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.
(#13) Another staple on year-end top 10 lists (with at least one publication, Loud and Quiet, naming it the year's #1 overall album), For the First Time is exactly that from the experimental British rockers. Combining expanded instrumentation (including strings and horns) and multiple genres ranging from Slint-inflected post-punk to Krautrock to jazz to klezmer to prog across its six mostly instrumental (though sometimes spoken-word or half-sung) tracks, it, too, was a Mercury Prize nominee this year, losing out to the aforementioned Collapsed in Sunbeams.
“Their peak may be years away yet, but this is still some of the most exciting music you’ll hear until then; I’m not sure what more you could ask of a debut.” —NME
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