The 40 List (#20-#1): The Consequential Songs of 2021
More of the Best of the Year in Music...As I Heard It
After walking through the first half of this year’s 40 List, it’s time to talk about the 20 songs which felt the most consequential of 2021.
As I said previously, I do think these are the 40 songs I will carry with me beyond this year, and so in that way they can be classified as the Best of the Year. However, 30 seconds into one of these tracks, someone may click to something else - indicating it was not the “Best” for them. My oldest daughter, a singer/songwriter making a go of that life in Los Angeles/North Hollywood right now, often cuts a smile and remarks, “Well, that was a choice!” or “Yep!” or “Dad, what?”
I am who I am. So, let’s continue the countdown. Music videos will be shared but, believe me, the videos have no bearing on any rankings. Some of these videos are head-scratchers. So, instead, let’s double down on the music and just grab our driver’s license, catch a vibe, maybe hit the 405, and save our tears for another day.
20.
Stay - The KID LAROI & Justin Bieber
From “F**K LOVE 3: OVER YOU
While the melodrama is heavy in The Kid LAROI’s biggest hits, and “Stay” is certainly no exception, the ability to take a song about co-dependency and fear of being alone and make it one of the biggest bops of 2021 is no small feat. As Australian rapper and vocalist The Kid LAROI continues to figure out what kind of artist he wants to be (demonstrated across FOUR different versions of his debut album), Bieber, the elder statesman of social media-era, teen pop celebrity, swoops in and delivers a verse and chorus that makes “Stay” an undeniable success.
The melody existed well before the song got to LAROI. Written by Charlie Puth, the song bounced around with producers and songwriters LAROI would work with. A demo was completed but when Bieber and Kid LAROI connected under manager Scooter Braun, Bieber added the missing ingredient and the song would go on to hit #1 in 24 different countries and spent seven non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Hot 100.
Both LAROI and Bieber have been in long-term relationships, but “Stay” makes it all seem fragile. One day away, one disagreement could lead to them becoming “f***ed up” if they can’t be there next to them. In some ways, it’s every heartbroken Instagram or TikTok post distilled into an efficient, pulsating 2:20 song. It’s length is perfect, since it mirrors our attention span as a society. And…it bops. It bounces. LAROI and Bieber mix well together and as messy as LAROI sounds in his verse, Bieber is confident, older, more mature. It’s a yin–and-yang of sorts and it just works exceptionally well.
The Kid LAROI (NME, July 9, 2021):
I actually pulled up to the studio that he works at, and I just came with the file. I was like, ‘You ready?’ and he was like, ‘Yup’. And he just did it. He just went into the booth and just freestyled. I was like, ‘Yo, this guy’s out of his mind.'
This is The Kid LAROI’s first appearance and Justin Bieber’s fourth appearance on the 40 List.
19.
Bunny is a Rider - Caroline Polachek
*Single release
Since her 2019 album, “Pang,” Caroline Polachek has reinvented herself from band frontwoman to a Kate Bush-adjacent baroque pop singer to one of the most critically acclaimed and overlooked pop stars we have. She is unconventional in her lyrics, is seldom predictable, and creates soundscapes and vivid lyrical backdrops that make her songs almost feel cinematic, or at least bigger and more enigmatic than pretty much everything on the radio.
In between artist projects, Polachek dropped the earworm, “Bunny is a Rider” on all of us in the summer of 2021 and while radio ignored the track, the song was passed around and well documented with critics and music industry folks who likely set up alerts anytime she makes any sort of move in the business. “Bunny is a Rider” is a bass-driven groove, one step away from a straight-up club track, but held in check by a rhythmic cadence and command that Polachek pulls off with ease.
The proverbial Bunny is a woman who cannot be stifled or tamed, she is always on the move, slippery and elusive. When the “satellites can’t find her,” she leaves many in pursuit and few, if any, who can catch her. Polachek routinely explores the feminine psyche in her music, unafraid to speak her mind and acknowledge the thoughts that are supposedly taboo or forbidden. She is provocative without vulgarity, playful but not patronizing. And just as you get into the rhythms of the main chorus and hook, along comes a bridge, with an auto-tune bend, that sends the song into a different octave and vibe before doubling down into the main chorus. Like its creator, the song is kind of perfect.
Caroline Polachek (CRACK, July 15, 2021):
This track began right before the pandemic. It was part of a 48-hour manic spree of writing that I did with Danny L Harle back in January 2020. Dan has a secret history of being an absolute bass shredder…and live bass has always been my favorite instrument, besides the human voice. I love writing for bass, I love a bass hook and I love what it does to your body. We wrote this song that was just really based around this groove.
The title comes from the refrain that carries the song. The song itself is about freedom via disappearance. You know, we’re all so available and beholden to each other. I wrote the chorus without thinking about it, which is kind of how I do a lot of my initial lyric writing, and then I go back and unpack it and usually discover that it meant something – which is how this chorus happened.
This is Caroline Polachek’s third appearance on the 40 List.
18.
deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo
From “SOUR”
Olivia Rodrigo’s arrival at the beginning of 2021 came at just the perfect time. Quickly proving she was far more than a one-hit wonder, her debut album “SOUR” instantly drew comparisons to another female singer who had to overcome a massive debut single and prove her critics wrong. Like Alanis Morissette found success with “You Oughta Know” in 1995, and then went on to have a massive Grammy-winning debut album (“Jagged Little Pill”), Rodrigo saw “SOUR” earn seven Grammy nominations, four Top 10 singles, and more than 385 million streams on Spotify during its opening week in May
Full of impressive songs which are not throwaway pop tunes, like some expected, Rodrigo delivers confessional lyrics which are constantly surprising and largely free of clichés. With production and collaboration from Daniel Nigro, Rodrigo’s “Deja Vu” may play on similar themes of heartbreak and regret, but there are so many oddly specific references that the song is not your run-of-the-mill pop ballad. It also soars, with an atmospheric chorus that draws on an interpolation of Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” to question whether her former boyfriend has simply moved on, or whether he is recreating experiences with Rodrigo and passing them off as unique and new.
