BEST OF 2014 - Podcasts, Films, Music

Right, 2014 is one week and a few Christmas crackers away from ending, so it's time for bloggers to work out their Favourite [THING] Of [YEAR] lists. I am no exception, especially as I've hardly reviewed anything for ages and kinda miss it.

So, exactly as I did last year, I've broken my enjoyment down into a series of headings. In this first effort, we'll tackle the podcasts, movies and music. One of those segments will be much, much longer than the other two.

My Writing Music - Songs to mash the keyboard to

Some writers don't listen to music while they work, needing constant silence to produce their genius. However, I require an endless rolling soundtrack to drown out the screaming choirs of my own insanity (10 points for knowing where I stole that last phrase from), so I get through a lot of tracks.

A lot of the choices go in phases - new records come out, or I fancy immersing myself in the music of one artist, so I load my phone up with their albums. Then I listen to this person exclusively for a while, until I'm sick of them and don't want to hear anything they've done for months.

A few songs/sounds do survive the gap though - elevate themselves above the flighty phases and become evergreen presences. Here, then, are my perpetual audio companions. Apologies if a few of them turn out to be part of temporary phases and I'm just blinded by momentary love.

Best of 2013 - Movies, Music and Podcasts Edition

As half-predicted in last week's WriteBlog, my fiction-writing has slowed to a standstill thanks to festive distractions and an inconvenient cold. I'm just about keeping up with Hobson & Choi commitments, but aside from those, all quiet.

So, both to keep this blog ticking over and because I genuinely love reviewing stuff, I'm going to do a few posts about stories, shows and stuff I enjoyed during 2013. These are in no particular order and may involve items released pre-2013 that I've only just got round to dealing with, though I'll try to keep those to a minimum.

This time out: movies, music and podcasts. Subsequent posts will cover books, comics and TV.

A karaoke video for the new R.E.M. song ‘It Happened Today’, featuring Eddie Vedder. This song is an odd one to do karaoke to, for reasons that will become apparent as it goes on.

I like this though, it’s strangely euphoric towards the end, and has grown on me all over the place.

The above (Time Goes By, a video that's now been removed)  is a song by Feeder which they played on their recent tour, and included on one of their strange ‘Renegades’ EPs that they released during said tour. I include it here because I quite like it, and it doesn’t seem to have made the cut for their new ‘Renegades’ album. Which is sad as it’s better than a fair few of the tracks that actually are on there.

If you want to listen to said album, you can do so here on Spotify. Not sure if I’d recommend it or not. They’ve produced a rather generic bouncy-indie album, really. Loud guitars, bit of shouting; it’s well-made enough but everything is the same basic tempo and it makes the whole record sound a bit samey.

There is a change of pace in the form of Down To The River, but unfortunately it’s a bit plodding and rubbish. The title track and Sentimental are quite decent, as are some others, but they get submerged beneath the raft of similar-sounding tracks.

Shame, as I have a lot of nostalgic love for Feeder and do genuinely want them to succeed, but this really isn’t a great record. Never mind.

My Favourite Pogues Songs - A Spotify Playlist by, um, me.

Link: My Favourite Pogues Songs - A Spotify Playlist by, um, me.

If you want to boost your St Patrick’s Day not-really-Irishness, the above is a link to a Spotify playlist I’ve put together featuring 29 of my current favourite songs by the Pogues (and a couple by “related artists”). Enjoy. Maybe.

The video for the new Shane Macgowan-fuelled charity Haiti song thing. Once again, the musical merits aren’t really the point, but at least the song isn’t as much of a whinge-fest as the Everybody Hurts cover. Plus as a Pogues fan, it’s great to hear some new Macgowan vocals. (And a pleasant surprise that it’s possible to understand what he’s saying…)

Remember “Jedward”, the Irish twins of dubious talent. It’s not their finest hour though, that would be this little gem, featuring the first (and probably last) occurrence of heavily implied gay twincest on primetime ITV.

The above single entered the charts at number 2 yesterday, failing to beat some song which has been at number 1 for two weeks. This probably doesn’t bode well for their future red-hot pop career, and suggests that the public was far more endeared to them as a novelty act on a talent show than as “artists”.

It’s a shame, as even if they themselves are ridiculous, the public reaction to them has been brilliant. People have been leaping onto their high horses as if pop music is some sacred temple with a definite minimum talent threshold. Before now, no-one with very little musical worth has ever stumbled into a pop career through luck. No.

So yeah, if this is the last we hear of the boys, it’ll be a shame, because at least they’re fun. Even if, yes, the actual music isn’t very good. Even “irony” couldn’t persuade me to buy it.

Above is an embed of the Simon Cowell Haiti benefit “Everybody Hurts” cover thing. Unsurprisingly, it removes any restraint that song ever had and turns it into a quasi-inspirational power ballad. (You can tell they waited the whole time for that “so hoooold on!”)

It has been pointed out that saying this is bad is irrelevant. It has been banged out quickly to provide people with an excuse to give money to charity, not to be musically worthwhile. And there might even be a few who genuinely like it. In fairness, it isn’t offensively bad, it’s just very boring.

I was fishing for some kind of social point, but it isn’t coming. I have, however, successfully put off doing the “proper work” I was meant to be doing for another ten minutes. Victory is mine.

Space Shot, the new single by Ash, was released today for download and so forth. I have the MP3 because I subscribe to their new-song-fortnightly A-Z Series thing, and am enjoying it.

Other songs especially worth checking out from the A-Z include True Love 1980, Arcadia and Pripyat. However, all of them have been good, fun indie-pop. If you’ve ever liked Ash, they’re doing some good stuff here.