55: 2021

Hello. Happy new year.

I hope you’re keeping healthy and warm. Also, hopefully you’ve been able to grab some decent festive down-time.

My usual end-of-year patterns (bog standard reflection, resolution and renewal) have gone to pot but it’s okay. Nothing bad is happening but the season has already vanished. We’re redecorating, so tree and cards and tinsel came down early, in fact our living room is fully dismantled, ready for the paint job. We’ll exist upstairs for a week, which is fine. I’m not moaning.

My long-form writing was unexpected blocked for several weeks. It was fairly continuous since Jim’s tour — but I’m working hard on fixing it. I went back to Julia Cameron’s legendary (and essential) ‘morning pages’ exercise for the first time in over a decade — and it’s doing the job I believe.

Anyway, here’s my arts review of 2021. The same procedure as every year. I found compiling this oddly unbalancing this time: categorisation in the digital age is becoming a real problem. What even is an important arthouse film, if it’s on telly next to the reality shows? Thoughts like that are starting to skew how I see all these artforms, right across our culture. The messy edge imposes more and more on the tidy middle (which is overall a good thing of course) and, looking back, my cultural disconnection conveys accurately the sense of an unmoored, confusing year. There even seems to be a two month gap in early autumn where I stopped noting down stuff altogether. That hasn’t happened before, I swear.

By the way, I’ve delayed publishing my annotated lyric book, though it’s completed and I’m proud of it. I’ve been persuaded to be moderately more ambitious for it, so it’s due in spring, on hold while I chase a potentially better way to share it more widely than just printing up a few hundred copies and sending them to you. We’ll see.

So. All the very best for the coming year. I’m sure you’ll smash it.

For now, enjoy the review...

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2021

For me, maybe for you, the arts don’t feel like previous years. Not solely because of being reshaped by the pandemic, though obviously Covid is making a deep impact on how we consume culture, and especially (obviously) the live arts. But in parallel, I felt a separate seismic shift truly kick in, in the medium and the message, in how/when/why we enjoy and assess the arts, through the rhythm of a year. I haven’t unpacked it yet, though. Perhaps that’ll be a journey of 2022.

I remember back in early 2020, before Covid, I decided to separate out ‘documentaries’ from film, TV and spoken audio on my lists, grouping them as a category of their own, regardless of delivery method. I liked it a lot but in December that year, submitting my list for the annual Team Jim Bob charts, the team wasn’t up for my messing with categories, so I did a last minute backpedal. This year, when it came to the Team Jim Bob list, we all struggled to summon the usual enthusiasm of previous years. Also the list just went up on Facebook, instead of getting a dedicated blog entry. It seemed to me we were all hesitant, though we still love chatting about culture all the time. Mr Spoons didn’t want to submit at all.

Today, looking back at these lists and tidying them up to share with you, without it being a bad year for stuff per se — even if I can’t pinpoint what’s missing — I sense that something is profoundly awry with the notion of capturing the heart of our culture with a list like this; in the formatting and framing of categories. More broadly (for example) some people are more passionately, toxically invested in what others like, or don’t like. Only this morning Twitter is reacting loudly and angrily to Stewart Lee’s culture review. His lists are chaotic, exhaustive and he includes people he liked and disliked in 2021. I agree with some, disagree with others but of course it has zero impact on my admiration for Stewart Lee himself. It’s wrong to even feeling a need to clarify this. Not that people care about my list as they might about Stew’s list.

Let me get going, perhaps I’ll figure it out as we trundle along.

FAVOURITE ALBUMS

Another terrific year for LPs, though whole genres slipped by me this year, more than previously. Not enough heavy music, nor experimental stuff. I didn’t get some of the most acclaimed albums of 2021, simply couldn’t hear what was important about them. That’s cool though.

1. Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders, LSO — Promises
2. Self Esteem — Prioritise Pleasure
3. Richard Dawson & Circle — Henki
4. Josienne Clarke — A Small Unknowable Thing
5. Lucy Dacus — Home Video
6. Jon Wilks — Up The Cut
7. Holly Humberstone — The Walls Are Way Too Thin EP
8. Squid — Bright Green Field
9. Taylor Swift — Red (Taylor’s Version)
10. Shannon Lay — Geist 

11. Thirty Pounds Of Bone — Whence, The
12. Low — Hey What
13. Eliza Shaddad — The Woman You Want
14. Hiss Golden Messenger — Quietly Blowing It
15. Dodie — Build A Problem
16. NYX/Gazelle Twin — Deep England
17. Adrian Crowley — The Watchful Eye Of The Stars
18. James Yorkston — The Wide, Wide River
19. Sam Fender — Seventeen Going Under
20. Tom Jones — Surrounded By Time

and the other records that I scored 8/10 or above:

