And that was 2021!

 

So, we've made it though 2021 - was it a classic year at the top of the charts?

Overall, I'd say "No" - pretty average at best.  The overriding take-away for me was the number of albums which came straight in at #1 and then (mostly) disappeared from view in a couple of weeks.  All in all, there were 42 albums that "debuted atop the charts" (as Wikipedia loves to put it for no obvious reason) - the days of such things being rare are long gone and it appears to be the norm these days.  I'm guessing it's a combination of loyal fanbases (often buying physical albums, which count for more) and "new release" playlists.  Of the weeks that weren't a new entry at the top, the vast majority were either Adele or Olivia - nice to see the ladies doing well.

Looking at the top albums on the year-end chart Adele, Ed, Abba and Olivia are the obvious winners from this year (#1-4 respectively) - surprisingly, Olivia's offering was far and away the most enjoyable out of those for me, but I might be tempted to revisit Adele again.  Following on from them, we have 5 albums not released in this year - Queen (I know that streaming has changed things, but any year in which Queen's Greatest Hits comes in at #5 can't be considered a great year), Dua Lipa (which is the highest ranking album which we didn't meet following my rules, which is somewhat surprising since it spent 29 weeks of the year in the top 10), Ed again (with Divide, which I suspect we'll be seeing next year), Elton John (Diamonds - one of his TWELVE greatest hits albums) and Fleetwood Mac's best of (#5-9 respectively).  And then Dave rounds off the top 10 - a surprisingly low-key album for the top ten of the year, I'd suggest.

Of the albums I met on my travels, I'd say not that many stand out as being likely to be revisited but I will call out James and Gary Numan representing old dudes well in a pretty dreadful year for veterans, with other notable exceptions being the oldest dudes Elton and Tom (with over 150 years between the pair of them!), who both made albums which were considerably more interesting and varied than you might expect.  The young dudes didn't do an awful lot better - most of it was hip-hop nonsense with Kanye (if he still counts as young!) and Pop Smoke being the worst offenders, but I will call out Ghetts for bucking the trend and producing an interesting and fine-sounding album. 

Considering the ladies, I'd nominate Lorde, Anne-Marie and Olivia - and I'm pleased to say there weren't any obviously dreadful offerings from the fairer sex, although I still struggle to understand why everyone loves Taylor so much.  On the groups front, there were more heavy-ish offerings this year than I was expecting - they're not really my sort of thing but they all felt to be done well enough if you're into that.  On the not so heavy front, I actively liked the Royal Blood offering and will be making an effort to go back there.  The only other albums I'd call out didn't officially meet my rules for review but Kanye's offering was so dreadful it drove me to listen to all the other new entries in the top ten that week and they were all pretty good. 

Continuing backwards in time to 2020 seems like the obvious way forward - part of me would like to move to a different year, but I can't think of a sensible way to pick which year, so come on 2020 - bring it on!

25/12/20 - A surprising "almost like"
01/01/21 - I won't hear a word against this