A God-awful Small Affair

  This one's going to be even more arbitrary than the albums one I did last week, so hold onto your hats! 2021 wasn't a stellar year for pop. There was something of a cruel irony in last year producing excellent singles and albums from the likes of Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Jessie Ware and Grimes that deserved to have their hits pulsing through sweaty nightclubs, where the only risk of contamination came in the bathroom stalls. This year... sure, there were some gems, but nowhere near on the same scale. Introspection seemed to dominate this year, with Adele and ABBA spearheading the biggest pop moments. Comebacks were often disappointing: Normani's hit with Cardi B might prove popular with some but I found it to be a monotonous waste of time, Shakira's Don't Wait Up was inanely catchy for a brief period but had no right being a lead single, and there were similar damp squibs for Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato and Rita Ora. Contrary to all this preamble, I do

  It should go without saying that I've long abandoned this blog in terms of its original purpose, but actually listening to, and keeping track of what I would "rate" albums is an endeavour that I've yet to grow out of. If you're reading this, I've probably linked it to you through Discord or social media and are just someone that I happen to know. Saying that: I did something similar in 2019 and - if the data supplied to me by Blogger is reliable - it still racked up thousands of views so perhaps I have some more reach than I thought. Maybe one day I'll get back into in-depth reviews. For now... I listened to 113 albums, EPs and mixtapes this year and I only strongly regret, perhaps, ten of them. I used to find it a fun hobby to take an artist I absolutely loathe and defecate on their latest release (I think my most-read reviews were for albums released around 2010-2012 by the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, and Cher Lloyd), but now... I