“In this world with a lot of problems, all we need is a little loving. Thank you, thank you, oh, you make me thank you, thank you for your love…” –Jon Batiste, “I Need You”
2021 has been yet another crazy year of ups and downs, both personally and in the world. Just when we think we’ve turned a corner and things will finally be getting back to normal (whatever that was/is/will be), something happens to throw us all off track. One of my old managers always used to say, “You can’t make this shit up,” and if there were ever a phrase to describe the last few years, that would have to be it. We’ve all found ourselves having to constantly adapt and do our best to survive, if not thrive. We’ve had at least 2 years of seemingly constant tests and had to learn resilience if we did not already possess it.
With the circumstances, 2020 was perhaps a quieter year for music than some. This was rectified in 2021 when many artists released great music throughout the year. I went over a year without going to a concert (unheard of for me!), and I nearly cried when I went to my first concert – James Bay – in July because I was so happy to be back at a live show for the first time since February 2020. The caught the concert bug and got to attend other concerts a few months later with Snow Patrol finally getting crossed off my concert bucket list, a couple of Cj Pandit shows throughout England, and Ichiko Aoba (a unique experience in normal times) in Dublin. Whenever there’s a break in live shows, no matter the reason, coming back to them always feels a bit like coming home. For a few hours, you get to forget the rest of the world exists. There’s just nothing like seeing live show during the best of times, but it’s a whole different energy when an artist or band hasn’t performed in front of a live audience in so long after everyone goes through the same experience that connects artists with their fans on some level.
In terms of the music I’ve listened to this year, there has been no decline in quantity or quality. I still have music on anytime I am awake and not either on a call or watching TV. I’m constantly looking for new music, whether by listening to friend/YouTube recommendations or hearing a song I like on TV. I don’t like to stream music, except to check it out, so I download everything. iTunes (Apple Music if you’re one of those “Willis Tower” sort of people – I consider the two to be different with Apple Music being the streaming service and iTunes having actual downloads) currently shows that I have 12,608 songs in my library. In my last Song of the Year post, I noted that I had 11,562 songs, so clearly with over 1k songs downloaded in a year, I haven’t slowed down!
With so many songs added, the usual Song of the Year rules must apply: No artists that have already had a song on the list can be repeated. The song must have been released in 2021. I’ve moved away from adding to the Every Day Songs playlist, though I might have to get back into it, and have been listening more to artists’ full catalogues or any of my 80+ playlists. Therefore, the Song of the Year is not necessarily the song I listened to the most or the ‘best’ song of 2021.
As always, I have to list some honourable mentions. Cj Pandit released several new songs that almost took the spot, including “Right Person, Wrong Time,” “Drunk Tattoos” and “Bad Bad Fun” from his Just Before You Disappear EP which were all favourites this year. In all honesty, the main reason I didn’t pick one of those was because then I would have to choose a favourite, and I just couldn’t do that. (Gun to my head, it’d likely be between “Right Person, Wrong Time” and “Drunk Tattoos.”) I also have a feeling that his best is yet to come, and since I have this rule of not repeating artists, I’m saving him for when the obvious choice hits me, just like Tommy Ashby’s “Apollo (New Love)” did in 2019. If this was about the artist or song I listened to most in a year, Cj Pandit would probably be #1, considering I listen to him at least a few times a month, if not weekly. I got into him through a fantasy football (soccer – not NFL, which I have never seen and have zero interest in) podcast of all things because the power of persuasion is strong with me when it comes to music. All you have to do is tell me to listen to an indie artist, and I will gladly oblige! Through Cj Pandit, I also got into Saint Raymond when he opened for them in November. I had never heard of them before I heard he was opening for them, but they released an excellent album We Forgot We Were Dreaming this year. Again, I couldn’t possibly choose a favourite song (“Soft Landing”? “Talk”?), but it’s worth checking out. It was the same issue with both Night Traveler and The Satellite Station. Just too much great music to choose from that I ended up not choosing any because there wasn’t just one song that stood out to me. As far as individual songs go, “Better Than Me” by Camino, “Magic” by By The Coast (the lead singer of Night Traveler’s other band – Imagine me making that realisation!), “Fall Into Me” by Forest Blakk, and “My Only Love” by Voyageur were some favourites, while some others I listened to frequently just weren’t from 2021. Clearly I still listen to a lot of indie! There were some albums and songs that I feel like I didn’t give the attention they deserved (like The Killers’ Pressure Machine), but that is mainly because I got so much new music, although I always listen to the music I download.
