My Top Twenty-One of 2021: #21

As we reach the final month of the year, it's time to start my annual year-end countdown of favourite records... and even though I add an extra album to the allotted number each year, it was really hard to narrow this year's selection down to just 21. It's been a great year for music... and despite a few bumps along the way, a great year for me. If only because I got out of The Bad Place and into a job that I actually enjoy doing. Of course, the rest of the world continues to fall apart around our ears, but it makes a big difference when you don't spend your every waking hour dreading your workplace.

21. Lukas Nelson & The Promise of The Real - A Few Stars Apart 

Lukas has placed higher on my countdown with his last two records, and maybe that's a sign of how stiff the competition was this year. A Few Stars Apart is a nice slow-burner of a record, but it's his most traditional offering in some time, an album of laid back country love songs, the best of which fall into classics territory... but lack the individuality I enjoyed from him previously. It's maybe one of those records that suggests he's pretty happy with his lot at the moment... always a kick in the creative teeth. It's also the record on which he sounds more like his dad than ever before... and if you're not sure who his dad is, stick around because we'll be hearing from him very soon...