2016 Best of Year Entertainment

I’m not sure it’s been quite the vintage year all-round, although Television and Graphic Novels continue to go from strength to strength. 2016 will be remembered for the painful and wholly unexpected passing of David Bowie and Prince - two of my best loved and most significant all-time influences, we’ve also had the onset of Brexit and Trump - which are set to influence all manner of other things in various ways yet to be seen.

There is as ever a plethora of fabulous music in all guises and across all genres. I’ve gotten more and more into guitar this year, but that has not impacted significantly on my listening preferences. I try to find new and bold rock music I can buy into, but most of it is somewhat regressive or overwrought - Radiohead are a shining exception. I love the sound for instance of Periphery, but the vocalist ruins the songs for me. Too much of rock seems bereft of new ideas and innovation. For me the last major innovation I loved was the rap-rock infusion led by Rage Against The Machine etc. I like some of the new metal sound-wise, but I’ve never got into ’vocalists’ shouting unintelligibly into the microphone.

Anyway, Bowie left a fine swansong - slightly jazzy and avant garde, but ever so expressive and poignant, and modern and timeless. I really wanted to make Blackstar my number one pick, but Kate Tempest’s ’Chaos’ pipped it to the post. The Streets - ’Original Pirate Material’ is one of my favourite albums of all time, and Kate’s latest work is the female counterpart to that if there is such a thing. She is just a wonderfully expressive beat poet for our age - watch the whole live recording below - you may not agree with everything she says, but you can’t fault her sentiment or evocative delivery - it’s just an amazing work of art which underlines the strength of the album format when done right. A highly intricate weaving, dancing narrative that ties together 7 lonely souls in the twilight hours of London - 4:18 AM...

I was one of the few that really rated the latest Crystal Castles album, otherwise the contents of my top 10 aren’t so different from many other critics’ lists - just the order varies. I try to order most of these by which of these artforms impacted and moved me the most. It’s a combination of personal resonance, frequency of replay, frequency of recall and overall memorability. I do these lists to share the love of these arts - to expose new things to those who might be interested - to keep shining a light - so please enjoy and be inspired to seek out and try new things:

30 Favourite Albums

(by Preference) ::

1. Let Them Eat Chaos - Kate Tempest
2. Blackstar - David Bowie
3. Hopelessness - Anohni
4. The Altar - Banks
5. Tempo - Olga Bell
6. Lemonade - Beyoncé
7. Chaleur Humaine - Christine and the Queens
8. Blood Bitch - Jenny Hval
9. Amnesty (I) - Crystal Castles
10. Wildflower - The Avalanches
11. Awaken, My Love - Childish Gambino
12. A Moon Shaped Pool - Radiohead
13. My Woman - Angel Olsen
14. Malibu - Anderson.Paak
15. Nothing’s Real - Shura
16. Begin - Lion Babe
17. Liquid Cool - Night Jewel
18. Dangerous Woman - Ariana Grande
19. Anti - Rihanna
20. Freetown Sound - Blood Orange
21. Redemption - Dawn Richard
22. Love & Hate - Michael Kiwanuka
23. Jeffery - Young Thug
24. Big Black Coat- Junior Boys
25. III - Moderat
26. Junk - M83
27. RR7349 - S U R V I V E
28. Moth - Chairlift
29. The Colour in Anything - James Blake
30. We Got it from here... Thank You 4 Your Service - A Tribe Called Quest

30 Favourite Songs

There was a fair bit of dancehall-influenced pop this year. Stranger Things was a huge influence on me - both analog-synth-wise and 80’s sci-fi nostalgia, Twin-Peaks-esque quirkiness etc. For a while the Stranger Things Theme was at the top of the list - but I finally went with yet another vintage Massive Attack classic in the form of ’The Spoils’ - just a beautiful timeless track that evokes much of their best work.

There’s more Bowie here, newcomer Olga Bell, the ever-present Sia, a fabulous return by Tribe Called Quest, and some great eclectic pop and hip hop. I’ve no doubt forgotten something obvious here - but this is what sticks out right now at the tail end of the year.

Note that the best music video of the year is The Weeknd’s False Alarm - directed by Ilya ’Hardcore Henry’ Naishuller.

(by Preference) ::

1. The Spoils - Massive Attack ft Hope Sandoval
2. Stranger Things Theme - Luke Million
3. Blackstar / Lazarus / I Can’t Give Everything Away - David Bowie
4. Randomness / America - Olga Bell
5. Cheap Thrills / The Greatest - Sia
6. We The People - Tribe Called Quest
7. Starboy / False Alarm - The Weeknd
8. Black Beatles - Rae Sremmurd
9. Formation / Hold Up - Beyoncé
10. This Is What You Came For - Calvin Harris ft Rihanna
11. Work / Needed Me - Rihanna
12. iT / Tilted - Christine and the Queens
13. Digits / RiRi - Young Thug
14. Side to Side / Into You - Ariana Grande
15. Tears / Rockabye - Clean Bandit
16. Panda - Desiigner
17. Girls@ - Joey Purp
18. 24K Magic / Calling All My Lovelies - Bruno Mars
19. Telepathy - Christina Aguilera ft Nile Rogers
20. Light It Up (Remix) / Cold Water - Major Lazer
21. In Common / Blended Family - Alicia Keys
22. All Night - Chance The Rapper
23. Can’t Stop The Feeling - Justin Timberlake
24. Shut Up Kiss Me / Intern - Angel Olsen
25. Burn The Witch / Daydreaming / True Love Waits - Radiohead
26. Lite Spots - Kaytranada
27. Am I Wrong / Room in Here - Anderson.Paak
28. Best To You / Augustine - Blood Orange
29. Ch-Ching / Moth to the Flame - Chairlift
30. Conceptual Romance / Female Vampire - Jenny Hval

20 Favourite TV Shows

For a long time I thought nothing would be able to dislodge Stranger Things - so resonant was its impact on me this year. But then along came David Attenborough and the BBC with the marvel that is Planet Earth II - the baby lizard weaving its way through the snakes is one of the most gripping TV spectacles you will ever see - and the rest of the series was more of the same - years in the making, filmmakers sitting patiently in a secluded camera enclosure and scanning through hours and hours of captured footage - this is truly a marvel for all times and all ages - and by far and away the most popular show for everyone under 16 in the UK.

