Long after most music publications shared their Best of 2021 lists (cough cough), Sufjan Stevens has arrived fashionably late to the opinion-dumping party. The musician caused a bit of a stir today by sharing not only his favorite, but also his least favorite albums of the year on his Tumblr blog; Sure, most of his favorite albums didn’t come out in 2021, and most of his least favorite albums aren’t even albums at all, but who’s going to stop him? He’s Sufjan Stevens!
Some of the notable highlights from Stevens’ favorites list include Alain Goraguer’s soundtrack to La Planète Sauvage, a.k.a. Fantastic Planet, the wildly trippy 1973 animated sci-fi film. He also took a liking to new age icon Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s 1986 masterpiece, Keyboard Fantasies. As far as more recent stuff, he’s been digging Hannah, the 2020 album from fellow indie-folk musician Lomelda, as well as this year’s Time to Melt by Sam Evian.
As for his least favorites, Stevens wasn’t particularly enamored by Squid Game, Dune, or And Just Like That… like seemingly everybody else and their mothers. He’s very much over Instagram, NFTs, and COVID-19 — no surprises there. And that new Adele album? He has no tolerance for factual inaccuracies. See Stevens’ full list of 2021 favorites and least favorites below.
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Earlier this year, Stevens shared A Beginner’s Mind, a collaborative album with Angelo De Augustine (and his fourth in two years); the pair discussed the making of the album with Consequence back in September. Now, Stevens will be taking a well-deserved break.
Sufjan Stevens’ Favorite Albums of 2021:
01. Alain Goraguer—La Planète Sauvage (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
02. Todd Rundgren—A Wizard, A True Star
03. Beverly-Glenn Copeland—Keyboard Fantasies
04. Various—Ladakh: Songs & Dances from the Highlands of Western Tibet
05. Peter Gabriel—Up
06. Can—Future Days
07. Alice Coltrane—Journey in Satchidananda
08. Sam Evian—Time To Melt
09. Ringo Starr—Beaucoups of Blues
10. Lomelda—Hannah
Sufjan Stevens’ Least Favorite Albums of 2021:
01. Squid Game—I didn’t actually see it but it looks really stupid. F-
02. A Quiet Place 2—It should have been shown after the credits for the first movie. F-
03. The Interminable Marvel Brand—If it’s on Disney + it’s for children. F-
04. Dune—A very long Zara ad. F-
05. J Balvin—Black face. F-
06. Matrix 4—Ugh. Computers. Hackers. Cyberpunks. Simulated Reality. The 90s. The color green. F-
07. Any band that is still together after 10 years—Please. Break up. Do your solo albums. Move on. F-
08. Instagram—Get over yourself. F-
09. Musicals—Please stop singing and dancing. F-
10. Baby Boomer WASPs—Get out of the way. F-
11. Sex & the City—And Just Like That? No. Not at all. Go away. F-
12. Conversations about supply chain issues—Stop making excuses. Make your own furniture. Forage for mushrooms or whatever. F-
13. Covid—Ugh. So over it. Please stop killing us! F-
14. Crypto, NFTs, The Metaverse, etc. — see #6. F-
15. The 90s revival—Please. It was bad enough the first time around. F-
16. Adele, 30—Girl, please. We know you’re 33. It’s on your Wikipedia page. B+