Strawberry ice cream, listening to Billy Joel, trading jackets - Rodrigo is calling things out and each time she mentions something new, it stings. The thing about Rodrigo is that as she writes songs citing former relationships, she seldom sounds scorned or vicious. Though she may be angry, she is often coming from a place of learning from her past. So, when the song hits its euphoric final moments and she shouts “I know you get deja vu!,” she knows that she no longer needs to live in the past to find a place for her memories. He can. But she knows the value of moving on.
Olivia Rodrigo (Just Jared, Jr., April 1, 2021):
I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel any pressure at all after ‘drivers license,’ but I really just don’t write songs for them to chart or to even put them out. I really just love writing songs, it’s my absolute favorite thing in the whole world to do.
The concept of deja vu has always fascinated me and I thought it would be cool to use it in a song around the complex feelings after a relationship ends. I started writing and recording ‘deja vu’ last fall and had so much fun creating the different melodies and sonic textures that you hear throughout.
This is Olivia Rodrigo’s first appearance on the 40 List.
17.
Be Sweet - Japanese Breakfast
From “Jubilee”
Michelle Zauner’s mainstream breakthrough with her band, Japanese Breakfast, and their third album, “Jubilee,” was long overdue. That it came on the heels of Zauner releasing her memoir in April 2021 about losing a parent to cancer, while also being torn between cultural practices and traditions that can fall away through assimilation, the Korean-American singer/songwriter felt that writing about grief had been her focus for too long. “Jubilee” would be about finding joy.
And from the opening percussion of “Be Sweet,” the band’s first chart hit, joy fills the speakers. The song rumbles to life, wearing influences from the 1980s and present-day on the very same sleeve. Zauner is drawn back to a lover who has fallen out with her in the past. She is flirting with the notion of going crazy and living recklessly, but deep down she wants him to come collect her and be sweet to her, so she can believe in him and believe in something real. It’s vulnerability is shared within a confident and bold melody, Zauner’s playful voice lulls us into a chorus that sticks to the brain and has us rooting for her to find what she’s looking for.
They are layers of musicality to explore - the rolling percussion, the chord changes in the second verse, the synth stabs, the bassline, Zauner’s impassioned vocals. “Be Sweet” helped the band secure a Grammy Nomination for Best Alternative Album this year, and this newfound look on music and life is a winning combination that makes Zauner’s vision truly sweet indeed.
Michelle Zauner (Harper’s Bazaar, June 9, 2021):
I will say that I am always trying to chase that sort of lightning-in-a-bottle moment. There are so many different things that lend themselves to what makes a song magical, that go beyond just the lyrics or the composition. But arrangement and production and performance have such huge stakes in what makes that sort of lightning-in-a-bottle moment.
I think we went into the third album just wanting to be confident and bombastic and ambitious and almost theatrical. We had a large palette to pull from; nothing was limited. And so I think that the arrangements are larger, they’re warmer, they’re more vibrant, there are more strings and horns. I’m always just chasing this kind of lift in music. And I felt much more comfortable and confident using different types of instruments to get there.
This is Japanese Breakfast’s first appearance on the 40 List.
16.
Chaise Longue - Wet Leg
*Single release
Two women from the Isle of Wight. A straight up random quote from the 2004 film “Mean Girls.” The repetitive phrase “On the Chaise Longue, on the Chaise Longue, On the Chaise Longue, on the Chaise Longue, all day long, on the Chaise Longue.”
There are so many bizarre elements to Wet Leg’s debut single that, somehow, in spite of everything, it wins everything and lands as one of the most amazing debut singles of recent memory. Formed in 2019, after being friends for ten years, the duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers took the first song they wrote together, while sitting on a proverbial “Chaise Longue” no less, and turned it, and their band, into the most buzzworthy alternative song and group by the end of 2021.
The lyrics are not sung conventionally, they are spoken with a deadpan delivery that lacks an affect. As funny as it is, as fascinating as it is to hear, Wet Leg instantly have their hooks in you. The song is the most distinctive single of 2021, yet uses the tried-and-true kick drum, with feisty, repetitive guitar riffs that alternative bands have been using for years. The music video, where Rhian stares emotionless into the camera, while Hester hides her face under an obnoxious straw hat, dances around in the background, with both wearing dresses from the turn of the 20th century is also as confusing as it is flat out incredible.
Nothing should work and yet everything does. And without a doubt, if the guitar riffs don’t hook you, if the drum machine’s crackle and pop doesn’t stick to your guts, those quotable lyrics and repeated cadence of “On the Chaise Longue” will be in your head, rent-free, for days and days to come.
Hester Chambers (Under the Radar, August 30, 2021):
It doesn’t really mean anything, it was just a couple of words that we kept coming back to. It’s quite funny when people ask us what it means and we can’t explain it. Ultimately it can mean whatever you want it to mean. I kind of inherited it (the chaise longue), and it now lives in my flat. When Rhian stays over it’s also where she sleeps. She actually wrote all the lyrics to ‘Chaise Longue’ whilst sitting on the chaise longue (all day long).
(The success of ‘Chaise Longue’), it’s been a lovely surprise. We wrote it in an evening, just writing for fun and being silly and we had no clue at the time that it would connect with so many people.
This is Wet Leg’s first appearance on the 40 List.
15.
