The 40 Best Songs of 2021

In an age where immediacy is king—news can be refreshed by the moment and the hottest takes are often the quickest—it's nice to have music. Music (or at least good music) takes time to make, produce, package, and release. Which means that many of the albums that have come out in 2021 (so far) were albums made within the confines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

What we're hearing now are songs from albums that were hatched and orchestrated amidst the fear, the turmoil, the grief, and the confusion. And musicians have processed the pandemic in different ways. Some have stripped down their sound and made spare, haunting albums. Others have turned the out-of-control 18-wheeler that was living in 2020 into music that is raw and LOUD.

So music, in its latency, is a gift: Music is processing the cluster of last year as we're processing the cluster of last year. Which, in turn, help us process. Elton John once said, "Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours," and that guy certainly knows what he's talking about.

All that said (can you tell we're feeling reflective?) even if you're feeling done with Covid-19, or you just use music to escape from having to deal with Covid-19, this playlist of 21 songs is flat-out awesome regardless.

Listen to our full Best Songs of 2021 playlist on Spotify.