Then there was of course ’The Resurrection of Snow’, ’The Battle of the Bastards’, ’Hodor’ et al, and the finest GOT season yet, the exhilarating offbeat quirkiness of Dirk Gently, and the cinemascope production values of Westworld. It’s pretty much the usual saga of HBO, Netflix and Amazon Video ruling the roost - with a smattering of BBC. Television really is at its prime now - the new Television that is - that you can stream on demand - as little or as much as you like, whenever you like. The choice has never been broader, and the quality of production never more refined. I subscribe to NowTV / Sky - really just to catch all the HBO shows in the UK ...

(by Preference) ::

1. Planet Earth II - BBC
2. Stranger Things - Netflix
3. Game of Thrones - HBO
4. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - Netflix
5. Westworld - HBO
6. Goliath - Amazon
7. StartUp - Amazon
8. The Night Manager - BBC
9. Banshee - HBO
10. Narcos - Netflix
11. Night Of - HBO
12. The Get Down - Netflix
13. OITNB - Netflix
14. Peaky Blinders - BBC
15. Preacher - Amazon
16. Designated Survivor - Netflix
17. Trapped / Ófærð - BBC / RUV
18. Vikings - Amazon
19. iZombie - Netflix
20. Black Sails - Amazon

20 Favourite Films

I’m holding off seeing Star Wars Rogue 1 until I can watch with the whole family over Christmas - also looking forward to Passengers and Assassin’s Creed. These below are the films that stood out for me. Top slot is taken by the ever-so hypnotic American Honey whose great soundtrack has inspired much of my listening in the latter months of the year. (The first half was taken up mostly by Bowie and Prince!).

I loved Deadpool, Nice Guys, Jungle Book and one-take masterpiece Victoria. Dr Strange was best visual FX / 3D spectacle of the year - which otherwise saw a great mix of influences - popularist and arthouse. I would have loved to have witnessed more adventurous sci-fi - although Star Trek and Midnight Special were entertaining in their own right. Arrival was a fabulous take on high-brow sci-fi, although as with many films this year it kind of fizzled out in the final moments.

There were some spectacularly visually exhilarating films this year which did not always get their due - Jungle Book is a triumph of production design, as is Fantastic Beasts and Miss Peregrine. A lot of critics seem to get hung up on social message and social worth. All of the following though resonated memorably with me in one way or another. This was a big cinema year for me where I attended near enough once per week...

(by Preference) ::

1. American Honey
2. Deadpool
3. Nice Guys
4. Jungle Book
5. Victoria
6. War on Everyone
7. Hell and High Water
8. Nocturnal Animals
9. Love & Friendship
10. Arrival
11. BFG
12. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
13. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
14. Everybody Wants Some
15. Hail Caesar
16. Tale of Tales
17. Embrace The Serpent
18. Dr Strange
19. Girl With All The Gifts
20. The Witch

50 Favourite Graphic Novels

I announced a year or two ago that we were in the Second Golden Age of Comic Books, and that is still very much being maintained. Leading the pack as usual is Image Comics - which takes most of my money in this area. I got turned on to the Cinebook imprint at last this year and caught up with most of their principal series - including the amazing Jean Van Hamme trio of XIII, Largo Winch and Thorgal as well as the fine sci-fi works by Léo (Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira) - Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Antares, The Survivors, Kenya, Namibia etc.

Humanoids was mostly reissues this year, but they did release the fantastically epic, almost cinematic works - Carthago, and Thousand Faces. Lots of good things coming out of Valiant Entertainment imprint too. I found it impossible to arrange these in any logical order of preference - most of these really are exceptional, and as such are simply listed alphabetically:

(Alphabetical) ::

• XIII - Cinebook
• Angel Catbird - Dark Horse
• Barracuda - Cinebook
• Bird Boy - Dark Horse
• Birthright - Image
• Black Science - Image
• Chew - Image
• Clear Blue Tomorrow - Cinebook
• Death Sentence - Titan
• Descender - Image
• Divinity - Valiant
• Drifter - Image
• East of West - Image
• Faith - Valiant
• The Fix - Image
• Carthago - Humanoids
• Harrow County - Dark Horse
• Huck - Image
• Imperium - Valiant
• Klaus - Boom
• Klaw - Magnetic Press
• Lantern City - Archaia / Boom
• Largo Winch - Cinebook
• Lazarus - Image
• The Life After - Oni Press
• Low - Image
• Mezolith - Archaia / Boom
• Moebius Library: The World of Edena - Dark Horse
• Monika - Titan
• Monstress - Image
• Namibia - Cinebook
• No Mercy - Image
• ODY-C - Image
• Paper Girls - Image
• Plutona - Image
• Postal - Image
• Providence - Avatar
• The Quest for the Time Bird - Titan
• Rai - Valiant
• Rivers of London - Titan
• Rust - Archaia / Boom
• Saga - Image
• Showman Killer - Titan
• Southern Bastards - Image
• Thousand Faces - Humanoids
• Tokyo Ghost - Image
• Valerian & Laureline - Cinebook
• Wayward - Image
• White Sand - Dynamite
• The Wicked + The Divine - Image