Easy on Me - Adele
From “30”
Adele’s return to the music business, following an extended five-plus year hiatus, flies in the face of an industry driven by fans who constantly have shorter attention spans and seek the next big thing day by day and moment to moment. That “30” would go on to rule the Billboard 200 album chart for several weeks, and “Easy on Me” would hold the #1 spot on the Hot 100 for seven weeks in the midst of holiday music seizing almost every slot on the upper half of the singles chart, solidifies Adele as that rare artist welcomed back time and again.
If “Easy on Me” feels familiar, it is. This is what Adele can do better than anyone - pierce your heart with a beautiful ballad, light on instrumentation and made unforgettable by the unrestrained power of her voice. The song and album exist in a different place than when we last heard from her. She is now divorced, a single mother, and stepping back out with emotional bruises she is unafraid to show.
If some critics found “30” to be too much and too jarring musically, perhaps they are punishing Adele for shedding a previous skin and trying on something new. Even if “Easy on Me” sounds like Adele 101, her adventurous nature with her new music shows that she is not content to rest on her laurels. Longer songs, flirtations with jazz and a more experimental approach to her music, pushing creativity all makes sense when she can still break our hearts and have us belting in the shower, in the car, or any place or time when we hear her plead apologetically to her ex to please go “Easy on me baby/I was still a child/Didn’t get the chance to/Feel the world around me.”
Adele, (Vogue, October 7, 2021):
I told my friend, ‘I feel like I’m on a steep mountain, trying to get up to the top.’ And she was like, ‘You will get there. And you’ll have a nice leisurely stroll down. And then there’ll be another f***ing mountain.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not even over this one yet.’ And she was like, ‘That’s just life.’
It’s sensitive for me, this record, just in how much I love it. I always say that 21 doesn’t belong to me anymore. Everyone else took it into their hearts so much. I’m not letting go of this one. This is my album. I want to share myself with everyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever let this one go.
This is Adele’s 7th appearance on the 40 List.
14.
justified - Kacey Musgraves
From “star-crossed”
There is vulnerability and there is catharsis and often the two somewhere in an awkward cross-section of pain and release. As Musgraves works through the breakup of her marriage throughout “star-crossed,” she vacillates between mournful and sad to optimistic and confident to a bit messy and unsure. With “justified” she takes the stance that she has a right to feel everything and not be consistent with her emotions. Break-ups and divorce are never easy and when you truly love someone and that goes away, for whatever reason, the toll is significant.
What Musgraves does as well as anyone is tailor her lyrics and storytelling in a manner which anyone can understand. She doesn’t patronize or simplify her themes, she elevates the listener into them and draws you into her world effortlessly. Direct, lean, and to the point, when Musgraves says something it matters. And on “justified,” we know exactly what she feels and is experiencing, even if we have never gone through the things she is describing.
Of course her voice is the catalyst to making the music so distinctive. Her blending of country, pop, and coffee house stylings have never been more mixed together. After her surprising Grammy victories with “Golden Hour,” a few years ago, one has to question why “justified” (the single) and “star-crossed” (the album) didn’t quite land with Grammy voters and why radio still looks away when the chance to add her music is presented to them. On tracks like “justified” and the previous 40 List entry from this year, “camera roll,” her musicianship and talent has never been more united with the artist she strives to be.
Kacey Musgraves (NPR Morning Edition, September 10, 2021):
I wanted to honor myself as a songwriter, being able to convey the wide range of emotions that I have felt over my healing journey. I've been doing a lot of reading about the stages of acceptance, the stages of grief and healing. And I've found out a lot about the fact that healing is not linear... I mean, I felt like a rubber bouncy ball, bouncing from emotion to emotion. One day I would feel extremely validated in where I was going. And then some days I'd wake up and be like, 'What the hell am I doing?'
It's a feeling of confidence and empowerment mixed with extreme fear and sadness and guilt and depression, but hope for the future. But then, yeah, a little bit of anger, a little bit of bargaining, a little bit of struggling to accept where you are. I don't think that any one emotion or song can really speak for how I feel. That's why I felt like this album had to be 15 songs. It does unfold in my mind in three acts. That's kind of the best thing you can do is try to convey how you feel over such a complicated matter.
13.
telepatía - Kali Uchis
From “Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)
For several years, Kali Uchis has tried to carve a place in the musical landscape for herself. The Colombian-American singer/songwriter has dabbled in Latin music, dance music, hip-hop, pop and R&B music, while working and collaborating with artists as far-ranging as Blood Orange, Tyler, the Creator, Bootsy Collins, Daniel Caesar, Juanes, Gorillaz, and more. The talent is unmistakable, but breaking through has been a challenge.
After her second album failed to chart on the Billboard 200 upon its November 2020 release, Uchis’ first few singles also failed to land and she was ready to go back to the drawing board. Until…TikTok got hold of one track, “telepatía,” and everything changed. Largely going viral from a lip-sync challenge, while also being tracked in millions of other posts and videos, Kali Uchis saw her song popping big streaming numbers and landing on radio station playlists. And not just in the U.S., “telepatía” became a huge hit around the globe.
The mid-tempo ballad is seductive and entrancing, a multilingual vibe of latin rhythms, R&B arrangement and a flawless vocal where Uchis expresses her desire and love to share intimacy telepathically with a partner from an undetermined location. Uchis’ ballad is also specifically written from a place of gender neutrality, and the song has become a favorite with the LGBTQ+ community.
For Kali Uchis, an album which flew under everyone’s radar, landed a Grammy nomination for Best Música Urbana Album and gave her a first Top 40 hit in the U.S., as well as a #1 single on Latin and Rhythmic radio, while charting in more than 30 countries and amassing more than 560 million streams.
Kali Uchis (Billboard, December 16, 2021):
I never, ever would have imagined that I’d see that happen. I think people never really viewed me as marketable, and I always viewed myself as an artist, so I never worried about how I was going to sell or get accolades or anything. I didn’t think that it was possible for somebody like me to have this type of success.
