Well the New Year has come and past, there was much amusement and entertainment which I hope we all had. The fun never ends on a New Year’s Eve, well it does technically, but that’s not important. So with this post I’m going to look back over the year and share with you my thoughts and musings with regards to music, film etc and my own personal experiences that are fun to talk about.
Firstly I would like to begin with music, as we all know it is the life and blood of society today. A strange lifeline for the youth of today, but we all love it. So once again we have all had to endure mass torture from so artists and been pleasantly surprised by others. Before I begin with this, one rule must apply here. On no account must anyone mention the music of Glee or the prodigy of Satan, a certain Mr Beiber in my presence or in comments or you shall suffer a mass amount of video game related violence! Similar to Scott Pilgrim style!
So onwards, I feel that two new artists have made a lasting impression on me this year. Firstly is winner of the BBC sound competition Ellie Goulding with her album Lights (or the re-release, Bright Lights) and her style of electro-folkish music. It has kept me singing along for many days, train journeys and 3am iPod listenings. Yes I do that when I cannot sleep. My personal favourite track is below entitled “Your Biggest Mistake”
The second new artist that has made an impression on me is Lights, a Canadian electro-pop artist. I first discovered her on YouTube (oh mighty YouTube) and watched some music videos and blogs that she made which made her seem even more amazing than before. Her album, “The Listening” isn’t 100% perfect but nethertheless it is a good listen for the days you want something mindlessly upbeat and cheery. The song that I’ve selected is “My Boots” and is a bit of a wintery jam without the cheesy festiveness of the last few weeks.
Also this year, I have rediscovered my love of the Gaslight Anthem who have returned this year with a splendid follow-up to the album the ’59 Sound, called “American Slang”. They never fail to surprise me. My favourite track on this album is “Old Haunts”.
Guilty pleasure tracks have been few but annoyingly addictive this year. The two that have stuck with me to the years end have been Leona Lewis “My Hands” due to its association with Final Fantasy XIII and the Saturdays “Higher” due to its catch chorus and the girls in the band aren’t too bad on the eyes. Oh dear that’s a bad reason to listen to music is it not.
Ahem onwards… Finally my favourite album of 2010 is a tie this year. First in the top spot is Bring Me The Horizon- “There is a hell believe me I’ve seen it. There is a heaven lets keep it a secret!” Despite there heavy sound and screamo music, the lyrics and music have so much depth and emotion to them. A personal album for Oli Sykes I feel as it expresses own feelings towards incidents of his childhood as well as his relationship to Amanda Hendrix. My favourite track is actually one of the softest tracks on the album, “Blessed with a Curse”
And the second album that has made it into my favourite album list is “Speak Now”, the latest offering from Taylor Swift. Another fantastic album from the country-pop musician which features songs relating to more heartbreak, forgiveness and gratitude to the fans. My personal favourite track on the album is “Enchanted” although on this album there is no easy choice.
Moving onwards, after the music must come the films of the year. Personally I’m still mortified to enter a cinema after the horrific film “Avatar” was released and the general public of teenage girl’s monstrous obsession with that goddamn “Twilight Saga”. Both should be forgotten and burned with films such as “The Last Airbender”, “Grown Ups” and “Salt”, the worst films I ever saw this year. These films personally made me feel unclean and mentally, wait… mentally and physically violated. The pure horror of those films, pointless characters, terrible jokes and Angelia Jolie… (I shudder)
Anyway, out with the band and in with the top five films this year. No analysis needed, these are no doubt the high points of the cinematic year. And guess what, only one of these films has been released in 3D and it’s the one of the two 3D films that have been worth seeing this year.
5. Heartless
4. Toy Story 3 (yes the only 3D film of the year I saw.)
3. Inception (I know most people will think this is higher but I personally feel that Nolan has not surpassed his best movie yet i.e. The Dark Knight)
2. Kick-Ass (Comic book mastery and a foul-mouth 11 year old who kills nearly everyone…)
1. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (It’s my life long fantasy on screen!)
Although in the year of horrific 3D pointless films and stupid attempts at franchises that should never have appeared on the screen, there have been a couple of guilty pleasures. So my three guilty pleasures of the year have been:
1. Camp Rock 2 (Disney, music and Demi Lovato. I am easily pleased)
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (re-make without Johnny Depp, but they manage to keep it slightly fresh)
3. Prince of Persia (enjoyable and a remotely decent videogame adaptation)
Video games have been declining again, much to the amusement of the bosses at Nintendo, due to their sinful product, the Wii. And has Xbox/Mircosoft/PS3 attempted similar stuff, yes they have now. Personally it’s a downfall of the computer game industry if everyone is buying pointless games like Wii sports resort, which in fairness are no where near as fun as Guitar Hero is, even when drunk!!!!
But less of the bad, more of the good, or to be fair the greats of the year. My two favourite games of the year which have kept me smiling and entertained for months and not just six hours (Sorry Halo Reach, you have not made the list, due to your dependency on multiplayer, however that doesn’t change the fact you are highly entertaining but not list worthy)
1. Final Fantasy XIII (beautiful animation and brilliant story to boot)
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (It’s time to come up with more new and inventive ways to kill the guards and templar’s)
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