1 last season following its release on Sept. My Gift spends a seventh nonconsecutive week atop the tally, after six weeks at No. (The chart generally returns every October.) The Top Holiday Albums tally will continue to be published on a weekly basis through early January of 2022, when it will jingle away until the next holiday season.

Throw in gems by veterans like the Foo Fighters, 59-year-old literary country-rock artist James McMurtry, and (get yours, Eighties-metal kids) Iron Maiden, and the weekly clip of must-hear stuff was as bountiful as it’s ever been.Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart returns for the 2021 holiday season, with Carrie Underwood’s 2020 release My Gift leading the list (dated Oct. Perhaps most exciting was the continuous arrival of wonderful records by truth-telling women from throughout the ever-shifting global hip-hop/R&B/grime/afrobeats diaspora (with stellar releases from Jazmine Sullivan, Pinkpantheress, Dawn Richard, Little Simz, and Tems, to name just a few). It was a fantastic year for indie singer-songwriters whose storytelling hit as hard as their guitars ( Lucy Dacus, Snail Mail) and for pop synthesists from across the Spanish-speaking world (from Afro-Cuban hip-hop fusionist Cimafunk to omnidirectional reggaeton showman Rauw Alejandro).

The biggest curveball of all was an unstoppable chart phenomenon few saw coming a year ago: Olivia Rodrigo, who arrived out of nowhere (or at least the Disney Channel) to rewrite the rules of the Top 40 with her instant-classic debut, Sour. But while those blockbuster releases lived up to the industry’s ever-swelling hype, this year was often more about welcome surprises - like ornery rap visionary Tyler, the Creator meeting the world halfway with the most focused performance of his career, or Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner going from low-fi bedroom dreamer into futurist New Wave maximalist. 2021 had plenty of marquee events in the music world: Superstars like Adele, Billie Eilish, and Lil Nas X all came through with albums that deepened their stories and solidified their greatness.

Best holiday albums 2021