More than anything, (my family) wish(es) now that they had been supportive when I started. But honestly, I didn’t think too much about whether things were going to work out for me or not. It was, ‘This is my life. These are the cards that I was dealt. I’m going to do the most with what God gave me.’ I always recognized that God made me unique. There aren’t a lot of people that have my background — or my spirit.
This is Kali Uchis’ first appearance on the 40 List.
12.
You - Regard, Troye Sivan & Tate McRae
*Single release
The best club single of the year was a truly international affair, with Troye Sivan representing Australia, Tate McRae hailing from Canada, and Regard, the track’s DJ/producer and main artist, originally born in Kosovo. Their collaboration brought global voices together with an insanely infectious groove, payloading an infectious chorus and a hazy strobelight vibe which shares the struggle in not being able to move past a loved one who you cannot stop thinking about, even at your most vulnerable.
A song about infatuation should not be this much of an earworm, but the youthful exchanges between Sivan and McRae give the song’s doom-scrolling lyrics: “When I try to fall back/I fall back to you/When I talk to my friends/I talk about you/When the Hennessy’s strong all I see is you” as likely to appear in a vulnerable set of text messages as it is a cathartic confessional to someone one-on-one.
Oftentimes, the biggest issue with dance and club music is that the components seldom stay out of their own way. Either the big vocalist gives you full voice at the first chorus within 45-60 seconds, or the bass drop comes so early that you have heard the entirety of the song within that same time frame and there’s nowhere else for the song to go. None of that is found with “You,” and the restraint only amplifies the emotional entanglements that Sivan and McRae sell so expertly well. Regard’s production is urgent and driving and hypnotic, but never steps on, or in the way of, Sivan and McRae delivering a seductive, pained but masterfully effective.
Regard (NOTION, May 7, 2021):
The entire song gives me wavy emotions with the angelic vocals from Tate and Troye. Collaborating with Troye and Tate was an amazing experience. It’s a totally different vibe than any of my usual songs, but still has the emotional and lyrical depth that I always try to write.
We worked on “You” for quite a few months, and did more than 10 versions! It’s so great to work with such renowned artists like Troye and Tate. (The song) is totally based on the vibe of 80s music. It sounds so fresh. We wanted to add instrumentals that feel like they bring real meaning to life. I think people still love it because it makes us dance (which is the most important thing!).
This is Regard’s first appearance, Troye Sivan’s third appearance, and Tate McRae’s first appearance on the 40 List.
11.
Right on Time - Brandi Carlile
From “In These Silent Days”
That voice. That unmistakable voice. Brandi Carlile’s ability to put you in the palm of her hand and flex and squeeze you to the point of breaking is unlike any other. And when she pours herself into a ballad like “Right on Time,” you simply cannot move.
Written while quarantining in Washington state during the pandemic with her wife and daughters, Carlile sings to a partner about longing for how things used to be, going back to a simpler time and acknowledging the strain and difficulties they are facing. Above all else, Carlile’s voice sounds like someone trapped, fleetingly hopeful, and left to scream when there is nothing left to say.
Carlile has mentioned feeling like her song was perhaps too abstract, that she struggled to lock down what she was feeling in, well, the lock down. But it is all there. Every ounce of pain, fear, and anger. Every sense of potential, new beginnings, and a desperation to live life less restrained. In so many ways, Carlile is one of three artists on this year’s 40 List who captured the turmoil and angst of quarantining during the pandemic - using that fear of the unknown to communicate in a way we all can relate to. And in that regard, “It wasn’t right/but it was right…on…time…” makes all the sense in the world.
Brandi Carlile (Variety, July 21, 2021):
Well, this song just told us that it was the first song (on the album). I feel like it sort of stood alone. It had this island sensibility to it, in that it was just not really connected to anything else.
And it felt to me like it was the first time that I relaxed after writing “The Joke.” I’d thought, what am I going to do after I wrote “The Joke”? I’m not saying that it was about setting a high standard… It’s just that it was a powerful song — a really big, powerful vocal and powerful sentiment. And it was a hard thing to come in behind and write a new one. I almost wanted to steer away from power ballads and big notes altogether, because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do it again as well and that I would struggle with that. But when “Right on Time” came to me, I was like, “Okay. I can relax. This is where I was meant to go after ‘The Joke.’”
This is Brandi Carlile’s fifth appearance on the 40 List.
10.
willow - Taylor Swift
From “evermore”
Taylor Swift’s cottage core-era may or may not be still continuing, however what both “folklore” and “evermore” did was establish herself as one of the most respected and revered contemporary artists in the business. For anyone who felt like they could continue to throw barbs at her for whatever reason, those two records silenced pretty much everyone. When “evermore” arrived on the heels of “folklore,” the lead single “willow” came right after Thanksgiving 2020. And it instantly pushed both album and single to #1.
“Willow” is another substantial, foundational Taylor Swift track. Her writing is exquisite and her voice simply flourishes over Aaron Dessner’s beautiful production. While easter eggs and specific “tells” and reveals are a signature of Swift’s lyrics, “willow” is a straight-forward candlelit love song about the mysteries which fall away when you finally fall in love with someone. Her resistance is weakened and wherever he strays, she will follow.
There’s some humor here (the pause after her “90s trend” line is just…), a whole lot of romantic sentiment and a song that continues to show the evolution of Taylor Swift, in more command of her career than ever before, and making music that evokes emotions with pretty much everyone.
Taylor Swift (Apple Music with Zane Lowe, December 12, 2020):
There was a point that I got to as a writer, who only wrote very diaristic songs, that I felt was unsustainable for my future moving forward. It felt like too hot of a microscope…On my bad days I would feel like I was loading a cannon of clickbait when that’s not what I want for my life.
