Marika Zorzi: 15 Favorite Albums of 2021

Dealing with grief is a complicated process that is not the same for everyone who experiences it. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense at all, other times you don’t even realize you’re going through it until you stop for a second to think about the state of the world and the society around you. I feel like we’re still healing from what we’ve lost in the past 2 years: loved ones, jobs, opportunities, fate, hope, time. The five stages of grief don’t go in order and sometimes they happen all at once. They fill you with sorrow, anger, hopelessness, sometimes nostalgia. I felt them all during 2021, and my favorite albums of the year represent the confusion of getting out of a pain that is often difficult to explain. All these artists were able to translate that into music. I wrote down a collection of my personal stories related to each of these albums.

Marika Zorzi’s favorite albums of 2021 (not in a particular order):

MIDWIFE - LUMINOL

I spent most of the year with ‘Luminol’ and I love it from the beginning to the end. This album is honest and Madeline is able to touch the very fabric of our soul whispering only a few words so powerful that are impossible to forget. The music feels larger than anything she has made before, it’s delicate, powerful and beautiful. Every song of ‘Luminol’ talks about my 2021. “It feels like Heaven is so far away“, “How much more death can one person take?” while “my body is against me”, and “I can't shut it up” because “Love will break your heart forever”, please “show me the way”, she sings. This is an album about the current state of humanity. Favorite song: Promise Ring (on repeat).

EMMA RUTH RUNDLE - ENGINE OF HELL

Beauty most of the time comes from horrible places. Memories we want to forget, experiences we want to leave behind. Engine of Hell is an album from the heart, it’s a record that teaches us to get out from our comfort zone, to face our fears regardless of the judgment of others. Listening to this album is like looking at an old book of photographs taken when the future was still unknown. It’s not easy to talk about something that hurts us or makes us feel uncomfortable, but Emma always manages to make this her strength. Favorite song: Body.

THE BODY/BIG BRAVE - LEAVING NONE BUT SMALL BIRDS

This album is poetry/music at its best. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to the song “Polly Gosford”. It injects a kind of terror that’s hard to shake. Since I was a kid my grandpa used to tell us stories, changing the traditional ones to make them more actual for us. I love the way Robin compiled lyrics and melodic lines from across Appalachian, Canadian, and English hymns and folk songs and was able to reworked them to center the experiences of marginalized characters, victims of hardship, and those yearning for love within each story. “He covered her grave / and hastened home / Leaving none but small birds / her fate to bemoan,” she sings. Death is a recurring theme throughout the entire album, and the victims are often isolated and alone when left to die, leaving only the flora and fauna to bemoan their tragedy. It's a terribly beautiful phrase, it’s what is still happening in 2021. 

LINGUA IGNOTA - SINNER GET READY

I hate religion, in any form and kind. I’ve seen many times people hiding their despicable actions behind the word of God. I’ve seen families falling apart, friends turning their back on each other, prevarication and hate all in the name of religion. I come from a country where the catholic church can have an opinion about political decisions and where there is a crucifix in every class in public schools. Kristin’s latest album is an intense and frightening religious inquiry. I truly respect her ruthless portrayal of God like a vengeful, violent presence. This album is not about religion, her music is filled with reverence and empathy for our most challenging task: being human. 

KING WOMAN - CELESTIAL BLUES

Feeling compelled to reshape the biblical archetypes that once bound her, with Celestial Blues, Kris has created a theatrical tale of rebellion, tragedy, and triumph, a metaphor for her own personal experiences over the years. I have so much in common with Kris’s childhood experiences. She never ceases to transcend this life of afflictions, only to lead the listener to find some hope through her music, while she makes peace with her weighty past. 

DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE - GAS LIT

he destruction of the earth, white supremacy, the continued oppression of indigenous people, Black people and people of color, the prison industrial complex, capitalism and all these unsustainable, violent forces must end. It is unsustainable for the earth and people bearing the burdens of white supremacy and fragility to continue under the colonial project. Few bands use their voice and platform quite as powerfully as Divide and Dissolve. Mirroring the brash, bone-crushing potency of their dynamic drone music, the formidable Takiaya and Sylvie carry their fight and their ancestors fight forward each and every day, using the power of their music to draw attention to the ongoing battle against systemic oppression. I love these two humans. Favorite song: Prove it

GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR - G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!

