John’s Top Ten Albums of 2021

I listened to a lot of cool music in 2021. The problem is all the “new” artists I got into were artists who had released albums in 2020. So not only did it fuck this year’s list, it fucked last year’s list too. If you’re curious those bands were Beach Bunny, Vulfpeck, and Khurangbin. Thanks a lot 2020.

The hard part of listmaking this year was I had no road map. I gave up on Pitchfork about a year ago cuz they think they’re so big. YouTube turned out to be helpful. I follow a couple of indie record labels and try to keep tabs on up and coming artists. KEXP’s YouTube channel is incredibly helpful. Those guys r kewl.

And I’m not embarrassed to admit I still check the Billboard Hot 100. Well, maybe a little embarrassed. I say all this and I didn’t end up with that crazy of a list. At least it’s not crazy to me. I’m not crazy. Anyways, here’s my not crazy list.

Honorable Mention
I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you.

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Sean’s Top 10 Albums of 2021

(The featured image comes from the best live performance of 2021: Final Fantasy XIV composer Masayoshi Soken’s rendition of the “La Hee” meme. You might need to hear the real song for context.)

For the second year in a row, I find myself feeling disconnected from the annual top 10 process. I can think of a few possibilities for that, and, first and foremost of them is the fact that I’m in my thirties now and therefore much less cool and getting lamer by the day. But also there’s still this whole thing going on and that prevailing despair definitely effects my mood. Plus, that situation means a lot of media is still getting delayed, cancelled, or changed as we learn to adapt – which ultimately makes the idea of confining years feel less essential than ever before. But now I feel like I’m getting all Neil deGrasse Tyson on you, so I’ll stop and say: check out some awesome music below!

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Colin’s Top Ten Albums of 2021

Unlike the past few years, 2021 didn’t particularly feel like a stand-out year for music. The easiest thing to blame this on would be the (still) ongoing pandemic, which continued to disrupt the ecosystem of the music industry in various ways, from artists having to cancel already-rescheduled live dates to indie labels having trouble getting their vinyl releases pressed. It was a year that had a lot of good albums, but only a handful of great ones. Also, it was a year where music felt less essential as we got further into it and we humans felt a little more free to go out and do things with other humans instead of hiding in our homes and hoping a good collection of songs could give us some comfort. Yet here we are, tucked back inside our homes with the cold weather and another wave of the virus raging, while these albums still feel like a suitable respite from it all. Continue reading →

Sean’s Top 10 Movies of 2020

As the others have said, 2020 was a tough year for the movies. I guess I’m more like Colin than John, as I didn’t have the discipline to build a ritual around trying to keep up with new releases. That’s partly because I do already have a movie watching tradition – I try to watch something with my dad every Tuesday – and the types of movies we’d watch are the ones that got delayed to 2021 and beyond. Actually, the last time I went to a theater was a dad Tuesday; we saw The Gentlemen at one of those weird dine-in cinemas. That movie wasn’t particularly memorable, but I do remember stocking up on canned goods at the supermarket on the way home per his advice. Last year sucked.

That said, coming up with a theme for this year’s list wasn’t that hard at all. Please enjoy my favorite 2020 movies about overcoming grief!

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Colin’s Top Ten Movies of 2020

I’ll be honest. I was pretty checked out on new movies for basically all of 2020, though I suppose so was America. It was a bad year for movies, just as it was a bad year for any industry that relied on large groups of people coming together. So looking at my list, I think I saw 80% of these in the last month, though it’s true that most years cram a bunch of their best movies into the end-of-year award cycle period. Still, because all of these are new to me and because I didn’t get to see any of them in a theater, I can’t say I’m all that attached to them. Though that’s not to say that they weren’t worth catching up with, as I’m certainly glad I did. Continue reading →

John’s Top Ten Movies of 2020

Happy New President Day everybody! I know it’s too early tell how much of a difference that’ll make in our daily lives but come on, HUGE STEP UP from the last guy. Riding on those good vibes let me tell you about some of da movies I liked.

It was a rough year for da movies. It’s been almost a year since I’ve been in a theater and I had to spend $20+ to watch Tenet while raccoons loudly munched on cat food outside our sliding glass door. That being said every time a new release did come out it was special. My brother and I made a ritual out of Saturday nights. We would pop that corn, sit in a darkened living room, and put on whatever 2020 movie had limped its way to a streaming service. Not all of the films were great and it never quite matched the feeling of a movie theater, but I cherished that weekly experience. So thank you 2020 movies that did come out. You helped me get through one hell of a year. Hell in the bad way. We are in Hell.

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Colin’s Top Ten TV Shows of 2020

Most years, I usually try to make excuses for why I didn’t get around to watching as many TV shows as I wanted to. This year, those excuses didn’t really exist. After all, what else was there to do last year than sit at home and let hours upon hours of television whisk you away from an ever darker reality? Yet, there was something about this endless time to sit around and watch TV that made the medium just a little less enticing. It’s hard to look at TV as an opportunity to slow down and enjoy something after a long day when it feels like everything had already slowed down and any sort of enjoyment was hard to come by. That said, I was somehow able to find a bunch of enjoyment in the shows listed below.

Also, I usually include a list of shows I wish I’d caught up with from the past year, but Better Call Saul’s really the only one I have for 2020, which I blame AMC for. Like, why even have an app for your network if it doesn’t have the only show anyone cares about? Continue reading →