Unlike most of us in the publishing industry, who rush to get our year-end best-of lists online in early December or even late November, Sufjan Stevens has waited until the final week of 2021 to weigh in on his favorite albums of the past 12 months via his official website, previously your source for typography criticism and theological treatises. Waiting until the end of December is a noble impulse, even if a lot of his favorite albums did not actually come out in 2021 and most of his least favorites aren’t actually albums. Still — the lists are good. Check them out below.

Here are his favorites “in no particular order”:

1. Alain Goraguer—La Planète Sauvage (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2. Todd Rundgren—A Wizard, A True Star
3. Beverly-Glenn Copeland—Keyboard Fantasies
4. Various—Ladakh: Songs & Dances from the Highlands of Western Tibet
5. Peter Gabriel—Up
6. Can—Future Days
7. Alice Coltrane—Journey in Satchidananda
8. Sam Evian—Time To Melt
8. Ringo Starr—Beaucoups of Blues
10. Lomelda—Hannah

And here are his least favorites, also in no particular order:

1. Squid Game—I didn’t actually see it but it looks really stupid. F-
2. A Quiet Place 2—It should have been shown after the credits for the first movie. F-
3. The Interminable Marvel Brand—If it’s on Disney + it’s for children. F-
4. Dune—A very long Zara ad. F-
5. J Balvin—Black face. F-
6. Matrix 4—Ugh. Computers. Hackers. Cyberpunks. Simulated Reality. The 90s. The color green. F-
7. Any band that is still together after 10 years—Please. Break up. Do your solo albums. Move on. F-
8. Instagram—Get over yourself. F-
9. Musicals—Please stop singing and dancing. F-
10. Baby Boomer WASPs—Get out of the way. F-
11. Sex & the City—And Just Like That? No. Not at all. Go away. F-
12. Conversations about supply chain issues—Stop making excuses. Make your own furniture. Forage for mushrooms or whatever. F-
13. Covid—Ugh. So over it. Please stop killing us! F-
14. Crypto, NFTs, The Metaverse, etc. — see #6. F-
15. The 90s revival—Please. It was bad enough the first time around. F-
16. Adele, 30—Girl, please. We know you’re 33. It’s on your Wikipedia page. B+

That Lomelda album is really good and I think I’ll go listen to it again. Probably time to revisit Sufjan’s own collaborative effort with Angelo De Augustine from this year while I’m at it. Thanks for sharing, Suf!