Best Songs of 2021

This is my love letter to the music I'll remember from this difficult, beautiful, terrible, amazing year.

If you’ll indulge me, I’m going to take this opportunity to share with you, dear reader, my list of the top five songs of 2021. Well, top five among the songs that I’ve listened to. Obviously, I haven’t listened to every song that came out this year (but I have heard most of the big ones: Adele, T. Swift, and yes I even spent a few minutes listening to Kanye’s latest fiasco). Here, then, is my purely subjective list of songs that, five or ten years from now, I expect will remind me of 2021.

Number ONE: “The Next Best Day.” By Jam & Lewis f/ Boyz II Men.

OK. Look. I know you've never heard this song. But this track right here represents 2021 better than any other song I've heard all year. Those of you who know me will laugh, and tell me that I'm a ridiculous Boyz II Men fanboy. You're not wrong, but please don't let 2021 get away without listening to this song at least twice.

Look at these melancholy, 2021-in-a-nutshell lyrics:

We chased our dreams and we faced our nightmares…
Through the good times and the bad
Today is the most precious day of my life
Tomorrow's the next best day…
So let's celebrate, celebrate -- we're still together

Ten years from now, won’t these words will remind you of the predominant emotions of this second pandemic year, 2021?

Amazingly, Jam & Lewis manage to make Boyz II Men sound just as good as they did twenty years ago, on their last album to get the royal treatment from a major record label: Full Circle (2003). Jam & Lewis produced two songs on that LP, and they return to work with Boyz II Men here, alongside a lush, full orchestra (nine violins, three violas, three cellos, a harp, acoustic guitar, and a horn section). It's unfortunate that Jam & Lewis didn't do a video and official release for this song. Then again, when you've got a name as big as Boyz II Men and they're probably only the fifth biggest act on the album… I guess it makes sense that they left this one to be discovered by those dedicated enough to dig into the full disc.

Boyz II Men probably represent the 1990s to you, because that's when they were on top of the world. Well, give this new song a listen, and I’m sure it'll become a bookmark to 2021 in the years to come.

Number TWO: “Leave The Door Open.” By Silk Sonic.

I don't think I need to say very much about this jam right here. Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak dominated the charts with this blazing hot track, and for good reason. It brings back the best of 1970s soul, but in a self aware, tongue-in-cheek kinda way, all while showcasing two of the most talented performers today. It's pristine pop, polished to a beautiful, shiny golden finish on top of a nice wood-grained speakerbox. This song will be on every wedding's playlist for the next decade, so you might as well get used to singing along to it.

Number THREE: “Welcome 2 America.” By Prince.

I feel ambivalent about listening to songs from The Vault. Prince probably would not want us to be listening to the recordings that, in His Purpleness's best judgment, he chose to keep hidden from the world. However, once his heirs make the (questionable) decision to release something, at that point, do us mere mortals have any choice but to listen, ponder, and enjoy?

This 2010 recording could very well have been written in 2021. The song was mostly hidden for the past decade (Prince performed it live a few times on his “Welcome 2 America” tour in 2011, apparently). The music is, as you'd expect for Prince, timeless, even if it does have a lot in common with his other post-Musicology work. The lyrics--a critique of American capitalist excess with a heavy emphasis on Silicon Valley--are powerful and prescient. Prince wrote these words ("distracted by the features of the iPhone…") in 2010, before smartphones were in everyone's pockets and even before the 2011 "Arab Spring" for which Silicon Valley obnoxiously took credit. In 2021, we know more than ever about the apocalyptic threat that Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and their ilk represent… Now, Prince seems even more like a prophet.

Number FOUR: “Be Sweet.” By Japanese Breakfast.

The year 2021 might be the last year you can say you knew Michelle Zauner before she becomes a household name. With the release of her triumphant album, Jubilee, and her powerful, award-winning memoir (Crying in H-Mart), she has reached a new level. I don't know if this is the best song that Japanese Breakfast has done (they've got an extensive back catalog that I need to give more attention), but regardless, this song is an absolute banger. Zauner's vocals are just barely too sweet on "believe," but the song's perpetual motion and half-dozen moments of inspired innovation more than balance that out. Given the deep emotions that her book has evoked around the world, this song (and really the whole album) shows that Zauner has a lot more to give. I'm excited to see where she, and Breakfast, go from here.

*Let me take a moment to strongly wish for a collaboration between Japanese Breakfast and Blood Orange. Maybe it's just me, but I hear a lot of sonic similarities in the composition of songs like "Be Sweet," and Blood Orange's "E.V.P.," for example. All I'm saying is, if Dev Hynes and Michelle Zauner ever work together, it might cause a realignment of the space-time continuum. Please make this happen, universe!

Number FIVE: “Racist, Sexist Boy.” By The Linda Lindas.

Even if it were deprived (somehow) of its 2021 context, this song is a punk rock anthem that will live forever. It deserves to be in the pantheon of all-time greats in the genre. Zooming out, and taking the song in context: it's origins after the all-too-familiar experience that Mila de la Garza (the band's drummer) had with a bigot, the terrifying expansion of (the already expansive) scope of American racism and sexism in recent years… and it's easy to see that this explosive song will easily transcend this year. That it was written and performed by four high school girls, from LA, who identify as Asian American and Latinx, makes this song even more iconic.

BONUS: TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY ERIK LOVE

1. Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic

2. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis - Jam & Lewis: Volume One

3. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

4. Laura Mvula - Pink Noise

5. Jay Diggs - JAMS

Please let me know about your favorite music of 2021, and feel free to tell me about all of the great songs that I missed this year. Thanks as always for reading.

I’ll be back shortly with another installment of my epic series, “My Debts,” on my experience inside the student loan crisis. Until then — seriously, listen to that new Boyz II Men song!