Queer In Review: Looking Back At The Best Queer Music Of 2021
Spoiler: There's a lot to get through.
As 2021 comes to an end, it’s time to look back at one of the few objectively good things 2021 brought us: a hell of a lot of new queer music.
This has been a strange and trying year. Between vaccines, variants, and various cursed moments, this year felt surreal. But while most of the world often seemed worse off for its newfound weirdness, queer musicians found strength in embracing their own otherworldliness through music.
Welcome To 2021
Several decades ago, it was January and British poet Arlo Parks blessed the new year with her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams. Parks wove together her gift for the spoken word with a sharp dreamy sound that danced somewhere between soul and folk. Collapsed In Sunbeams breezed through the vulnerabilities of early adulthood as the 20-year-old poet poured her heart into tracks about sexuality, helplessness, and body image, perfectly capturing the raw disconnected state 2020 had left the world in.
Back in Australia, G Flip collaborated on their new single ‘Queen’ with bisexual songbird mxmtoon, in a romantic duet sweet enough to cause cavities. February saw fellow queer Aussie and pink-haired TikTok darling Peach PRC drop ‘Josh’, an irresistibly catchy pop dissection of the singer’s toxic ex that made her a viral hit.
As the world momentarily appeared to be back on track, April ensured 2021’s first quarter had some unforgettable queer albums. Long down the road of their addiction recovery, Demi Lovato gave us Dancing with the Devil… the Art of Starting Over. The record was a brutally honest meditation of Lovato’s past struggle with substance abuse, their queerness, gender dysphoria, and fame’s impact on their self-worth.
Lovato wasn’t alone in attempts to sonically exorcise demons of fame and mental illness. Norwegian queer singer girl in red shared her debut album if i could make it go quiet. Three years after her viral hit ‘i wanna be your girlfriend’ was shared on Bandcamp, girl in red’s debut is a more certain exploration of the singer’s various uncertainties. On the opening track, ‘serotonin’ she sings of intrusive thoughts and sensory overload, but arrives at the conclusion they don’t really belong to her, but are the result of a chemical imbalance.
Back in the US, hip-hop-pop group BROCKHAMPTON were riding high on the wave of their new album, ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE. True to form, the boys’ latest is a boisterous emotional rollercoaster, unflinching in its determination to remain outside more traditional song structures and binaries, as the boys rap about family suicide, loneliness, and hope.
In The Heat Of Winter
As we reached the middle of the year, queer musicians continued to tread new ground. On home soil, May saw the groundbreaking release of Defence Mechanisms from punk-rock Sydneysiders Second Idol. Vocalist Kate Olivia shines on the EP’s five courageous tracks, lending gutsy vocals to issues of body autonomy, racism, and sexism accompanied by the unique post-grunge sound that electrified the group’s live shows.
On the other side of the world, the American summer was about to make an Australian winter in lockdown a little warmer. Along with Doja Cat’s Planet Her, June saw Philadelphia native Vincint drop There Will Be Tears — his debut album that operates as a gay millennial’s pop-punctuated diary. And on ‘Getaway’ queer Canadian duo Tegan and Sara provide unforgettable harmonies for a melancholy track about a dreamy date with a stranger passing through town.
Torres Strait Islander singer Sycco released Sycco’s First EP, which was a small pocket of auditory sunshine with dance-pop tracks like ‘Past Life’ making for the perfect catchy winter-warmer. Over in the states, Rebecca Black — yes, the one of ‘Friday’ fame — cemented her queer pop-princess comeback with her Rebecca Black Was Here EP, featuring anthems like ‘Girlfriend’.
But if July belonged to a single artist it was Willow Smith. In collaboration with Blink 182’s Travis Barker, Willow gifted 2021 with lately I feel everything. The pop-punk album perfectly captures 2021’s emo resurgence featuring collaborations with Avril Lavigne and Cherry Glazerr. The album’s lead single ‘transparent soul’ where Willows rages against the fakeness of friends, exes, and fame alike is one of the defining tracks of 2021.
As the American summer wound down, its final weeks brought with it Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power. Co-produced by Oscar award-winning composers Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, the genderfluid singer’s album was a gothic deep-dive into gender expression and the transformative horror of pregnancy and impending motherhood. Tracks like ‘I am not a woman I’m a god’ and ‘you asked for this’ act as odes to the singer’s complex relationship to their body, the expectations that came with it, and how notoriety has twisted her life for better and worse.
Not With A Fizzle But An Unapologetic Bang
With September came MONTERO, Lil Nas X’s long-awaited debut album. Nas’ tracks and videos were boldly groundbreaking, and the album itself featured collaborations with other openly queer artists including Sir Elton John, Miley Cyrus, and Doja Cat. Bangers like ‘Industry Baby’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’ aside, MONTERO contained confessionals on internalised religious homophobia and racism with tracks like ‘Sun Goes Down’ and ‘Tales of Dominica’.
As September marched on, Kehlani offered up ‘Altar’, her lavish lesbian romance single teasing her yet to be released new album Blue Water Road. Back in Australia, revolutionary deaf and hard-of-hearing queer group Alter Boy dropped Act of God. The Perth-based group’s debut EP was a powerful and unforgiving exploration of exclusion, religion, and empowerment.
The year’s final act has been marked with glittering singles and punchy collaborations that showcase a new era of intergenerational queer sound. Years and Years teamed up with Kylie Minogue for ‘A Second To Midnight’, and after a groundbreaking role as Sex Education‘s first non-binary character, Dua Saleh dropped CROSSOVER, an EP of dreamy dance collaborations featuring the likes of Amaarae and Haleek Maul to vibe out 2021’s last weeks. Likewise, Charli XCX shared ‘New Shapes’, a transcendent pop ear-worm featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek. Meanwhile over on TikTok, Hayley Kiyoko teamed up with Fletcher to deliver the deliciously coy pop track ‘Cherry’.
Of course, when it comes to albums it’s only fitting an Aussie should get the last word. 2021 saw the release of Courtney Barnett’s Things Take Time, Take Time. The grunge-folk singer’s album was wistfully vulnerable, maybe her best yet. It lands ahead of her documentary Anonymous Club, which is getting a full release in early 2022. With tracks like ‘If I Don’t Hear From You Tonight’, Barnett documents her anxiety and yearning with relatable sincerity.
This is far from an exhaustive list of 2021’s queer music — rather, it’s a snapshot of how 2021 ushered in new artists and new vulnerability.
Merryana Salem (they/she) is a proud Wonnarua and Lebanese–Australian writer, critic, teacher and podcaster on most social media as @akajustmerry.