Abdoujaparov — Race Home Grow Love
Arab Strap — As Days Get Dark
Arlo Parks — Collapsed In Sunbeams 
Billie Eilish — Happier Than Ever
Black Country, New Road — For The First Time
Bo Burnham — Inside - The Songs
Celeste — Not Your Muse
Clairo — Sling
Dave — We’re All Alone In This Together
Emma-Jean Thackray — Yellow
Ghetts — Conflict Of Interest
Grace Petrie — Connectivity
Grasscut — Overwinter (both versions)
Halsey — If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
Hannah Peel — Fir
Jim Ghedi — In The Furrows Of Common Place  
John Francis Flynn — I Would Not Live Always
Julien Baker — Little Oblivions
Kutiman — Surface Currents
Kishi Bashi — Emigrant EP
Lady Nade — Willing
Lau — Unplugged
Lorde — Solar Power
Lotta St Joan — Hands
Madlib — Sound Ancestors
Mogwai — As The Love Continues
Oddfellows Casino — The Cult Of Water (both versions)
Roxanne de Bastion — You & Me, We Are The Same
Sunny War — Simple Syrup

Obviously I’ve excluded Jim Bob — Who Do We Hate Today despite it being a masterful record, easily good enough for the list. I’m proud to have played piano and sung on it, and on the tour. I wonder if one reason my listening dipped in the middle of the year was excitement and prepping for Jim’s album and tour.

FAVOURITE INDIVIDUAL TRACKS

1. Lucy Dacus — ‘Thumbs’
2. Holly Humberstone — ‘Please Don’t Leave Just Yet’
3. Taylor Swift — ‘All Too Well (10 minute version)’
4. Sam Fender — ‘Seventeen Going Under’
5. Lorde — ‘Stoned In The Nail Salon’
6. Lizzo feat Cardi B — ‘Rumors’
7. The Vega Bodegas — ‘All My Fish Are Dead’
8. Madi Diaz — ‘New Person, Old Place’
9. Bo Burnham — ‘White Woman’s Instagram’
10. Tom Jones — Talking Reality Television Blues’
11. Wet Leg — 'Chaise Lounge’
12. Self Esteem — ‘I Do This All The Time’
13. Arab Strap — ‘Fable Of The Urban Fox’
14. Coldplay — just the chorus of ‘Higher Power’
15. Greentea Peng — ‘Nah It Ain’t The Same’

FAVOURITE LIVE (IN REAL LIFE) MUSIC

Jon Hopkins at The Old Market
IamFya at Patterns
Priss Nash, Aflo The Poet, Nelson Navarro at Presuming Ed’s 
Hurtling on the Jim Bob tour
Frankie Jean at Slack City Social
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls at Concorde 2 & LEIV
Beans On Toast at Slack City Social
Nova Twins at Lost Evenings IV
Greenness at Slack City Social
Rokurokubi’s 10 minute sexy psych wig-out at Slack City Social
The Meffs at Lost Evenings IV
Heather Sheret from HANYA solo set at Slack City Social
Emily Barker & Lukas Drinkwater at The Komedia
Laurie Black at Slack City Social
The Lottery Winners at Lost Evenings IV
Mara Simpson at The Komedia

I was gutted to miss Abdoujaparov at the Lexington when I got the wrong day, but then half the audience and band got Covid, so that was a bullet dodged.

FAVOURITE FILMS

1. = The Disciple
1. = Summer Of Soul
3. White Tiger
4. Green Knight
5. Dune
6. Judas & The Black Messiah
7. The Power Of The Dog
8. I’m No Longer Here
9. Black Bear
10. Nomadland

11. Four Hours At The Capitol
12. Sound Of Metal
13. Soul
14. Palm Springs
15. Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings
16. The Dig
17. Sherpa
18. King Rocker
19. Max Richter’s Sleep
20. The Mitchells Vs The Machines

I haven’t yet seen Minari, Springsteen’s No Nukes concert, Passing, or West Side Story, all of which could make the list.

FAVOURITE TV

Obviously like many people, we watched buckets of telly, more than I could’ve imagined, including sticking with shows that pre-pandemic I would’ve abandoned after twenty minutes. Back in 2020, I was still shocked by how easily we’d fallen into the manipulative world of reality TV when coronavirus came along. Now I’m sadly used to it. It’s become normal viewing to sit with stuff I am not actually getting anything from, not really enjoying at all, to let my brain decompress, or keeping Rifa company. In 2022, I must wind this down, though it won’t be easy, given the addictive comfort of emptiness. These fucking times! 