So what I felt after we put out folklore was, like, ‘Oh wow, people are into this too, this thing that feels really good for my life and feels really good for my creativity.' I saw a lane for my future that was a real breakthrough moment of excitement and happiness.
This is Taylor Swift’s 11th appearance on the 40 List.
9.
All Eyes on Me - Bo Burnham
From “INSIDE (The Songs)”
Perhaps there was no finer dissection of the toll quarantine and the pandemic put on us than through Bo Burnham’s INSIDE, a devastating, powerful, and remarkable look into the psyche of a performer, riddled with anxiety but committed to entertaining. Not really a stand-up special and not really a documentary, but not completely a fictionalized movie either, Burnham’s Netflix project defied categorization.
Featuring nearly 20 songs over INSIDE’s 90-plus minutes, Burnham isolated in a small house during the initial months of COVID-19 and single-handedly shot, edited, wrote, directed and produced everything you see and hear. Burnham’s ability to play with words and use puns and write insightful, smart, witty, self-deprecating and cynical comedy and social commentary has never been this insightful, personal, and, at times, uncomfortable to experience.
Over the course of INSIDE, Burnham starts to unravel, his songs intensifying in tone and command, the comedy struggling to find a place. Everything builds to the mesmerizing “All Eyes on Me,” one of the most haunting and emotional songs of 2021. Losing himself in the depths of auto-tune, the disassociated vocal brings everything together - the pain, the anxiety, the depression and the troubling inner dialogue and songwriting prowess Burnham seldom gets enough credit for.
Through the repeated mantra, “Get your f***ing hands up/Get up out of your seat/All eyes on me/All eyes on me…”, Burnham is desperate for the roar of a crowd he can’t hear, the admiration and adulation of fans he cannot see, and the rush of performance he can no longer find. The single version of the song eliminates the song’s most devastating portion - a story Burnham shares about his crippling battles with anxiety, dating back to 2016. He then wills himself back into the song and guts out a painful, moving conclusion that puts an incredible punctuation on everything that came before it.
Bo Burnham (spoken portion of “All Eyes on Me):
You wanna hear a funny story? So, uh, five years ago, I quit performing live comedy because I was beginning to have, uh, severe panic attacks while on stage. Which is not a great place to have them. So I, I quit, and I didn't perform for five years and I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. And you know what? I did! I got better.
I got so much better, in fact that in January of 2020, I thought, ‘You know what? I should start performing again, I've been hiding from the world and I need to re-enter’And then, the funniest thing happened…
This is Bo Burnham’s first appearance on the 40 List.
8.
Thumbs - Lucy Dacus
From “Home Video”
With all the sincerity I can offer, grab a tissue. Lucy Dacus’ “Thumbs” is one of the most moving, sad, but powerful songs you will hear in any year, but especially in 2021. In a year where music became more personal, introspective, and fearless, Dacus unassumingly tucked “Thumbs” in the middle of her acclaimed third album, “Home Video.”
In its original form, Dacus places her voice front and center in a devastating ballad about accompanying her closest friend to a bar for a meeting with her estranged father. Dacus first performed a version of “Thumbs” in 2018, and even still can struggle to complete the song on stage without becoming emotional. Dacus’ lyrics are almost cinematic, placing us directly in that bar where they meet a man who is her friend’s father by “sheer coincidence.” The details explained to us are so real we can almost feel them for ourselves and certainly we can see the story unfold in our minds.
The love for her friend is what makes this such a powerful experience. Fingernails are digging into Dacus’ leg secretly. She doesn’t know how her friend can keep smiling. And Dacus is seething with such rage and anger, she begs her friend to let her kill him or to use her thumbs as weapons. It’s a stunning, time-stopping song to experience and speaks to anyone with a pain and anguish that has gone unresolved. The song is simply incredible.
Lucy Dacus (The A.V. Club, March 9, 2021):
Like most songs I write, I wasn’t expecting it and it made me feel weird, almost sick. It tells the story of a day I had with a friend during our freshman year of college, a significant day, but not one that I had thought of for years. I started playing it live a month or so later during the Boygenius tour after Phoebe (Bridgers) and Julien (Baker) encouraged me to. I knew I wanted a long time to get used to playing it since it made me feel shaky, so I ended sets with it for about half the shows I played in 2019. Before I played it, I would ask the audience to please not record it, a request that seems to have been respected, which I’m grateful for.
This is Lucy Dacus’ first appearance on the 40 List.
7.
Silk Chiffon - MUNA Featuring Phoebe Bridgers
*Single release
Jubilant love songs were not the type of thing to share with the world in 2020, but, when done right, they worked great in 2021 as people tiptoed out of quarantine and began trying to assume something of a normal life once again. Of course, Omicron upended that for all of us, but pre-Omicron, a song like “Silk Chiffon” reminds us of the excitement of the first days and weeks when you fall in love with someone and want to spend every waking minute with them.
Honestly, hearing MUNA’s “Silk Chiffon” is a breath of fresh air. Built on a sonic hook and huge chorus, full of joy and hope and those twinges of the initial dopamine rush of attraction. Supported by Phoebe Bridgers on the second verse and choruses, the song celebrates a woman falling hard for someone she just met. When she touches her, or even looks at her, it feels as soft as silk chiffon and she is smitten and hopeful that something can transpire.
The origins of “Silk Chiffon” came from MUNA being dropped from their major label deal and signing with Bridgers’ indie label, Saddest Factory. With Bridgers being a friend and avid supporter of their music, the band felt open to making music their way. With their breakthrough, “Silk Chiffon,” they have crafted an anthem celebrating loving who you love while also creating a defining statement with one of the most entertaining and accomplished singles of 2021.
