2021 is nearly over. This week’s charts are our last weekly NACC Charts for the year. We will be sending out a Year-End Recap later this week! After that these weekly chart recaps will return January 12 with the first new charts of 2022. Thank you so much for working to keep College and Non-Commercial Radio vital by breaking new underground artists and championing music that Commercial Radio ignores. The best reviewed music of the year is almost always the kind that College and Non-Comm supports the most. We’re excited to be a part of it and we look forward to getting back to tabulating and sharing the best new music in 2022! We wish you Happy Holidays and healthy and successful New Year!
We end 2021 with a new #1 record on the NACC 200. Atlanta-based singer and songwriter Curtis Harding rises from 2-1 with his third LP, If Words Were Flowers (Anti-). The final chart-topper of the year is 2021’s 17th album to reach the summit. It’s actually the fewest number of #1 records the NACC 200 has seen in one calendar year. Harding also rises 4-1 on the NACC Non-Comm Chart and returns to #1 at Soul/R&B for a second week on top.
Two new albums reach the final NACC Top 10 of 2021, one a relatively young band just putting down roots, the other, together for nearly 40 years. Nation Of Language is a Brooklyn trio that formed in 2016. Their second LP, A Way Forward (PIAS), rises 12-9 this week. We featured them here for the first time four weeks ago when they enjoyed the highest debut on the NACC 200 at #23. Their NACC climb has been relatively slow and methodical, but this week gives them their first Top 10-peaking album.
Also reaching the NACC 200’s Top 10 is another Brooklyn-based band, They Might Be Giants, formed in 1982 by two Johns (Flansburgh and Linnell). These two original members have been flanked by other musicians over the years and the band is currently a quintet. BOOK (Idlewild) is They Might Be Giant’s 23rd LP and this week rises 11-10 on the NACC 200. Over the course of nearly two dozen albums we’ve yet to find out just who ‘they’ are and if ‘they’ are indeed, giants, but we’re certainly happy to be featuring this longtime indie favorite here for the first time.
Honorable mention this week goes to Nell & Flaming Lips for scoring the week’s highest debut at #42 along with Claire Cronin who makes the week’s biggest climb, 193-81.
Three new albums reach the latest NACC Top 20 and since we’ve featured two of them recently, we are happy to shine a light on the third. It’s Swedish five-piece Makthaverskan. If you think that makthaverskan is some cool Swedish word, you’d only be partially correct. It’s based on a real word, but doesn’t actually mean anything, they just thought it sounded cool (hence your partial correctness). And you must think they sound cool too, because they’ve jumped 34-19 this week with their fourth LP, För Allting (Run For Cover).
Ending the year as the last ‘most-added’ record of the year is yet another five-piece band, Seattle’s Fleet Foxes. The group have released their first live album, A Very Lonely Solstice (Anti-). Doubling down on their feverish (though perhaps futile) attempt to educate the public at large about things like an equinox (their last LP was released on the autumnal equinox) and the solstice, Fleet Foxes collects 51 Top 10 Adds this week.
Austin, TX-based, you guessed it, five-piece Spoon locks down a sixth straight week atop the NACC Singles Chart with “The Hardest Cut,” the lead single from their upcoming 10th LP, Lucifer On The Sofa, due February 11. They tie Modest Mouse for the longest stay atop this chart in 2021. Aussie band Babe Rainbow lands the last most-added single of 2021 with “Smash The Machine.” The last adds of the year often are a boon for singles and this year is no exception with the band landing a very rare #2 placement on the overall NACC 200 Adds Chart.
This week’s Top 5 overall NACC Adds, the genre chart-toppers, and the week’s most-added genre records are included below. Along with the aforementioned new #1 at NACC Non-Comm, there are new #1s at NACC NEXT and Jazz as well as returns to #1 on R&B/Soul, World, and Latin.
NACC 200 CHART: TOP 5 ADDS
# | ARTIST | TITLE | LABEL | # OF ADDS
1) FLEET FOXES A Very Lonely Solstice [Anti-] // 51
2) BABE RAINBOW “Smash The Machine” (Single) [Eureka/Kobalt] // 37
3*) LITTLE DRAGON Drifting Out (EP) [Ninja Tune] // 31
3*) SEA OLEENA Weaving A Basket [Cascine] // 31
5) MILAN RING I’m Feeling Hopeful [Astral People/PIAS] // 30
*denotes a tie
NACC 200 CHART: TOP 5 DEBUTS
# | ARTIST | TITLE | LABEL | DEBUT
1) NELL AND THE FLAMING LIPS Where The Viaduct Looms [Bella Union/PIAS] // 42
2) PHOEBE RINGS Phoebe Rings [Self-Released] // 48
3) CASSANDRA JENKINS (An Overview On) An Overview On Phenomenal [Ba Da Bing!] // 70
4) BEACH HOUSE Chapter 2: Once Twice Melody (EP) [Sub Pop] // 74
5) KHRUANGBIN AND LEON BRIDGES “B-Side” (Single) [Dead Oceans] // 79
NACC 200 CHART: TOP 5 CLIMBERS
# | ARTIST | TITLE | LABEL | MOVE
1) CLAIRE CRONIN Bloodless [Ordinal] // 112
2) CIVIC Future Forecast [Flightless] // 108
3) DUMMY Mandatory Enjoyment [Trouble In Mind] // 84
4) SNOTTY NOSE REZ KIDS Life After [Distorted Muse] // 74
5) PICK A PIPER Sea Steps (EP) [Tin Angel] // 73
#1 ON NACC GENRE CHARTS:
GENRE: ARTIST Title [Label]
NON-COMM: CURTIS HARDING If Words Were Flowers [Anti-]
NACC NEXT: IDLES Crawler [Partisan]
BLUES: SUE FOLEY Pinky’s Blues [Stony Plain]
CANADIAN: JULIE DOIRON I Thought Of You [You’ve Changed]
CHILL: MARCONI UNION Signals [Just]
ELECTRONIC: HARD FEELINGS HARD FEELINGS [Domino]
FOLK: ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS Raise The Roof [Rounder/Concord]
HEAVY: MASTODON Hushed And Grim [Reprise]
HIP HOP: AESOP ROCK AND BLOCKHEAD Garbology [Rhymesayers]
JAZZ: HAROLD MABERN Mabern Plays Coltrane [Smoke Sessions]
LATIN: XENIA RUBINOS Una Rosa [Anti-]
R&B/SOUL: CURTIS HARDING If Words Were Flowers [Anti-]
WORLD: ORQUESTRA AKOKAN 16 Rayos [Daptone]
MOST-ADDED @ NACC GENRES:
GENRE: ARTIST Title [Label]
ELECTRONIC: LITTLE DRAGON Drifting Out (EP) [Ninja Tune]
FOLK: AARON SCHOLZ Third Place [Self-Released]
HEAVY: ATLAS Ukko [Long Branch]
HIP HOP: LOCO LOS “Sippin’ My Cafe” (Single) [Self-Released]
JAZZ (tie): FAZER “December” (Single) [City Slang]
GREG AMIRAULT News Blues [Self-Released]
NORAH JONES I Dream Of Christmas [Blue Note]
WORLD: DOWDELIN “Simé Love” [Single] [Underdog]
NACC SINGLES:
GENRE: ARTIST Title [Label]
#1 SINGLE: SPOON “The Hardest Cut” [Matador]
MOST-ADDED SINGLE: BABE RAINBOW “Smash The Machine” (Single) [Eureka/Kobalt]