play riff. Bang head. As far as straight up grindcore, Interstice by Knoll really blew me away. It’s polished, and it’s noisy in a purposeful way. There are Full of Hell vibes and the slower tracks even manage to be some of the highlights, which is a tough act to pull off in grindcore. The lyrics sound like they were written with a Satanic bible in one hand and a thesaurus in the other, so they’re appropriately theatrical. I appreciate the effort put in on that front even if most people won’t understand the screams.

One release that I was really looking forward to that initially disappointed me but ended up growing on me was Genghis Tron’s Dream Weapon. Dead Mountain Mouth and Board Up the House are some of my favorite albums of all time. I listened to them on repeat in college and seeing GT live was a formative experience, so when they came back after 13 years I was really excited. Then, I heard the album. The singles worried me a little bit, and my fears were confirmed. Instead of a flurry of drum machines and shredding guitars, they leaned all the way into their more proggy electronic side. This might as well be an entirely new project, and while the stark difference in sound really put me off at first I eventually grew to appreciate the album for what it is. However, if you’re looking for something a little closer to their old sound, Temenigru’s Terminal might do the trick. The album is a heavy slice of cybergrind meets deathcore meets a lot of other things. There are heavy breakdowns, blast beats, trancey synthesizers, and shrieked vocals. It’s one of the most unique releases of the year and avoids being gimmicky while delving into sounds where it is very easy to do so.

Let’s talk powerviolence. Regional Justice Center and Trauma Bond both put out really dope albums that I listen to a lot, but the far and above winner of 2021 on this front has been WORLD PEACE. Their new album Come and See is 20 tracks across 10 minutes. They have two bassists and no guitarist. No filler. No bullshit. This album is everything I love about powerviolence and honestly… this was almost my album of the year so far. Being so short, it’s easy to just listen to this whole thing 3 times in a row. The blast beats blast, the grooves groove, and it’s just… ugh it’s perfect.

Before I get to what’s currently sitting at my AOTY spot so far, here’s some odds and ends. OG noise rapper B L A C K I E dropped a killer album this year in Face the Darkness II. Pupil Slicer’s debut album Mirrors hit me like a freight train to the face. It’s an absolutely brutal mathcore album that’s heavy and punishing and technical in a way that borders on grind without ever stepping directly into that territory. The new Portrayal of Guilt is super solid black metal tinged screamo and definitely felt like a step up from previous releases to me. The debut from Terminal Bliss goes super hard. It’s incredibly noisy hardcore punk that features ex members of legendary screamo band Pg.99, and it tickles a very particular side of my musical taste. The new album The Armed is… something. Something good, but good lord it’s all over the place. It’s experimental post-hardcore mixed with noise rock and straight up pop music. You’ve gotta check it out to really understand.

All that said, have you guys heard the new Backxwash album? Holy shit. I read a tweet where someone described it as feeling like they were front row to a human sacrifice and I couldn’t agree more. Backxwash is a Canadian rapper/producer who utilizes a lot of noise, industrial, hardcore, and metal influences in her work. If you’re familiar with artists like Moodie Black or Dalek then you might know what to expect, but even then she absolutely gives this her own spin. She really walks a thin line between harsh and accessible that reminds me almost of Veteran-era JPEGMAFIA, but in a totally different way. I know I’m drawing a lot of points of comparison here, but trust me when I say this. Nobody sounds like Backxwash. Aside from the overall vibe and sound, she’s an incredible emcee as well. She switches flows like it’s nothing and delivers bars with the best of them. Subject matter flips from personal to political and back again, all through the lens of a pissed off trans woman fighting her way through the world.

And that’s it. That’s everything I’ve been vibing with this year so far. If any of it sounds interesting then check it out!