The Annual 2021 - Ministry of Sound

Editors' Notes Even while COVID-19 plunged clubland into unprecedented straits during 2020, the music kept coming. Producers and DJs responded with defiance and invention, recognising that dance music could be an escapist tonic for our times. It’s no surprise then that Ministry’s yearly digest of the biggest hits and brightest new talent is packed with shots of instant euphoria (Franky Wah’s “Come Together”) and free-spirited adventure (Gerry Read’s “Shit Cant Make Anything”) alongside nostalgic beats to transform living rooms into the White Isle (Beau’s “Ode to Ibiza”) or a Chicago dance floor (Jayda G’s “Both of Us”). It was a year that taught us that isolation needn’t be a bar to collaboration, and perhaps a desire for connection helps account for the number of link-ups here. Unions between Calvin Harris and The Weeknd, Joel Corry and MNEK, and Paul Woolford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax all contribute to the star wattage of this collection.