THE UNCUT REVIEW OF 2021
50 LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Lindsey Buckingham REPRISE
Delayed by health problems, a global pandemic and more, the guitarist and singer’s first solo album in a decade didn’t disappoint when it finally arrived this autumn. These 10 compact songs were pure distilled Buckingham, written, produced and played entirely on his own, including surprises on the loop-based “Swan Song” and drifting, quasi-ambient closer “Dancing”, plus some modern classics such as REM-ish first single “I Don’t Mind”.
49 SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN
Pick A Day To Die THREE LOBED
Their first proper album in a decade found the Massachusetts freak-folk collective on blistering form, flipping between pastoral reveries, acid nightmares and surging motorik jams on which they invited us to “feel the midnight”, “taste the campfire” and “do a Baltic salt therapy”. And for those still on the fence, the climactic “Prix Fixe” came with a bonus cascade of cosmic riffage from one J Mascis.
48 DAVID CROSBY
For Free BMG
Crosby’s autumnal productivity continued apace as he approached his 80th birthday in August: For Free was his fifth album in seven years. His co-conspirators included his multi-instrumentalist/ producer son James Raymond and their Sky Trails Band, plus a handful of esteemed guests including Michael McDonald and Donald Fagen. The album was full of personal reflection and jazz phrasing, which doubtless would have pleased the younger version of Crosby – who resurfaced this year on CSNY’s 50th-anniversary edition of Déjà Vu.
47 ELEPHANT9
Arrival Of The New Elders RUNE GRAMMOFON
This Norwegian jazz-rock trio achieved a kind of telepathic abandon on this, their pulsating 10th record. In the mix of Ståle Storløkken’s keyboards, Nikolai Eilertsen’s bass and Torstein Lofthus’s drums there were echoes of electric Miles and Soft Machine, the grooves of krautrock and even of Air’s featherlight intrepidness, from the synth arpeggios of the title track and the Rhodes explorations of “Throughout The Worlds” to the eerie chillout of the closing “Solar Song”.
46 ISRAEL NASH
Topaz LOOSE
From his homemade studio deep in Texas Hill Country, Nash continued to map the contours of cosmic country on this, his sixth album. The strength of lay in Nash’s ability to juggle the personal with the political, finding a natural space for reflection during a tumultuous time: “, he sang on “Canyonheart”. Elsewhere, his rich stew of soul, gospel, psychedelia and folk provided suitably
