This year I am dedicating little time to this tradition because the days have been full and busy. Nevertheless, I want to keep listing my top 10 albums of the year because I love looking back and seeing my year through the music I listened to. This year it was extra difficult to define these albums because of my self-imposed rule of not listing more than one album by the same artist—WHICH I AM GOING TO IGNORE. 

The music I listened to this year was mostly hardcore pop, guilty pleasures that many music fans that I know would frown upon. I feel no shame or guilt, because it’s my life and to quote Bad Bunny: YHLQMDLG (yo hago lo que me da la gana). 

There’s something about pop music that lightens up the mood, in a year that was overall marked by a lot of change, loss, gain, and big contrasts of happiness and sadness. There’s little that will make me feel as good, as fast as an empowering pop song blasting through my headphones or car speakers – and that’s what this year needed. I also got deep deep DEEP into the worlds of reggaeton and the Taylorverse because of two podcasts (LOUD and Every Single Album: Taylor Swift) that led me down these rabbit (Bad Bunny?) holes.

So, without further ado, the top albums in the order (or as close as it gets) that these appeared in my year:

Incubus – Trust Fall Side B (2020)

Bad Bunny – El Último Tour del Mundo (2020) tied with Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG (2020)

Billie Eilish – dont smile at me (2017) tied with Billie Eilish – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (2019)

slenderbodies – Fabulist – EP (2017)

Quixosis – Rocafuerte (2021)

FKA twigs – MAGDALENE (2019)

Taylor Swift – evermore (2020) tied with Taylor Swift – Reputation (2017)

Honorable mentions:

• Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (2010)
• Elliott Smith – Either/Or (1997)
• J Balvin – JOSE (2021)
• Olivia Rodrigo – Sour (2021)
• Ozuna – ENOC (2020)
• Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s Version) (2021)

And the links to the playlists I’ve made that have rocked my year:

• life’s a beach (favorite)
• sad bunny (also favorite)
• freedom, i waited for you
• ready to rage
• Your Top Songs of 2021
• top albums of 2021

To anyone reading, l wish you peace, love and music, always. 

Happy New Year!