The juice here is in the execution - the command of melody and volume, the bottled subtext of dismissed and diminished voices seizing the mic at last and the walloping chops to put those instincts to work.Concert footage from Dire Straits' concerts at Nimes, France, and Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, Holland in May 1992. On the page, "Hit Like a Girl" is a flurry of fists-up hashtags, and in less capable hands it might fizzle. A toast, then, to Meet Me The Altar: three musicians just old enough to remember the last wave firsthand, who can sing and play better than many of their forebears, and whose commitment to the studded-belt sound appears devout and all-consuming. And yet, for all the high-gloss bratitude that zoomed through the culture in 2021, much of it felt like moonlighting - a cluster of fun, one-off genre experiments by artists whose bread is buttered elsewhere. Sure, fine, yes: This was the year pop-punk reentered the mainstream, not filtered through SoundCloud rap's purple haze or Philly indie's basement fuzz but sounding roughly as it did when most media left it for dead a decade ago. Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice. Stream NPR Music's 100 Best Songs Of 2021: Spotify / Apple Music / Tidal / Amazon Music / YouTube Music If you find yourself losing steam or feeling down or wondering when things will finally turn around, feel free to skip the rest of "All Too Well." (Jk, Taylor!) (Oh, and you can find our 50 Best Albums of 2021 here.)
It's our sincere hope that as you make your way through our 7-hour playlist of the year's 100 best songs, you'll feel the same. In other words, we could be human again, and it felt good to be back.
Perhaps we kept some truths concealed during dire straits, so as not to appear frivolous (or feral) in the face of unforgiving circumstance. Maybe, after 20 months behind masks, we felt like revealing ourselves again.
Perhaps the crowning of Cardi and Megan's "WAP" last year signaled a transgressive sea change. "Only here to sin." That admission from NPR Music's song of the year lies at the heart of many of the stories told across these 100 tracks.
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