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READ, WATCH, LISTEN: QUARANTINE CONTENT 2021

Saying that 2020 had any silver linings feels like a crime against humanity. It was a total shit show. But with the extra time at home, we got to (re)visit everything we put on the back burner, particularly in the content consumption department. Movies, books, tv shows, music, trendy TikTok whatever; we got to catch up on everything we missed. For me, that took the form of books and albums. All of the books were new to me, but the albums were a combination of fresh and need a refresher. Check out the full list here.

For 2021, I’ve vowed to consume as much new material as possible. Inspirations have been limited during the pandemic, and while returning to old favorites can be comforting, discovering new content to engage with has helped reinvigorate my creative brain.

Here’s a running list of content I’ve consumed this year. For this list, I’ve added categories for movies, tv shows, and books to accompany the albums with the hope that you will take my recommendations for a spin but also feel compelled to share your own lists with me. You can do so on Twitter, Instagram, or via email.

ALBUMS

  1. Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them - Blu & Exile
  2. Lungs (Deluxe Edition) - Florence + The Machine
  3. Free Love - Sylvan Esso
  4. Heligoland - Massive Attack
  5. Black Bastards - KMD
  6. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
  7. Bitches Brew - Miles Davis
  8. Black Saint and the Sinner Lady - Charles Mingus
  9. Blak and Blu (Deluxe Edition) - Gary Clark Jr.
  10. Fast Lovers - Lemaitre
  11. We Will Always Love You - The Avalanches
  12. Simple Things - Zero 7
  13. Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
  14. Escape From Monsta Island - Monsta Island Czars
  15. Mr. Hood - KMD
  16. Explorations - Bill Evans Trio
  17. Begin Again - Norah Jones
  18. The Garden - Zero 7
  19. Aretha Now - Aretha Franklin
  20. Woman - Justice
  21. Arigato - Hank Jones
  22. Boy In Da Corner - Dizzee Rascal
  23. The Incredible True Story - Logic
  24. Wave Twisters, Episode 7 Million: Sonic Wars Within the Protons - DJ Qbert
  25. Music By Cavelight - Blockhead
  26. Shades of Blue - Madlib
  27. Origins (Wave Twisters Zero) - DJ Qbert
  28. Dreams - Gabor Szabo
  29. Songs: The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3 - Brad Mehldau
  30. Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book - Blockhead
  31. The Awakening - Ahmad Jamal Trio
  32. How To Be A Human Being - Glass Animals
  33. Yessir Whatever - Quasimoto & Madlib
  34. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
  35. Free Nationals - Free Nationals
  36. The Unseen - Quasimoto & Madlib
  37. Attempted Mustache - Loudon Wainwright III
  38. Spilligion - Spillage Village
  39. TYRON - slowthai
  40. Crazysexycool - TLC
  41. The Further Adventures of Lord Quas - Quasimoto & Madlib
  42. American Beauty - Grateful Dead
  43. Durham vs Everybody - G Yamazawa
  44. The Never Story - J.I.D.
  45. Songs in A Minor - Alicia Keys
  46. Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
  47. Charity Starts At Home - Phonte Coleman
  48. Mosiac of the Orient - Elias Rahbani
  49. Lessons in Love - Sinead Harnett
  50. The Other Side of the Moon - Redd Holt Unlimited
  51. Modern Addiction - TENDER
  52. Count 'Em 88 - Ahmad Jamal Trio
  53. fabric presents Maribou State (DJ Mix) - Maribou State
  54. Weather - Tycho
  55. Dad's Old Tapes - North Downs
  56. Untitled (Black Is) - SAULT
  57. Andy - Raleigh Ritchie
  58. Freudian - Daniel Caesar
  59. Isolation - Kali Uchis
  60. Harry Styles - Harry Styles
  61. French Kiwi Juice - FKJ
  62. SuperGood - Duckwrth
  63. Chaos 93' - Ocean Wisdom
  64. channel ORANGE - Frank Ocean
  65. The Off-Season - J. Cole
  66. Be Right Back - Jorja Smith
  67. Immunity - Clairo
  68. What We Learned EP - Footrocket
  69. Mura Masa - Mura Masa
  70. My Vinyl Weighs A Ton - Peanut Butter Wolf

To make things easy for you, the albums list has its own Spotify playlist! Each album is represented by one song on the list to give you a taste of what to expect. Listen along.

BOOKS

  1. Dune (in progress)
  2. On Tyranny
  3. Why We're Polarized

The pandemic has been hard on all of us. To combat the fatigue of being stuck at home, I decided to spend a lot of time reading to try and better myself. Since March 2020, I’ve purchased 24 books and read 8! In fairness, Dune is like 800 pages. If you are interested in learning more about what piqued my interest during this run, you can view the full list of books here. If you decide to purchase one of the books on this list, you support local bookstores AND independent storytelling at Buddy Ruski.

MOVIES

  1. Lost In Translation
  2. the little things
  3. Spotlight
  4. Ava
  5. BIGGIE: I Got A Story To Tell
  6. Leon: The Professional
  7. My Octopus Teacher
  8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  9. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

TV SHOWS

  1. Lupin
  2. Wandavision
  3. Ramy
  4. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier