My Top Ten Albums & EPs of April-June 2021

Continuing my top ten lists I started three months ago, I give you my top ten albums of April-June 2021:

10. Real Face – Dumb Blue Car

This album (can you call 7 songs an album?) would likely rank higher on this list if not for two reasons: 1) it hits a little too close to home and 2) a dumb four-letter word on one of the songs that makes me kind of blue.

9. Coopertheband – Wilderness EP

I’ve been a big fan of Coopertheband since Kings (wow, was that really almost 10 years ago!?). When I first heard their new lead single “Stuck” I wasn’t really all that into it. Then it got stuck in my head. With the Wilderness EP it was much the same story, not feeling at first but slowly growing me.

8. Tenielle Neda – What Is My Hope EP

My biggest gripe with What Is My Hope is that it is simply too short. I really wish that it had been a full length album and not just an EP.

7. Hayden Everett – Kennecott (EP)

I really enjoyed Hayden Everett’s self-titled debut EP. At first Kennecott felt like a step back but after several listens and some time reading about the stories behind the songs I now consider it welcome addition to his catalog.

6. 4th Point – New Horizons (EP)

New Horizons reminds me a bit of Roelant’s The Narrows in the since that it feels like a solid little rock EP that’s gone largely unnoticed.

5. Calah Mikal – Footnotes on Healing

Okay, so my favorite releases this time around are a little singer/songwriter heavy. But there were just a lot of good albums in the genre over the past few months and Footnotes on Healing is no exception.

4. Andrew Blooms – 987

This album just barely missed my last top ten by being a couple of weeks too late. But here it is now making my second quarter list.

3. Jess Ray – Baby Take My Hand

I’d argue that “Grace & Mercy” the best song of 2020 which set my expectations for Baby Take My Hand pretty high. While I don’t like the rest of the album quite lives up to the greatness of that song, it’s still a solid and enjoyable album.

EDIT: 2.5 Natalie Bergman – Mercy

Oops. Somehow I forgot one of my most listened to albums of the year. With Mercy I was really expecting a top-notch gospel album. It turns out that was only half-true. While the album does start out like that it evolves into much more by the end. Natalie balances out the praise with songs lamenting the passing of her parents and songs celebrating their lives.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1sp2pqP1wjFDoWhzUZikhg?si=EO-s7CqoTyqJH38DEInXtQ&dl_branch=1

2. Thomas Austin – Evergreen (EP)

I’d say this one came out of nowhere if it hadn’t been released one song at a time over the past few months. Nevertheless, with this Evergreen Thomas Austin went from artist I’d barely heard of to one of my favorite releases of 2021.

1. Twenty One Pilots – Scaled And Icy

Twenty One Pilots lost me with Trench. “Level Of Concern” was a bop though and made me mild interested in where the band would go next. With Scaled and Icy they’ve won me over again and I excited for whatever comes next.

Honorable Mentions: Andrew Ripp, The Choir, Death Therapy, Ellie Holcomb, Empty Atlas, Future Of Forestry, The Fuzzy Robes, Haiva Ru, J Lind, Jerry Fee, Laura McElroy, ØM-53, Quiet Science, Thief to King, Tommee Profit, and Trev