Cazz Blase: The Big End Of Year Roundup Post: 2021

Hello and welcome to my annual end of the year roundup post!

I'm sticking to the format I used last year as it seemed to work well and seemed a good structure to use when trying to sum up what had been a mind boggling year.

Needless to say, 2021 has been similarly mind boggling, hence clinging to the security blanket provided by my 2020 end of year roundup post structure.

Hopefully you will discover in these lists some interesting reads and listens, and some food for thought.

As has been the case in previous years, I will be running a countdown of my favourite songs of the year on a one track per day basis, starting on the 2nd of December and continuing until the 31st of December. For those of you who use Spotify, a playlist of my Top 30 songs will also be compiled in real time. As usual, a disclaimer: For me, when it comes to compiling the Songs of the Year list, the year runs from November to November. This means I can include any songs I just missed out on including on the previous years list.

Albums of the year

12) Delilah Bon, Delilah Bon

11) Courtney Barnett, Things Take Time Take Time

10) Lana Del Rey, Blue Bannisters

9) Self Esteem, Prioritise Pleasure

8) Noga Erez, KIDS

7) Ruby Fields, Been Doin' It For A Bit

6) Sleater-Kinney, Path of Wellness

5) Olivia Rodrigo, SOUR

4) Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever

3) Penfriend, Exotic Monsters

2) Albertine Sarges, The Sticky Fingers

1) Pom Pom Squad, Death of a Cheerleader

12 books I've read and loved this year

Philip Pullman, La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust vol 1)

Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

Emma Glass, Rest and be thankful

Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Mother Country: Real stories of the Windrush children

Dr. Phil Hammond, Dr Hammond's Covid Casebook

Helen Reddington, She's At The Controls

Elif Shafak, 10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world

Kiley Reid, Such a fun age

Sosuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

Ellis Peters, A Morbid Taste For Bones

Adam MacQueen, The Prime Minister's Ironing Board

Podcasts and Radio from 2021

To be honest, I haven't listened to as many podcasts this year as I have in the past. Over in radio land, the highlight of the year was definitely the ninth series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, which treated the restrictions of lockdown as a chance to experiment with form and, in doing so, created something very special indeed.

Long term film podcast Best Pick reached the end of its initial odyssey and, having survived both the project itself and the confines of lockdown, elected to carry on with a different and evolving film related mission. The exit interview episode is worth a listen, as is the (fairly) recent episode on The Taking of Pelham 123.

I hadn't expected to enjoy (and 'enjoy' is perhaps the wrong word anyway for this podcast...) Pandora Sykes' most recent project Pieces of Britney, but I found myself getting sucked in despite myself. The final episode raises some intelligent and thought provoking points about the nature of fame in the late 90s and early 2000's, and now, and has the advantage of being less reliant on the dramatised scenes used in earlier episodes.

One of the highlights of the Private Eye calendar is the magazines annual Paul Foot Award, which is awarded for high quality investigative journalism work. Every year the Private Eye Podcast, Page 94, introduces listeners to the journalists nominated and their investigations before announcing the winner. It's always a really interesting, inspiring and thought provoking listen that leaves you feeling positive about the future of investigative journalism. You can listen to this years episode here.