Hot 2021

About this Playlist

2021 songs from 2021, well almost, I think I’d saved a few 100 onto a playlist I’ve been listening to regularly across the previous year and another 1000 or so onto a list ready to create this end of year retrospective. So by December when I started to really put his together I still had at least 500 songs to find to get to the magic 2021 number.

You may think that would be easy just to add 500 songs to a playlist, but that’s not what this list is about. At the time of writing I’m at about 1700 songs, but these are particular types of songs, not just genres that I enjoy, but a certain sound in each genre and I’ve got to like them and want to listen again and again and..

The great thing about this task, if you can call it that, is the amount of new music I discover and can therefore share with other people. Yes there’s literally millions of songs released every year, so just 2021 songs is a small amount of music to reflect a whole year, but this not just a list of music, it’s a reflection of my personal tastes, it’s not something algorithms can create, it’s creation is in my knowledge, my obsession with music, my compulsion to find new songs, from what I like to call digital digging and using the power of the Internet and social media to discover new artists and new releases, the odd re-release and maybe something a little older from a new compilation.

The playlist is simply created in loose genre order, many of the tracks have been shared on my Hot 20 playlist across 2021, all types of soulful music from retro, nusoul, R&B to just music that has a soulful vibe, disco or nudisco and soulful house, classic house or acid, techno or just simply dance music, what I like to call leftfield, which can be more experimental or just a bit slower or deeper than normal dance or more electronic than the average soul song. Jazz music from the Brit jazz scene or the sounds of afrobeat or just straight up jazz from across the world. Dub reggae and all kinds Jamaican influenced with a soulful vibe. Finishing with rap, but like all the music on the list, it’s rap reflected by my personal taste, so mostly with an old school vibe but not simply reminiscing about 90’s classics but many new artists and new sounds and styles.

The following YouTube videos aren’t necessarily my favourites, although some are but I won’t reveal those that are, as it makes no difference hopefully by the time you read this I’ll have discovered all 2021 songs and you’ll find your own amongst them – Enjoy.

Arlo Parks – Too Good