The Best of Me, 2021






To say that 2021 was a rough year would be an understatement. For me, personally, it was a harder one to get through than 2020 was, and frankly I'm feeling a bit more beaten down and pessimistic now than I was a year ago. But I got through it, I did some things I'm proud of this year, and I'll take a quick look back before moving on. 

- Like last year, Spin was the place I wrote for the most in 2021. Among other things, I profiled Tim Foljahn, I eulogized Charlie Watts and Chucky Thompson, I analyzed this year's Grammy nominations and how 1996 was a turning point for alternative rock, and I made massive lists of the best live albums of the 1970s and the greatest music video artists. 

- I wrote pieces for Billboard about Adele's album rollout, iconic duos who have reunited, and songs that artists released between #1 hits. 

- For GQ, I wrote about New Radicals and interviewed Nile Rodgers and Robert Randolph and John Oates. 

- I began contributing to Consequence this year, and wrote about Silverchair and interviewed Josh Klinghoffer and (once again!) Nile Rodgers.

- I wrote a little about TV for Complex.  

- I appeared on the Head Rush podcast, and on Debateable on SiriusXM. 

- Here on Narrowcast, the blog I have maintained for 17 years (!) now, I made lists of the best R&B singles of the 1990s and the best country singles of the 2000s. I posted dozens of new playlists in my Deep Album Cuts series, and some of my favorites include Todd Rundgren, Genesis, Run-DMC, The Everly Brothers, ZZ Top, Young Thug, Britney Spears, Carole King, The Lemonheads, and Split Enz. And of course this month I posted my favorite albums, singles, EPs, remixes, and TV shows of 2021. 

- Since I was at home a lot this year, I decided to record music every single day of 2021, and kept a Twitter recording log of what I did each day. A lot of that work went into my 4th Western Blot album Ivy, and I put out several other non-album tracks, including "Valeria" (which I released alongside the first DJ set I've ever done), and "Proximity," which came out on the celestial/crystallize label earlier this month. And I did a bunch of long distance collaborations with George Bonanza and played drums on several tracks he released this year.   

This entry was posted on Monday, December 27, 2021 at 10:00 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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