Katie Gavin (The Line of Best Fit, December 20, 2021):
I feel like I’ve had to come out to myself so many times, and I didn’t even realise that for me, part of my queer shame was also only allowing myself, as a fem, to express queer desire for people who are more masc. So with this song, it was a new thing to express desire for someone who is also feminine, and have that desire for softness and the girliness. It represents personal progress for us on so many layers, but the ultimate result is just simple and joyful.
I can’t help but feel the inherent pressure of this record, if I’m being honest. It feels like ‘Silk’ has been a career-defining moment for us, and I’ve felt a definitive shift since that song came out. In that way, it feels like we’re making our first record. It’s a bit of a re-introduction.
This is MUNA’s first appearance and Phoebe Bridgers’ second appearance on the 40 List.
6.
brutal - Olivia Rodrigo
From “SOUR”
Whatever people thought Olivia Rodrigo’s music was going to be about, after her breakthrough hits “drivers license” and “deja vu,” made her the Pop Girl of the Moment, when midnight came around on May 21, 2021, and her debut album “SOUR” launched worldwide, the opening salvo, a 2-plus minute introduction called “brutal” was not what anyone expected. Aggressive alternative rock guitars riffing hard, a rap/spoken verse followed by a powerhouse chorus, and a cannon shot across everyone’s expectations. Olivia Rodrigo is not for her presumptions or your categorization. She is not going to play nice. She is not going to be the token pop star. She is going to be herself. And call people out on their s**t.
That refrain, “Damn/It’s brutal out here” is a soul-baring introduction and manifesto of sorts. Embracing her insecurities, turning 18, wondering where her “teenage dream” is - Rodrigo is bottled up and ready to explode, and we are not even a minute into her debut record. “brutal,” in so many ways was and is the perfect introduction to an artist who may feel like someone familiar, but continues to carve her own distinctive path in creating the pop/rock sound she wants for herself.
Like Billie Eilish before her, Rodrigo began seeing artists trying to write and sound like her as the year came to an end. People wrote responsive songs to her music and tried to get some shine from her growing fame. In the end, Rodrigo’s talent as a songwriter, performer, and musician withstood all the nebulous accusations of plagiarism, the “love triangle” between her, a cast mate on her Disney+ series, and his supposed new flame.
As seven Grammy nominations and huge endorsements from fellow musicians and songwriters came one after another, Rodrigo certainly earned the right to remain defiant and jaded. “Damn, it’s brutal out here” becomes not just a lyric but a motto to live by.
Olivia Rodrigo (Teen Vogue, October 5, 2021):
I just feel like sometimes there’s so much noise and criticism and weird things going on in the world,” she says, generally referring to times she's felt misunderstood over the past year. “I hope people know that deep down, all that I do is write songs and talk about how I feel, and that’s the most important thing to me. Everything else, I think, is not so important.
When you’re in the industry, you’re sort of treated like a child but expected to act like an adult. That’s a really terrifying thought, to think that I’m not allowed to make any mistakes, because I think that’s how you grow as a person. I’m no different from any other 18-year-old out there. I’m definitely going to make a lot of mistakes in my life and in my career probably too. That’s just life.
This is Olivia Rodrigo’s second appearance on the 40 List.
5.
MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X
From “MONTERO”
Fearless, playful and provocative, the continued emergence of Lil Nas X is unlike anything we have seen before. A Black, queer hip-hop artist universally loved and acclaimed is a groundbreaking moment occurring in real time. Yes, there are others who check those boxes, many of them quite talented.
With the arrival of “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),” the song with that video where Lil Nas X lapdances Satan after pole dancing his way into the depths of Hell, X solidified himself as an artist who wants to be provocative, but also provide meaning to his actions. “Old Town Road,” his collaboration with Billy Ray Cyrus, which became the longest running #1 song in history feels like years ago, when you listen to how diverse and talented X truly is. On his debut album, he crafts together hip-hop, pop, alternative rock and other musical elements to emerge as an artist as diverse or boundary-pushing as he is.
The song? Well, it’s definitely a statement. Vulgar on the album version, less so for the radio, X is desperate to find a partner to, you know, do stuff with. He simply wants the call. Anytime, day or night. X stated that though he wanted to break the stigma around queer themes in music, he worried that his bold, uncensored lyrics and themes would cost him a growing audience. By subtitling his single after a beloved film featuring a gay romance, he wondered if he was pushing too far, too soon. His fans were more than accepting. MONTERO, his full-length debut album, was one of the biggest of the year and he placed three singles in the Top 10, with two tracks (“MONTERO” and “INDUSTRY BABY”) peaking at #1.
By the end of the year, Lil Nas X was cemented as a pop culture, fashion, and musical icon. He continues to break ground, change the rules and make catchy, unpredictable and diverse music that just works every single time.
Lil Nas X (Genius via Billboard, March 29, 2021):
I feel like that’s really important for representation in general, and this is gonna open more doors for one day when someone’s like, ‘Oh, this person said that, and I didn’t even think about it.' (MONTERO) has so many key points, even surrounding the song…which is why it’s going to be super important for me, and for so many other people. It’s about time I say something out of pocket in a song.
(“Call Me By Your Name”) was one of the first gay films that I had watched, and I thought the theme was so dope of calling somebody by your own name. The way everything is shot, the way the dialogue goes on, the way the background sounds are used, everything about it is so artsy. It was a huge inspiration to me and this song and this album.
This is Lil Nas X’s second appearance on the 40 List.
4.
Hard Drive - Cassandra Jenkins
From “An Overview on Phenomenal Nature”
On the first listen, Cassandra Jenkins’ “Hard Drive” sounds like a podcast segment, or maybe something that happens to just be on in the background. I certainly admit to skipping over it when I first heard it. The structure is unconventional and unlike anything I heard in 2021: Jenkins narrates and summarizes a series of pandemic encounters, while doubling down on a refrain shared with her about life being like a “hard drive.”