Without further ado, I present to you my Song of the Year…
If you know who Jon Batiste is (and you should!), you might be a bit confused about “I Need You” being 2021’s Song of the Year. I spent the first several paragraphs of this banging on about indie artists, and Jon Batiste is not indie. If you know me, you know my tastes are very eclectic. Plus, Jon Batiste himself described his 2021 album WE ARE as “a representation of genreless music that’s just about the story.” If I had to put a genre to “I Need You,” I suppose I’d say it’s a sort of mix of swing/jazz and soul, which is appropriate because Jon Batiste won an Oscar and Golden Globe for composing the music for Soul. It’s actually a bit ridiculous how talented he is.
Like many people, I first heard of Jon Batiste on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he leads the house band. Because I watch the show’s clips on YouTube, “I Need You” was recommended to me by YouTube in January on the day the video was released. From the first time I heard it, I was already wondering if it could be 2021’s Song of the Year. I brushed aside the notion almost immediately, thinking it would be crazy if I found my song so early in the year. Yet throughout the year, I kept listening to it (60 times by iTunes’ current count) and thinking the same thing nearly every time. I suppose sometimes you really do find your Song of the Year in the third week of January!
So why is this upbeat, happy song my Song of the Year amidst the many sad and/or slow indie songs I also loved? Precisely for that reason. The first time I heard “I Need You” and watched the video, I couldn’t sit still and had a big smile on my face the whole time. If the song isn’t happy enough on its own, it’s pretty much impossible to watch the video and not feel happy, and it lifts my mood every time I listen to it. The same applies to his song “Freedom,” which also was a contender.
Obviously I can’t relate to the lyrics of being a ‘lil nappy-head boy’ or ‘lil country boy,’ but that doesn’t matter. In 2021, we all needed some joy and fun, and Jon Batiste delivered with this song. “We done a lot of living. We working overtime. Don’t need another million. You got that goldmine. I love the way you’re livin’ ’cause you’re so genuine. You got that something special. Didn’t you know? I just need you…” We can all relate to that!
When I decided to check out Jon Batiste’s own music, I didn’t know what to expect, but I don’t think I expected to like it as much as I did. I wouldn’t necessarily check out a house band’s music from a TV show like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on a normal basis, but Jon Batiste is different. It wasn’t just about his music. His interactions with Stephen Colbert have always been delightful without feeling forced, and you can see how much he enjoys what he does. His positivity and energy are infectious. Jon Batiste himself was ultimately what caused me to listen to “I Need You” (as well as the whole WE ARE album and other songs of his I came to love) when it was recommended to me, and his shine comes through in the song and video for “I Need You.” Admittedly, all of my experience with Jon Batiste comes from his music, The Late Show, and his social media posts, but as he talks about ‘you’ being genuine, he seems to be that way himself. Everything he sings about the other person in the song can be reflected back to him. It seems safe to say that if there were more people like Jon Batiste, the world would be a much better, brighter place.
“I Need You” is a bit of an anti-2021 song in some ways. 2021 was a mixed bag for me on a personal level, but I’ve seen many people pan it as a bad year, one of the worst for some, for a number of obvious reasons. Apart from the song being such a happy one, it is unique and doesn’t even sound like something out of 2021. It would not be incorrect to say it defies time. “I Need You” is one of those songs that sounds just as timely in 2021 as it would in, say, the 1940s or 1950s. If someone were to replace “Johnny B. Goode” in Back to the Future with it, I think it would work without feeling out of place.
Even though “I Need You” is great in its own right, I recommend watching the whole video to really appreciate it. You can tell just from the thumbnail that it’s fun, and it’s bound to lift your mood. I challenge you to watch it without smiling or tapping your foot along to it. As many times as I’ve heard it, I still can’t keep a straight face and sit still when listening to it. Jon Batiste is just what we all need, and he makes me thank him for this song.
A Melody, The Memory 
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