Lockdown! at the Disco #31: The 2020 Review

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Hiya folks, let’s cut to the chase here: 2020 has been hell on wheels. We all know it. We all lived it. It’s been an absolute horror.  

BUT

while the year has had it’s myriad of challenges – to put it politely – we aren’t going to focus on them as we reflect on the year that’s just passed, and the new one that’s starting. 

Instead, we’re going to look at the things that were good about 2020 – because honestly, the year wasn’t all bad. As individuals, as a community, culturally, and socially, improvements have been made and good things have happened. So let’s get these boss vibes pushed…

TRACK ONE: “Electric Love” – Borns

Hiya! Come on in, blast a party popper or two and prepare to say ADIOS! To 2020 and BONJOURNO to 2021 with me, your friendly neighbourhood podcast host Amy Roberts. 

You’re listening to episode #31 of Comics Youth Radio presents Lockdown! at the Disco and this is our 2020: Year in Review episode where we’re going to be ignoring all the harsh, heavy, difficult, and painful things that happened in 2020, and focusing on the things that happened that were actually kind of good. 

Starting the episode there with a big blast of sparkle joy was Borns (pr: berns) with “Electric Love” and that was requested by Raf. And we’ll be hearing a little more from them in a bit.

In today’s episode we’re gonna be highlighting our favourite books, tv shows, movies, and music that we’re released this year as well as the general culture and hobbies that have been keeping us afloat during some difficult times. 

We’re also going to be reflecting on some personal achievements and celebrating our strength and resilience as individuals and as a community – so get ready to flex those biceps with pride! 

Naturally, this also means that today’s playlist is stacked full of some of the best tracks of 2020 as requested by the Comics Youth community! 

As ever, this is our usual episode disclaimer that whilst every effort is made to keep Lockdown! at the Disco as family friendly and cleancut as possible that there may be some language or content which may not be appropriate for younger listeners so parental discretion is advised! 

 But for now, we’re gonna keep the jams coming with this huge 2020 bop as requested by Comics Youth queer hero Kay Dale – this is “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.

TRACK TWO: “Rain On Me” – Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande
TRACK THREE: “Blinding Lights” – The Weeknd

That was “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd which was one of the most streamed songs of this year according to Spotify, so that’s nice for him innit. And that was requested by Tom.

Swinging back to what we said at the start of the episode there, 2020 has been an absolute relentless horror and it has served up a bottomless pit of challenges which have been different for everyone.

But suffice it to say, we’ve made it this far and I reckon all of us should be feeling pretty hecking smug with ourselves for how we’ve handled a greatly uncertain and difficult year and for coming out the other side.

We might not have come out relatively unscathed, but we’re here folks! We’re here. And that’s enough.

I reckon it’s fair to say that 2020 has been a year for learning – and not in the boring academic sense – but in terms of learning about ourselves and discovering some sides to who we are which we maybe never fully realised before. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, when you stare into that abyss for long enough you’re gonna spot some scary things in there – heck knows I have – so not everything we may have discovered might have been positive or good all of the time. But that’s also sound. You can’t be 100% positive 100% of the time – give yourself space to be gloomy and to fail and skulk about life with an attitude, honey!

But I bet that a fair few of you listening to this right now have also managed to discover some hidden skills or maybe some untapped confidence that you never knew you had. Maybe 2020 is the year that forced you to pay better attention to your mental health and to take better care of yourself. 

Or maybe, in all of this chaos and uncertainty, the pandemic and lockdown as a whole gave you new skills in understanding how adaptable you can be when you need to – and that you can leave your comfort zone, embrace unexpected change, and absolutely boss it still!

In a little while we’ll be chatting a bit more about some of the ways that the team here at Comics Youth have been doing that this year but also how our amazing young people have been doing so too.

Before we get to that though, this next song was requested by Cerys, who says of it: “this is by my favourite artist who had a new album out at the start of the year. This song is from it really helped me to stay afloat at my lowest points this year so 12/10 would recommend it – it’s a bop.”

This is Watsky with “Best Friend the Floor”

TRACK FOUR: “Best Friend the Floor” – Watsky (cut before ending)
TRACK FIVE: “Blue & Grey” – BTS

That was “Blue & Grey” by BTS – who also had a totally slammer of a year, extra props go to all the BTS fans who organised some kinda amazing political protests across social media to oppose presidential loser Donald Trump, that’s some next level community fandom power right there!

Both Tom and Raf requested jams from BTS and that’s the one that come through for us, and it’s a bonified bop!

Getting back to what we were chatting before the tunes dropped there, I just want to say how incredibly proud we are of each and every young person here at Comics Youth.

It’s been a tough one, to say the least. But dagnabbit, each and every one of our members have shown such kindness, compassion, talent, and sass throughout it. We’ve all made some amazing things together this year and also supported one another – which is really cool.

