May this year saw the birth of this blog and by Sep/Oct, I'd encountered a writer's blog of sorts - What to include/exclude; self-doubt in the form of not being a fully-fledged journo; and taking it all way way too seriously!
(Deep Breath... here we go!)
MUSIC
1. Destroyer - Kaputt
2. Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
3. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
4. My Morning Jacket - Circuital
5. White Denim - D
6. Tom Waits - Bad as Me
7. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
8. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
9. Portugal. The Man - In the Mountain in the Cloud
10. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
11. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
12. Wilco - The Whole Love
13. Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
14. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
15. Beirut - The Rip Tide
16. Middle Brother - Middle Brother
17. Atlas Sound - Parallax
18. Feist - Metals
19. Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
20. The Antlers - Burst Apart
21. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
22. Active Child - You Are All I See
23. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
24. tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL
25. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
26. I'm from Barcelona - Forever Today
27. Grace Jones - Hurricane / Dub
28. The Horrors - Skying
29. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
30. The Field - Looping State of Mind
31. TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
32. Gotye - Making Mirrors
33. Stephin Merritt - Obscurities
34. Yuck - Yuck
35. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
35. Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
36. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
37. Panda Bear - Tom Boy
38. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
39. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
40. Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
41. The Dears - Degeneration Street
42. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
43. The Black Keys - El Camino
44. R.E.M. - Collapse into Now
45. Battles - Gloss Drop
46. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
47. Modeselektor - Monkeytown
48. Bonnie Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town
49. The Wooden Birds - Two Matchsticks
50. Woods - Sun and Shade
Special Mention:
Although The Flaming Lips hasn't offiicially released any LP this year, they have released many pricey and elaborately packaged EPs and a 6hr song followed by another that's 24 hours. Details here (Updated).
Concerts Attended (Unreviewed) and Missed Concerts:
Attended both Okkervil River (A generally good night with later songs excelling) and Bright Eyes (A real dynamo onstage; with quieter performances commanding the audience' attention especially on Lua) and missed out on Explosions in the Sky's concert in Dec.
Ommissions:
So, no Drake (Rap's not my thang), James Blake (Just not gettig the hype), Adele (She's everywhere!), Lady Gaga (Not me), The Kills (The slow numbers are dreadful) or Susan Boyle.
MOVIE
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, it's a film noir drama bound to be a cult classic.
Genre defying, it has heart pounding action (Although not the bulk of the film as most would be led to believe); romance (Not your chick flick sort); humour (Not the LOL sort); bizzaro Lynchian moments; heavy character study; gritty violence and gore!!
More here.
TV
Just got onto "Sons of Anarchy" (Seasons 1 & 2 was only released in Australia this year), hence the frantic catching-up. I find the series highly addictive as it has just the right blend of action/
tension/drama/comedy. Great story line, well-scripted and acted, and the pace kept just right.
The lead character perfectly played by Charlie Hunnam, is part of a bikie gang. He is conflicted between his deceased father's original vision for the club and it's law-breaking present. To further complicate matters, he has just become a father himself and finds himself torn between duties.
All the characters are thankfully three dimensional, which is a nice departure from your usual 2D
TV personas.
Looking forward to another year of top notch entertainment!
Wishing all my readers a great and safe holiday season,
Alex
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