The Music 2021 Writers' Poll: Cyclone Wehner

Album Of The Year

1. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert  
2. Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth        
3. Jordan Rakei - What We Call Life       
4. Laura Mvula - Pink Noise        
5. Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises  
6. Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant            
7. Astronomia - The Fall Of Saturn         
8. Allday - Drinking With My Smoking Friends   
9. Milan Ring - I'm Feeling Hopeful         
10. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club     

Song Of The Year

1. CHVRCHES - How Not To Drown feat. Robert Smith
2. ABBA - I Still Have Faith In You           
3. Tkay Maidza - High Beams     
4. The Weeknd - Take My Breath           
5. Blawan  - Under Belly  

Film Of The Year

1. Archive            
2. Dune    
3. No Time To Die           

Highlight Of The Year

I relieved temporal anxiety amid the pandemic by curating narrative playlists on Spotify around films and TV shows, down to moodboarding. It changes how you listen to music – combining new, old and lost.     

Prediction For Next Year

Post-pandemic, the interiority that has defined music in later years will recede and pop culture will become more about communal joy – the mood politically constructive. The 2000s' nu-rave genre could return, being visceral, chaotic and fun. The music industry needs to become more globalised in outlook (for example, music journalism doesn't just happen in the US and UK – and the Adele campaign highlighted how centralised and exclusionary access to advance music for reviews has become). In the case of the majors, there needs to be a reconsideration of laissez-faire digital promotion. Stans are not your marketing department. It won't happen, but I would love to interview Theo James – he is an exceptionally intelligent actor and his career choices intrigue me – and the Red Scare podcast girls, as the contradictions of Eastern European diaspora are a personal interest.