Listen to filmmaker Edgar Wright's Top 50 Songs of 2021 playlist

Filmmaker Edgar Wright is one of the most musically-oriented directors working today, making amazing use of pop in his films, from a zombie action sequence choreographed to Queen in Shaun of the Dead, to the bank heists timed to songs in Baby Driver. This year he released two movies: great music documentary The Sparks Brothers, and psychological horror film Last Night in Soho, which makes great use of tracks by Petula Clark, The Kinks, The Walker Brothers, Cilla Black, and more.

Edgar is a voracious listener and maker of playlists, and he’s just shared a playlist of his favorite songs of 2021. “In a year when my head was full of Sparks & Sixties pop, I did somehow manage to listen to a lot of great new music too,” he writes. Edgar’s list includes tracks by Wet Leg, Dry Cleaning, Self Esteem, Angel Olsen, ABBA, Metronomy, audiobooks, Silk Sonic, Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul, King Gizzard, Squid, Big Thief, Little Simz, Wolf Alice, Arlo Parks, and more. And yes, his favorite band, Sparks, made the list too. Listen to Edgar Wright’s Top 50 Songs of 2021 list below.