The Top 25 Albums Of 2021 (So Far): Leslie Jordan - 'Company's Comin''

“Well shit, what ya’ll doin’?” - honestly, there's no other way to start talking about Leslie Jordan. 

At 65, Jordan became both a social media darling AND an artist with a debut album. No, really. 

Throughout 2020, the US actor and his aforementioned catchphrase between Instagram stars following a series of extremely relatable posts amid various stages of COVID lockdowns. As The Guardian describes it, it's everything from "arguing with his family (he spent early lockdown in a holiday let in Tennessee to be near his mum and twin sisters), or attempting to exercise to Britney Spears bangers, or sharing gossipy titbits about celebrities".

Best-known for his role as Karen Walker's nemesis Beverly Leslie in the long-running Will & Grace, Jordan surprised many when he released his debut album, Company's Comin', in April this year. 

What surprised many more though is the sheer star power that he brought along to the album. "I wanted it to be like we're just all in the living room, and somebody picked up the guitar and we just all started singing,” he told Apple Music of the project. We're not talking up-and-comers either - among the many to feature on Company's Comin' is Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and none other than Ms Dolly Parton herself (** faints **). 

“What can you say? Both Dolly and I are getting older, and it's comforting to know we'll see each other — and we're going to see all y'all — where the soul never dies," he said of his and Parton's track Where The Soul Never Dies. 

"We met in Nashville at a soundstage where she was actually doing a Good Morning America or some kind of Zoom tape something or another. And she said, ‘I'll sing with you.'"

While a Gospel-style album might be everyone's cup of tea, an underdog story probably is. Listen to it with an open heart because you just know that's how it was made.