I hope all of you who have been part of our sessions and community here at Comics Youth know how much myself and the rest of the team have also appreciated working with all of you this year. You’ve also helped us this year, and it’s been such a treat to have you all in our lives during all of this.

I was really happy to see that a lot of our young people can see just how amazingly they’ve navigated this year too though – and some of the boss things they’ve managed to do too. 

Chatting with our group, a fair few of you shared some things you’ve done or achieved this past year that have made you feel proud of yourselves and I’m gonna share em right now – please imagine celebratory fireworks accompanied by some kind of a giant cake covered in candles and…I don’t know, sparklers? Let’s get some dancing sharks in the background too shall we?

So, Safe Spaces squad 2020 achievements!

Raf told us, “I've enjoyed having more time to practice art and make a style for my self. After a couple of years of saying I would, I finally got around to changing my name on my documents and it makes me feel so much better about myself! 

Which is awesome! Thanks Raf. And it’s also worth noting that throughout this year, Raf has developed and contributed so much phenomenal artwork to our publications – including stepping up as a co-editor of our newspaper Beyond the Margins. I really can’t praise Raf and his work enough – he’s been such an asset to our team this year and we really appreciate him! It’s also been ace

Haribo told us, “This past year I’ve liked collecting things that make me happy, finding new music and discovering RIOTGRRRL as a gateway to finding and becoming punk!! I’ve enjoyed doing more crafts tooooo, my fave movie this year is the half of it or dumplin (on netflix omg wattcchh) i am proud of my mental health improvement, i'm still anxious, sad have panic attacks ect but i feel comfotable with them, i am learning to cope slowly and i just feel – calmer.”

Thank you so much for sharing that Haribo. And I’ve got to admit, on a personal note, this also feels like a year where I’ve enjoyed some mental health improvement too and am learning to cope and be more comfortable with such things, so I share your sense of calm at the moment – and massive congratulations for that too.

Also, huge shout on discovering riot grrrl and becoming punk. Get noisy and get stompin!

And on that note we also have a song here requested by Haribo – it’s not from 2020 but it is a huge – and literal – banger.

Speaking of the why the song has been important to them this year, Haribo says, “its a meggaaa epic song and it has just helped me really express my emotions well, which has in turn helped with my anxiety.”

Interestingly, they also revealed that this particular artist has helped to break down some barriers to help them get into heavier music – which can often be a super masculine, macho arena. Haribo added, “I was never a massive fan of metal or rock but this band are a big help in getting me in to more metal music.”

Put on your cutest goth Lolita kawaii outfit and come and get heavy with us, this is “Head Banger” by Babymetal!

TRACK SIX: “Head Bangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!” – BABYMETAL
TRACK EIGHT: “The Spell of Mathematics” – Deftones 

That was “The Spell of Mathematics” by Deftones taken from their 2020 album Ohms. And that album serves a great reminder about paying attention to music and returning to it. My partner has this thing where he makes sure he listens to every new album three times to make sure he hears all of it and he doesn’t write it off automatically – because sometimes an album can be a bit of a grower and can take multiple listens to sink in. 

And that Deftones album, for me, on first listen I hated it. And I was so excited for this album. But I let it breathe for a month and then I got back to it and it started to sink in a little better and now I adore it and I think it’s one of my favourite albums of the year. So, there’s another lesson learned in 2020: be patient and don’t be hasty with your judgements. Give everything that deserves it multiple chances or you could miss out on something special.

Now, with so many of us being locked up at home for much of this year, I think all of us have really appreciated culture and media on a new level. Be it reading a lot more books and maybe different kinds of books or binge watching TV shows, getting into a new genre of films or discovering new filmmakers or maybe even just playing a lot more video games.

I know loads of y’all have been enjoying grassing each other up and lying through your teeth on Among Us – and there’s certainly been a rise in games that we can play online with our buds who we maybe can’t see in real life at the moment.

Our Art Director Ste started a Comics Youth twitch channel for a little bit during lockdown and it’s meant that he can start his own personal Twitch to stream gameplay on too, which has been boss to see. Because Ste has been playing so many games, I thought who better to ask for their opinion on what the best games of this year have been.

5.

Carrion

I’m not one for horror games, but when I get to be the monster I’m a little more willing to give them a go. Carrion is a metroidvania game where you control a deadly blob, growing in power as you devour the humans trying to stop you. Completely nails the feeling of making you feel like a deadly creature while offering some excellent Metroid like exploration.

4.

Miles morales spider-man

I can’t believe we’re lucky enough to get the best super hero movie all about this character, and also a great game and worthy spin off to the excellent Spider-Man PS4. Miles is just plain cool and offers enough diversity in play style to stand on his own as Spider-Man.
3.