There’s something extremely precious about every GSYBE album. G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is no exception. More than casually hopeful, the album feels honest about the non-linear form of progress, and how winning the war to build a better world involves many devastating losses. These songs exist in a world of anxiety, where any optimism is always backlit by some danger. They don’t like leaders, they hate war and the allegedly enlightened forms of government that sanctioned it. This album is a romantic story that fights against all forms of fascism. Favorite song: OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.)

BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT - SILENCE/MOTION

There’s a theme of processing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion, both lyrically and musically. It embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength and rebuilding of recovering from personal devastation. This album is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank while your entire life is moving through you simultaneously. I’m so happy Sunny was able to share some terrible experiences that have happened to her and address such important issues. Favorite song: Silence/Motion.  

THE ARMED - ULTRAPOP

This band is revolutionary simply because they don't give a damn about any musical and stylistic bias. The lyrics of ULTRAPOP refer to unchecked entitlement, greed, digital facades, and not being real. This album goes against the stagnation of heavy music. This is less a record than it is an artistic statement, a defiant 'fuck you' to any and all perceptions of what a music should be. This band does so much to push the boundaries of pop and heavy music as much as it destroys them to create something completely new.

FULL OF HELL - GARDEN OF BURNING APPARITIONS
I like how Dylan takes on the themes of death and terror from the commodification of spirituality, the fear of violent mobs and being trapped in a perpetual state of hate. The sound of this album is corrosive as the world we’re living in and it truly describes how it feels to be alive. Favorite song: All Bells Ringing. 

SPECTRAL WOUND - A DIABOLIC THIRST

I don’t listen to black metal anymore because I’m tired of checking if a band is right-wing or not. It’s exhausting and I’m honestly tired. Likely for us Spectral Wound are not nazis and they released one of the best heavy records of the year. It’s powerful and emotive and it speaks to me on so many levels. Highly recommended, particularly if you like feeling sad and being assaulted at the same time. Favorite song: Soul Destroying Black Debauchery.

GATECREEPER - AN UNEXPECTED REALITY
’An Unexpected Reality’ is the perfect title for 2021. A track like “Emptiness” embodies what we have all been feeling these past two year. A sense of despair because we all know humanity is doomed. One of the best heavy bands out there.

BIG|BRAVE - VITAL

I read Alexander Chee’s 2018 book “How to Write an Autobiographical Novel” a couple of years ago and when I found out it was one of the inspirations behind Robin’s lyrics, I was extremely pleased. ‘Vital’ explores the weight of race and gender, endurance and navigating other people’s behaviors, observation and protest. My favorite song is “Half Breed” that consists in a single performative action that can be read as the representation of the damage an external force can have on someone or something without ever having to bear any responsibility and consequence.

HIDE - INTERIOR TERROR

HIDE’s music is textured, minimal, and powerful, giving raw vulnerability an opportunity to unfurl. Their work is honest, confrontational, and thought-provoking, and with their third album, ‘Interior Terror’, they continue to address and question the corporeal and immaterial body, in a physical and metaphysical sense. I love this band. Pain is universal, and that’s something that is good for people to see represented on this record. Favorite song: Price of Life.

SILVER GODLING - WITNESS, UNWEAVE

What Emily was able to collect is a record that begins as a poetic and musical exploration of the body’s storage of emotions and trauma and their effect on mental health. The result of that exploration is the seven symphonic meditations that comprise this gorgeous, introspective album. ‘Witness, Unweave’ focuses almost solely on Emily’s mental health, difficult emotions, journey through a lifetime of trauma in all its large and small forms. It is a study and reflection of all the parts we often consider hindrances, such as living with an anxiety disorder and a depressive disorder. Thank you Emily!

VERY SPECIAL MENTION:

HOVERKRAFT - SCHWEBENDE MUSIK

During the past 2 years Paul Riedl has always shared his music with me. From the short sessions recorded during the night to special tapes with unreleased music from his many projects. I met Paul the first time in a supermarket in Eindhoven (NL) but we never really talked until he played with Spectral Voice in Berlin in 2019. Friends have many ways to find each other. I owe Paul some of the best memories of this year, which have his music as the soundtrack.