Using a highly scientific formula (read: spreadsheet) concocted back in 2010, the Scene has yet again tabulated ballots from our ace music writers to compile our list of the 10 best local albums of the year. With another bumper crop of releases, many excellent albums landed just outside the Top 10, including Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions, Styrofoam Winos’ Styrofoam Winos, Mickey Guyton’s Remember Her Name, Aaron Lee Tasjan’s Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! and Madi Diaz’s History of a Feeling. Without further ado, the Top 10.
10. Joy Oladokun, In Defense of My Own Happiness (Complete) (Amigo/Verve Forecast/Republic)
After Joy Oladokun released In Defense of My Own Happiness (The Beginnings) in 2020, the folk-pop singer-songwriter’s career began to take off in exciting, unexpected ways. Her soul-baring approach to songwriting made her a favorite of newfound fans, including fellow musicians like Jason Isbell, Susanna Hoffs and Maren Morris. Oladokun could’ve simply ridden that wave, but she’s one of Nashville’s most prolific songwriters, always writing and refining. She released a new version of the album this year as In Defense of My Own Happiness (Complete) with newer songs including her collaborations with Morris (“Better Man”), Penny and Sparrow (“Heaven From Here”) and Jensen McRae (“Wish You the Best”). Even as her fan base grows, Oladokun continues to give us her whole self. MEGAN SELING
9. L’Orange and Namir Blade, Imaginary Everything (Mello Music Group)
Namir Blade’s emergence as a leading voice in Music City hip-hop — as original a voice as you’ll find anywhere — has been a joy to watch in 2021. Before releasing his first widely distributed LP Aphelion’s Traveling Circus in fall 2020, he’d been best known as a producer; and that high-concept, genre-busting record showed the huge amount of potential he has as a frontman. In May, Imaginary Everything was released — a concise, captivating meeting of the minds between Blade and former Nashvillian L’Orange, another masterful producer with a knack for curating and manipulating pre-rock ’n’ roll samples. L’Orange handled production solo, leaving Blade free to revel in being a force of nature on the mic. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
8. Todd Snider, First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder (Aimless/Thirty Tigers)
I dare you to listen to Todd Snider’s First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder without laughing at one of the weirdest and most experimental singer-songwriter albums ever made. Snider is one of music’s most beloved humorists, but First Agnostic Church subverts the idea of sincerity and deep meaning through an unprecedented combination of music and lyrics. Modified Funkadelic riffs elbow their way in amid guitar licks that stick out like pieces of straw from a pair of dirty blue jeans in some kind of new, strangely funky version of rock ’n’ roll. Snider’s musical vision is overwhelming, sloppy and funny as hell — and the lyrics are the work of a great humorist and spoken-word artist who also sings. EDD HURT
7. The Shindellas, Hits That Stick Like Grits (Weirdo Workshop)
The Shindellas open their full-length debut with a slinky, foreboding bass line, then announce in tight three-part harmony, “The Shindellas in the building, baby, make some room.” There’s a promise inherent in that boast, one they fulfill with this sophisticated collection of neo-soul. Working with writer-producers Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly, the trio — Tamara “Tam” Chauniece, Stacy Johnson and Kasi Jones — delivers an atmospheric album full of sonic shadows and light. And with it, they stake their claim as heirs to the legendary R&B vocal groups they grew up loving. DARYL SANDERS
6. Yola, Stand for Myself (Easy Eye Sound/Concord)
There’s been sign after sign this year that getting everything back to the way it was before the pandemic isn’t likely to happen — at least not anytime soon. Yola’s second full-length Stand for Myself is a reminder that we have the power to make the “new normal” a better one. You can hear it in the stories she tells about love and care between friends and couples, about economic equality and more. You can also hear it in the way her very danceable album, produced by Dan Auerbach, brings in some gorgeous soul and soul-inflected pop sounds and top-notch musicians from elsewhere in addition to excellent Nashville players. STEPHEN TRAGESER
5. Tristen, Aquatic Flowers (Mama Bird)
A lot has changed in Tristen’s life in the 10 years since she released her debut Charlatans at the Garden Gate. She got married, started a business, had a kid. And yet so much of Aquatic Flowers, Tristen’s fourth album and first since 2017, feels as scrappy as that first record. Part of that is the nature of how it was recorded — during lockdown, in fits and starts between toddler naps — but it’s also a fitting vibe for new parents making sense of a new world. There’s no better example of that than “Julian,” a gorgeous lullaby that reconciles the love songs of Tristen’s past, present and future. Aquatic Flowers is a phenomenal parenthood record — not just about the act of being a parent, but about making sense of the complex, wrought feelings that come with it. LANCE CONZETT
4. Katy Kirby, Cool Dry Place (Keeled Scales)
Intimate, thoughtful and clever, Katy Kirby’s debut album Cool Dry Place feels like a lengthy conversation with a close friend. The record was born out of a time of self-examination and reinvention for Kirby, who began the project after moving to Nashville to attend Belmont University. She created her own sound that in some ways reacts to the worship music and contemporary Christian music her deeply religious family played, while drawing on the secular songwriters she discovered as a young adult. Surprising elements like Auto-Tune and otherworldly synth sounds from a Therevox and an Omnichord lift up lyrical examinations of motherhood, capitalism, male privilege and broken relationships, making Cool Dry Place a joyful listen that’s accessible and relatable without ever feeling watered down. LORIE LIEBIG
3. Reaux Marquez, No Roads (The Garden)
While making his way through the Nashville hip-hop scene and beyond, Reaux Marquez delivered one of the most eloquent releases of the year. No Roads reflects Marquez’s personal journey while also encouraging the listener to think deeper than the surface of the issues and current state of the world. Through a story about a fire burning in the physical world, the 16-track offering examines the raging fires of unrest ignited in the Black community by police brutality, the worldwide pandemic and more. With features from some of the most impactful artists in the city — including The BlackSon, Brian Brown, Jamiah Hudson, Tim Gent, A.B. Eastwood and Namir Blade — the album shows that Nashville’s rap-renaissance garden continues to be well-tended. D’LLISHA DAVIS
2. Adia Victoria, A Southern Gothic (Atlantic)
“I’ve got it in me to burst into flames,” sings Adia Victoria on “Mean-Hearted Woman,” a moment of heartsick, bubbling-rage blues from her third LP A Southern Gothic. Victoria tends to that fire, which scorches and warms all at once, in a way that feels like a dance, bending it to her will. Propelled by the metaphor of the magnolia tree — which is both a creative muse for Victoria since childhood and a symbol of the Antebellum South — A Southern Gothic is a reclamation of the blues and Black Southern identity in its most modern, urgent form. With assists from guests like Kyshona, Margo Price, Jason Isbell and Matt Berninger, Victoria sings about how she can’t save you, and she shouldn’t have to. But she can teach us that the only way to really survive is to drain the dirty water so we all can walk to shore. MARISSA R. MOSS
1. Allison Russell, Outside Child (Birds of Chicago/Fantasy)
If one were to assess Allison Russell’s debut solo album Outside Child on musicianship alone, the record would likely still top this list. Russell is a singular vocalist, subtly shifting her agile voice from a bluesy ache to a velvety croon or joyful belt with grace, subtlety and precision. She’s also an ace banjo player, and she’s already proven her chops through work with other acts like Our Native Daughters. But Russell makes Outside Child so much more than a wonderful listen by plainly and compassionately laying bare her life’s greatest trauma — and perhaps more importantly, the journey she took to heal herself. Outside Child is a gift to music lovers, roots fans, trauma survivors, marginalized communities — simply put, a gift to us all. BRITTNEY McKENNA
