Year-End Lists

NPR Music: 50 Best Albums of 2021

[see also 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Heaux Tales
   Jazmine Sullivan
2. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
   Little Simz
3. Home Video
   Lucy Dacus
4. Outside Child
   Allison Russell
5. El Madrileño
   C. Tangana
6. Promises
   Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / London Symphony Orchestra
7. Vulture Prince
   Arooj Aftab
8. Collapsed in Sunbeams
   Arlo Parks
9. Vince Staples
   Vince Staples
10. Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine
    Wild Up
11. Jubilee
    Japanese Breakfast
12. Far In
    Helado Negro
13. Call Me If You Get Lost
    Tyler, The Creator
14. 30
    Adele
15. If Orange Was a Place
    Tems
16. The Melodic Blue
    Baby Keem
17. Lately I Feel Everything
    Willow
18. Pray For Haiti
    Mach-Hommy
19. Let Me Do One More
    illuminati hotties
20. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
    Injury Reserve
21. Hey What
    Low
22. to hell with it
    PinkPantheress
23. Remember Her Name
    Mickey Guyton
24. Glow On
    Turnstile
25. Quivering In Time
    Eris Drew
26. Mother
    Cleo Sol
27. Kôrôlén
    Toumani Diabaté and London Symphony Orchestra
28. Still Over It
    Summer Walker
29. When The Black Hand Touches You
    Lukah
30. Montero
    Lil Nas X
31. Planet Her
    Doja Cat
32. Mood Valiant
    Hiatus Kaiyote
33. Jesup Wagon
    James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet
34. enargeia
    Emily D'Angelo
35. Black Encyclopedia of the Air
    Moor Mother
36. The Turning Wheel
    Spellling
37. Wary + Strange
    Amythyst Kiah
38. Seis
    Mon Laferte
39. Disco!
    MIKE
40. Urban Driftwood
    Yasmin Williams
41. Palabras Urgentes
    Susana Baca
42. Sounds from the Ancestors
    Kenny Garrett
43. Dawn
    Yebba
44. A Southern Gothic
    Adia Victoria
45. Drama
    Rodrigo Amarante
46. Sofia Gubaidulina
    Gewandhausorchester, Andris Nelsons, Vadim Repin
47. ...and then there's this
    Artifacts
48. GUMBO'!
    Pink Siifu
49. -io
    Circuit Des Yeux
50. An Evening with Silk Sonic
    Silk Sonic

This list summarizes other lists, including these:

• NPR Music: Ann Powers: Top 10 Albums of 2021
• NPR Music: Bob Boilen: Top 10 Albums of 2021
• NPR Music: Marissa Lorusso: Top 10 Albums of 2021