Here’s the thing, though: “Hard Drive” may have impacted me emotionally more than any other song I heard in 2021. This is digital or vinyl catharsis; a moving, beautiful ode to living life and embracing those moments that you never anticipate, seldom expect, and will never experience again. Jenkins opens with audio from a security guard she talked with, and then tells us more about her interaction where the security guard took thoughts of connecting with nature and spiritual growth and turned them into talking about the President.
Jenkins then shares a touching story about being taught how to drive at age 35, but her friend recognizes that she is struggling and worried about her mental wellbeing. This only expands when Jenkins meets “Peri,” who sees how hard life has been for her during COVID-19 and the death by suicide of a close friend and fellow musician. Peri agrees to help Jenkins take her pain away, helping her breathe and count to 3, together, and letting her know she is not alone. By the final moments, Jenkins infuses her unique song with a jazzy, breezy undercurrent of courage and vulnerable confidence. The music swells and Jenkins’ voice becomes nurturing, somehow shifting from focusing on her self-healing to an offer to heal others in pain or discomfort. It’s simply beautiful, like staring at a personal moment between you and nature and wanting it to stay as perfect and still for as long as possible.
Slowing down, contemplating and reflecting: “Hard Drive” is truly unlike anything I have ever experienced before.
Cassandra Jenkins (Pitchfork, January 20, 2021):
This song is a ride through a strange month in my life in between two tours – the cancelled Purple Mountains tour (following the death of friend and musician David Berman) and a West Coast run opening for Craig Finn. It’s part travel diary and part spiritual character study, weaving together encounters with a security guard at the Met, Breuer, a bookkeeper in Topanga Canyon, my New York City driving instructor, and a psychic at a birthday party. The opening line is pulled from a voice memo of the security guard who pulled me aside to share her thoughts on the exhibition on view, Mrinalini Mukherjee‘s ‘Phenomenal Nature’, and the song closes with Peri Lyons, the psychic who foretells ‘this year’s gonna be a good one.’ And I’m still wondering who, deep down, doesn’t want to hear that, even if that year was 2020?
This is Cassandra Jenkins’ first appearance on the 40 List.
3.
All Too Well (10-Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) - Taylor Swift
From “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
The definitive Taylor Swift anthem, “All Too Well,” be it in a 5-plus minute version or the long-rumored and highly anticipated 10 minute version, is a timeless song of someone coming to terms with being hurt by a failed romance. Yes, it’s almost certainly about Jake Gyllenhaal, and no Taylor has not specifically said it is about him, but she also has never corrected anyone who says it is about him, so let’s just move along.
Prior to “Taylor’s Version” arriving in the fall of 2021, “All Too Well,” which never peaked higher than #80 in its initial release in 2012, landed at #69 in the recent industry-voted Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. For all of Swift’s massive hits and tens of millions of albums sold, an album track stands far and away as her most beloved song among her peers.
In this definitive version, Swift lays everything bare. If you want to know why Swift connects with millions of fans, why they are fiercely loyal to her, and why she continues to gain new fans year by year and release by release, the songwriting skill, lyrically and musically, is among the greatest to ever step into a studio. No one writes like Swift, though countless others have tried. She is so precise in her writing, so vivid in her descriptions and always cuts to the quick. For a song running 10:13, there is no fat or excessiveness. Every verse builds on the one before it and when Swift circles back to the chorus, it lands more profound and more significant than the time before it.
Swift finally got a chance to perform the complete “All Too Well” on an episode of “Saturday Night Live” and soon thereafter the song debuted at #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the longest song to ever hold the top spot. The former record holder Don McLean (“American Pie (Parts I & II)”) said: “... nobody ever wants to lose that No. 1 spot, but if I had to lose it to somebody, I sure am glad it was another great singer/songwriter such as Taylor.”
In a legendary career, full of iconic and historic moments, Taylor Swift cemented “All Too Well” as her signature song. Everything that makes her great is found within it, and it will undoubtedly remain influential for generations to come.
Taylor Swift (“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” November 2021):
The way that this song was written was, I was going through a bit of a sad time. I was in band rehearsals for a tour that I was about to go out on called the Speak Now Tour, and I showed up for rehearsals, and I just was really upset and sad and everybody could tell. It was really not fun to be around me that day. (I) picked up (my) guitar and just kind of started playing the same four chords over and over again before the band joined in. I started ad-libbing what I was going through and what I was feeling, and it went on. The song kept building and building and building in intensity.
At the end of the day, my mom came up to my sound guy, and she’s like, ‘Is there any chance that you recorded that?’ And he was like, ‘Yep,’ and handed her a CD.
This is Taylor Swift’s 12th appearance on the 40 List.
2.
Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak)
From “An Evening with Silk Sonic”
That chord change. The playfulness of Anderson .Paak giving way to the vocal power of Bruno Mars. Every second dripped in the sounds of 1970s soul. Radiating cool and arriving simply smooth like a newborn. The collaboration of .Paak and Mars, named Silk Sonic, was an absolute show-stopper and a stunner. The perfect melding of two unique, distinctive talents who have brought different experiences and levels of success into one place, one studio, and one project. Their collaboration was one of the brightest and most rewarding moments of 2021 and “Leave The Door Open” a sing-from-the-rafters, turn-the-lights-down-low-and-see-what-happens kind of song. A throwback to simpler times, with a timeless groove and presentation.
Finally seeing the multi-instrumentalist Anderson .Paak find mainstream success may be the cherry on top of this whole Silk Sonic experience. Forever beloved in the industry, his percussion heavy hip-hop soul music never could reach the heights of his peers. Mars, long a fan and collaborator, saw a chance to change up his sound and take his music in a different direction, paying tribute to the music which raised him.