1. It’s A Sin
2. Exterminate All The Brutes
3. Get Back
4. Ted Lasso
5. The Terror (made in 2018, on the BBC in 2021) *
6. Strictly Come Dancing
7. The Great
8. Grayson Perry’s Art Club
9. Reservation Dogs
10. The Investigation

11. Richard Osman’s House Of Games
12. The White Lotus
13. Taskmaster
14. The Good Fight (season 4)
15. Midnight Mass (apart from the ending)
16. Master Of None — Moments In Love
17. When Eagles Dare
18. Vigil
19. The World’s Most Amazing Property Rentals
20. Blown Away (season 2)

21. We Are Lady Parts
22. Ghosts
23. Motherland
24. Squid Game
25. The Chair

(I haven’t yet watched Succession season three, which I’m sure would be in there. 


FAVOURITE SPOKEN AUDIO — SPECIFIC EPISODES

Home Cooking: Starch Nemesis (Samin performs ‘Refrigerator 1957’)
SongExploder: Lucy Dacus - ‘Thumbs’
In Our Time: Emilie du Châtelet
Louis Theroux: Grounded — FKA Twigs
Laura Barton’s Notes On Music: One True Love (Springsteen)
Desert Island Discs — Jack Thorne
Annie Mac interviews Lana Del Ray on Radio 1
The Possibility Club — MVT’s Mark Davyd
Adam Buxton — Isobel Allende
Fresh Air — Questlove on Summer Of Soul
Desert Island Discs — Robert Macfarlane
Don’t Ask Me: cow mezzanine (lots of cow shit)
SongExploder: John Lennon - ‘God’
The Possibility Club — Fiona Bevan
In Our Time: The Rosetta Stone
Adam Buxton — Lee Mack (unexpectedly all about Buddhism)

FAVOURITE SPOKEN RADIO / PODCAST SERIES

1. SongExploder
2. Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast
3. Slate Political Gabfest (except when Ross Douthat is on)
4. Longform podcast
5. In Our Time
6. Totally Football Show
7. Kermode & Mayo’s Film Show
8. Slate Culture Gabfest
9. Home Cooking
10. Exit Scam

11. Adam Buxton Podcast
12. Fresh Air
13. Don’t Ask Me
14. Slow Burn (seasons 5 and 6)
15. 99% Invisible
16. The Great Humbling
17. Human Resources
18. A World To Win
19. Out To Lunch
20. The Life Scientific

FAVOURITE BOOKS

1. John Higgs — William Blake Versus The World
2. Jay Griffiths — Why Rebel
3. Patrick Radden Keefe — Empire Of Pain
4. Ella Frears — Shine, Darling (poetry collection)
5. Sinead O’Connor — Rememberings
6. Katy Wix — Delicacy
7. The Gastro Obscura book
8. Torrey Peters — Detransition, Baby
9. Franz Nicolay — Someone Should Pay For Your Pain
10. Laurie Woolever — Bourdain - In Stories

11. A.K. Blakemore — The Manningtree Witches
12. Colson Whitehead — Harlem Shuffle
13. Harry Sword — Monolithic Undertow
14. Willy Vlautin — The Night Always Comes
15. David Keenan — Monument Maker
16. Paul Kingsnorth — Alexandria
17. Shon Fay — The Transgender Issue
18. Vanessa Machada de Oliveira — Hospicing Modernity 
19. Oliver Gray — Detention
20. Sharon Duggal — Should We Fall Behind

I’ve sadly excluded Neil Witherow’s wonderful exhaustive memoir about following Crystal Palace F.C. to overseas games, Don’t Mention The Spor, because I helped proof-read it.

FAVOURITE VISUAL ART

1. Hepworth: Art and Life, Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield
2. Graham Duff’s private collection, his flat
3. British Museum permanent galleries
4. British Museum — History Of Money (permanent collection)
5. Crace Designers at the Royal Pavilion — Brighton Museum
6. Marina Amarol’s twitter feed (art history / hand-colorised photography)

Earlier this year I reluctantly gave up my coffee snobbery, because I needed to decaffeinate, to try to be healthier. This continues to make me sad but it was for the best. So I can’t judge posh coffee shops anymore.

FOOD AND DRINK

1. Home By Nico — Korean, delivery
2. Ashdown Park Hotel — afternoon tea, East Sussex
3. Terre A Terre — veggie tapas lunch, Brighton
4. Nordish — Nordic bakery, Saltaire
5. Bendito Maiz — vegan Mexican pop-up, Brighton
6. Botanique — plant-based dinner, Brighton
7. Piglets Pantry — afternoon tea, delivery
8. Roasthost — veggie Sunday roast, delivery
9. Kusaki — plant-based Japanese, Brighton
10. Chilli Pickle — Indian food, Brighton

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get in touch

email: chris@christt.com
Insta: @cjthorpetracey @thebordercrossing @folkhampton
Twitter: @christt | @folkhampton

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Please look after yourself and your people.
All my love and all good things, as always.

Chris
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