Hope you enjoyed Tracksuite’s Best Albums of 2021 post. If you missed it, scroll on at the end of this post. Now, hot on it’s heels, faster than news of another illegal Tory Christmas party, we arrive at Tracksuite’s Top 50 Tracks of 2021. As always, it comes in the form of hand crafted playlist. There’s some well known and arguably overly playlisted bangers in there but most are lesser known unearthed album gems. Theres two heavy leaning posts in this mix that have been the prominent flavours of this year. Post Punk has been showing up more and more in choice indie rock tunes over the past few years but now seems to be the steady go to with exciting emerging bands like Wet Leg, Folly Group and two from this years Best Albums of 2021 playlist, Geese and Squid. There’s also a preponderance of Afro and Latin sounds and influences in there too from Little Simz, Josh Butler and Dennis Cruz and best album inclusion from the late great Tony Allen. Solid gold indie will always be found here, and so the flag is carried in 2021 by bands like Childcare and Postdata, on the heavy ended side of things with Idles and Black Midi and more folkier edged with Katy J Pearson, Billie Marten and Jess Cornelius. Country always sits in safe hands, once again from Sturgill Simpson, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss but Lord Huron and Ida Mae have unleashed country glory this year too. There’s rap, blues, funk, techno, reggae and more all in there, including a few out there pieces from the likes of FYI Chris and Nancy, and breathtaking beauty from Gabriels, Arroj Aftab and Caroline Shaw. I’m gutted to say my beloved rock and metal have fallen short this year but the lack of it from others is more than made up for by the ultimate wall of noise in the playlist closing monster by Beartooth.

Get in amongst it. Don’t dither neither as Xmasuite 2021 follows soon…

Love and Music
D@Tracksuite