“Leave the Door Open” was a #1 hit on multiple music charts and massively successful around the globe. As .Paak comes quick with the pickup lines, Mars takes us to church, with a soul-stirring promise to “leave the door open” so she can come on through to a love and relationship unlike any other. But the signature moment comes when Mars opens his throat and just calls us all to sing with him. That build, the textured “ahh ahh ahh’s” and the quick stuttered “Hey, hey” leads to Mars winning everything with his “Imma Leave the Doooooorrrrr Ooooooppeeennnnnnnn!” call. You can almost envision Mars raising thousands to their feet with that one line, creating that euphoric moment where voice and music come together and pure magic and joy is created.
An instant classic, “Leave the Door Open” is legitimately great in every way.
Anderson .Paak (Billboard, March 5, 2021):
When you get in and you can jam with someone and other artists that could hold it down and you’re bouncing, that’s different. That’s the difference, and you’re really creating a groove from scratch. You guys are trying to figure out what’s going to work. What’s the math behind this that’s going to get everybody feeling good? What is it? Is it too heavy? Is it not heavy enough? And especially with this song, it’s a song that requires so much patience and… delicatessens. A lot of meat went into this song.
This dude (Bruno Mars) doesn’t listen to music like regular people, you know, people get lost? And he can’t, he can’t. A lot of people do collabs these days, but I don’t think they understand what it’s like to go in and get work with someone that’s challenging everything. Like, ‘Did we do this right? Did we do this right? Should we try this right?’ You know for me, a lot of it is about having fun, but he was really the first person bringing it to my attention that sometimes you got to go through hell to get heaven.
This is Silk Sonic and Anderson .Paak’s first appearance and Bruno Mars’ 10th appearance on the 40 List.
1.
drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo
From “SOUR”
I have no idea if “drivers license” is going to last for a decade or longer. I have no way of knowing if Olivia Rodrigo’s groundbreaking arrival will dissipate as fast as it arrived or stay around for years to come. What I do know is that “drivers license,” like Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” in 2019, has delivered another slate of singers and songwriters who want to be the next Olivia. And throughout her tremendous debut “SOUR,” Olivia Rodrigo is clearly her own, unique performer. Hard to categorize and ready to change the questions when you think you have captured all the questions.
To celebrate “drivers license” is to acknowledge how massive a song this was for the first half of 2021. Many can dismiss it as overplayed, but that’s not Rodrigo’s fault. Many can say it might be unfair to the unnamed subject of the song (widely reported to former boyfriend and co-star Joshua Bassett). It generated not one but several answer songs by Bassett and his one-time rumored girlfriend Sabrina Carpenter. The tidal waves this song created shook anyone who might be caught in the riptide of power and emotion that Rodrigo poured into the song. She cut them alright. She cut them deep.
But beyond that potential pettiness is that “drivers license” is a multi-layered ballad that not only turned heads, but set the tone for a year full of honest, brave, and fearless lyricism. More than a breakup song, “drivers license,” written by Rodrigo and collaborator Daniel Nigro, has layers to her pain. She finds a way to take us into the conversations, the shared moments, and the promises made and later broken. She simply wants to know why she suddenly finds herself alone. And while that can be swatted away as immature, first-broken-heart longing, Rodrigo is expressing so effectively just how this was all supposed to be so much different.
Can we all not relate to that moment when someone broke our heart and we believe we deserve to be told why we are left hurting while they have seemingly moved on?
Maybe some of the bros are too proud to admit that “drivers license” is such a powerful song. What I do know is that on Rodrigo’s 18th birthday, “Saturday Night Live” fashioned a sketch where they paid tribute to the song, tearing up and bellowing out loud the lyrics when the iconic chord change arrives and that bridge comes in.
“Red lights/Stop signs/I still see your face in the white cars/Front yards/Can’t drive past the places we used to go to/’Cause I still f***ing love you babe”
I mean. Come on. Who hasn’t written that, in some form, in a note, text, post, or whatever when they had that first heartbreak. We all have been the person on Rodrigo’s side of the scale and “drivers license” takes a deeply personal series of moments and makes them universal for all of us to share and reflect on.
We were still largely stuck at home in quarantine when “drivers license” first arrived and it was a salve to put on our emotional wellbeing. The song also became an anthem for a generation built on TikTok, Instagram, and the constant thrill of being seen on social media. Rodrigo may not quite understand all that “drivers license” unleashed, but she is here now, she’s planted her flag, and her song is the most significant musical moment of the year.
Olivia Rodrigo (Variety, August 2021):
I put it out not knowing that it would get that reaction, so it was really strange [when] it did. I just remember [everyone being] so weird and speculative about stuff they had no idea about. I don't really subscribe to hating other women because of boys. I think that's so stupid, and I really resent that narrative that was being tossed around.
I was sitting in a grocery store parking lot, and I called my A&R guy. It had just gone number 1 on Apple Music, which is hard for a pop act to do.
We were looking at each other on FaceTime, speechless, and just stared at each other for a minute. 'What do we do?' 'I don't know!' That was the moment that I knew that it was going to be something bigger than I expected.
This is Olivia Rodrigo’s third appearance and first #1 on the 40 List.
And that’s a wrap. The 40 Most Consequential Songs I heard in 2021. Thank you for counting them down with me and sharing in the moments I experienced with each of this terrific and unforgettable songs.
To read the first half recap, click here:
And as far as my new Substack - look for lots of thoughts, writings, creative or otherwise, and a place where I can empty the scraps of paper piling up in my mind. I look forward to seeing where this all takes us and appreciate you coming along with me.
Till the next time.