When the chips are down, music becomes our life raft, buoying us through all the insecurity and instability with songs that empathise, galvanise, satirise or even trivialise. Music is the warm blanket, to wrap you up and steal you away, even if it's just for a moment. And so to 2021 which, so far, has bore nothing short of a goddamn goldmine of new albums. In no particular order here are our favourites. Music played Arlo Parks - Caroline Mogwai - Midnight Fit Dry Cleaning - Unsmart Lady Japanese Breakfast - Posing In Bondage Serpentwithfeet - Fellowship BICEP - Atlas Sleaford Mods - Elocution Cassandra Jenkins - Hard Drive Black Country, New Road - Sunglasses Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime https://blog.roughtrade.com/albums-of-the-year-so-far-2021/