The Freshman 15: 2021's Best Debut Albums
Next week, we'll release our final overall list of this year's best overall albums. But our ongoing best of 2021 coverage continues right now with a look at this year's top newcomers in music.
Above is our list of the 15 best-reviewed debut albums of 2021, ranked by Metascore. Note that albums must have at least 7 reviews—and be a full-length LP (or mixtape) rather than an EP—to be eligible for inclusion. Albums are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding based on scores as of December 14, 2021.
(#5) Currently ranked in the top five in our compilation of year-end top 10 album lists, the impressive New Long Leg is the first album by English post-punkers Dry Cleaning. Following a pair of EPs and numerous singles released throughout 2019 and 2020, the LP finds the four-piece band (fronted by Florence Shaw, usually employing a spoken-word vocal style) working with veteran producer (and frequent PJ Harvey collaborator) John Parish.
“The combination of simple but taut musicality and literate lyricism is a winning one.” —The Wire
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