2015 Best of Year Entertainment

One cultural phenomenon has dominated this year - the return of Star Wars, and fans will not be disappointed! Beyond just a smattering of genuinely classic / timeless films, it was just an OK year for cinema, far from vintage for the big screen - the small screen in fact dominated with some really smart, innovative and cleverly shot shows - of a huge breadth in variety, you can read my post about ’Television becoming more significant than Film’ for more details of this year’s releases and trends.

In music, for me any year which includes album releases by Björk, Grimes and Emika is a big year. Grand discovery was latest album by U.S. Girls which was just pipped to the top slot by Grimes’s 4th solo studio effort. 2015 also sees Justin Bieber finally becoming a credible pop artist (with help form Skrillex and Diplo), and a still healthy influence of club tracks in the charts, as well as the pretty much now ubiquitous but usually enjoyable modern takes on R&B - best examples by Abra, Dawn Richard and The Weeknd.

My big thing this year was Graphic Novels, you can read my recent ’2015 Best Graphic Novels and Sequential Art’ post for the full run down.

Lastly, I updated my two entertainment / gaming hubs this year - Apple TV 4 and PS4, and acquired a number of games to put them through their paces - see the top tens below. I did not spend too much time on the iPhone this year games-wise, and don’t have enough new games for a top 10, but really like Alto, Hitman Sniper, Lara Croft Go, Prune and Dark Echo.

Should be plenty variety here and something for everyone hopefully!:

Top 50 Albums

By Playback preference / frequency:

1. Art Angels - Grimes
2. Half Free - U.S. Girls
3. Drei - Emika
4. Have You In My Wildernerss - Julia Holter
5. Currents - Tame Impala
6. Automatic - Kaskade
7. Georgia - Georgia
8. Vulnicura - Björk
9. Rose - Abra
10. Blackheart - Dawn Richard
11. Beauty Behind the Madness - The Weeknd
12. To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
13. Music Complete - New Order
14. Halleluwah - Halleluwah
15. E•MO•TION - Carly Rae Jepsen
16. Purpose - Justin Bieber
17. Deep in the Iris - Braids
18. Aero Flynn - Aero Flynn
19. Ten Love Songs - Susanne Sundfør
20. Hairless Toys - Róisín Murphy
21. Caligo - Spor
22. Glitch - VV Brown
23. Honeymoon - Lana Del Rey
24. Modern Warfare - Special Request
25. Eclipse - Late Night Alumni
26. Gunship - Gunship
27. In Colour - Jamie XX
28. Elaenia - Floating Points
29. Every Open Eye - Chvrches
30. Ibeyi - Ibeyi
31. E-Project - Jean-Michel Jarre
32. The Chopin Project - Olafur Arnalds & Alice Sara Ott
33. Changes - Synkro
34. Blue Neigbourhood - Troye Sivan
35. Blood - Lianne La Havas
36. Uptown Special - Mark Ronson
37. Lost Themes - John Carpenter
38. Lucid Dreaming - Say Lou Lou
39. Next Jack Swing Pt.1 Remixes - French Horn Rebellion
40. Alternative Light Source - Leftfield
41. Communion - Years & Years
42. Starfire - Jaga Jazzist
43. The Way Back Up - Prides
44. Kiddo - Tove Styrke
45. Hey Hey - Mapei
46. Pretend - Seinabo Sey
47. Making Time - Jamie Woon
48. St Germain - St Germain
49. Narrative of Thee Blast Illusion - Felix da Housecat
50. Alone in the Universe - ELO

Top 50 Tracks

By Playback preference / frequency:

1. Damn that Valley / Window Shades / Woman’s Work - U.S. Girls
2. Flesh without Blood / World Princess part II / Kill V. Maim - Grimes
3. Make It Up - Tirzah
4. Can’t Feel My Face / The Hills - The Weeknd
5. Battles / My Heart Bleeds Melody - Emika
6. Lean On - Major Lazer and DJ Snake feat. Mø
7. Sorry / I’ll Show You / Love Yourself - Justin Bieber
8. