Could this be the worst year of music ever with a limited number of releases and few live performances?

The few artists favoured by the media - especially the BBC - ruled the airwaves with the most cringe-worthy ITV Adele show in front of A-C listed ‘people’, one of the most embarrassing exhibitions I have ever seen. One BBC radio station even dared compare Adele with the great female singers like Nina Simone. With her heavily Americanised singing accent, this vastly overrated artist sells like few others, while others struggle for airplay and media coverage. It’s shameful and sad.

It’s been a year of beautifully presented, remastered anniversary and box set releases. Black Sabbath box sets represent the ultimate for fan gifting while releases from the George Harrison, Beatles, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, The Charlatans, Moby and Metallica reminded me on just how good those times were. And how those releases have stood the test of time. The new version of West Side Story is welcome and I suspect will come close to matching the original 1961 version. During this most difficult year for the coverage of live shows there was a single bright, shining light. By one very coincidence the Sky Arts channel was added to Freeview which allowed access to everyone for - FOR FREE! The quality and range of arts covered was unrivalled; way better than the burgeoning money pit of the BBC; and allowed us to see live performances from many genres. For this reason Sky Arts easily grabbed the mantle of channel of the year for me.

Of the records I heard in 2021 these were my favourites in no particular order:

Deathretro

Margo Cilker

Danny George Wilson

Danielle Lewis

Martha Wainwright

Brand New Zeros