Hades

A rouge-like with a compelling story who’s character interactions make failing ok. I haven’t been able to put this down since i bought it, and after 60+ runs it still offers new twists on gameplay.
2.

Animal crossing

2020 was the perfect year for Animal Crossing- helping to escape to my own little island as well as keep in contact with the young people we work with. Plus i got Marshall to move in.

1.

Spiritfarer

A game about death, but in a way thats different to most video games. As Stella, you take over from Charon, the ferryman of the river Styx, helping spirits find closure, form bonds, and come to terms with the end of your own passing. I cried many times. Great game. Many tears.

Thanks so much for that Ste! 2020 has definitely been a huge gaming year for me and has been the year that I’ve rediscovered gaming too and developed a lot more confidence in myself because of it too – and wow, Animal Crossing really arrive at the exact right time in March of this year and saved a whole lot of us, didn’t it?

I also chatted to our Anna in the office here to find out what her fave media and culture bits from 2020 have been too and she told us:

Book - A beautifully foolish endeavour by Hank Green. It’s a sequel to An absolutely remarkable thing, it’s a sort of sci-fi mystery about evil corporations, business social media influencers and giant robot-alien-monkeys.

I also enjoyed Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol from 2018 but I read it this year about a girl going to Russian summer camp.

My most anticipated thing of the summer was the Hamilton musical on Disney +.

Hopefully more musicals will be filmed like this so more people can see them. I’ve been a bit obsessed with the sound track since last year. 

Also mostly just animal crossing! Meeting with pals and doing cute stuff has been fun.

Meanwhile my Safe Spaces  co-lead Emily shared that her book of this year has been “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig, it’s basically about how you’re in control of your own life and it’s so magic !!!

I’m looking forward to reflecting on this year a little more and making some lists of my faves and I recommend you do the same – it’s a nice way to organise and to look back on things in a really positive way.

But now, another track from one of the best albums of the year and one of my absolute favourites of 2020 which has seriously helped me through. This is my absolute goddess, my queen, my soul-soother Fiona Apple with “I Want You To Love Me” taken from Fetch the Bolt Cutters.

TRACK EIGHT: “I Want You To Love Me” – Fiona Apple

TRACK NINE: “Ready Now” – Dodie 

That was “Ready Now” by Dodie which was one of Rosa’s fave tracks of 2020 and she told us that it was the top song in her Spotify Wrapper list this year and when she tweeted about it, Dodie liked it. Which is always a huge lovely vibe on Twitter, innit.

Before we start wrapping up I want to really celebrate all the hard work of the Comics Youth team in doing so much this year and for working so hard, but also everything that each and every one of our young people has done and achieved during this difficult year too.

In facing the hardships of the pandemic and of lockdown, we’ve all maintained a really lovely online community which transferred so well offline too for the people who maybe didn’t want to use the internet to keep in touch or who wanted to wait until we were back to physical sessions before they could engage again. 

This past year, everyone at Comics Youth – young people and us oldies in the office – have kept sessions like safe spaces, activism, dungeons and dragons, marginal, the safe spaces trail, and the newspaper absolutely buzzing and afloat with creativity and enthusiasm.

We’ve managed to create and deliver almost 2000 stay safe club care and wellbeing packs to children and adolescents across the Liverpool city region and we made an entire 52 page newspaper called Beyond the Margins.

We’ve continued to work on some amazing publications – many of which will hopefully be published in 2021 – and all of that is thanks to all of you.

So from the entire team here at Comics Youth to you dear listener – however you know us, whether you’re simply a supporter or a young person who works with us – thank you for being our friend in 2020 and for helping us through this difficult year and for coming out the other side with us a little wiser and stronger and maybe a little bit weirder and crazier but we’re good. We all stepped up, and we’re good.  

This is “Long Road Home” by the wonderful Oneohtrix Point Never.

TRACK TEN: “Long Road Home” - Oneohtrix Point Never

TRACK ELEVEN: “Darkseid” – Grimes

That was “Darkseid” by Grimes and though I’ve put Grimes in the cancel bin for her Elon Musk related crimes, I’m keeping her music because I love it so.

And that’s it for another episode and for another year!  

Our next episode and our first one for 2021 will be about The New. Why new things are nice, how to start afresh, and ways to set realistic goals for the year ahead.

Until then, remember: Everything is not cool, but it can be. Stay safe, stay sassy, and say a sweet, sweet farewell to 2020. Here’s hoping 2021 is a little bit better for everyone.

This is “Gospel For a New Century” by Yves Tumour and this is Amy Roberts finally putting her feet up and enjoying a snooze and signing off…. 

Byeeeeeeee!

TRACK TWELVE: “Gospel For a New Century” - Yves Tumour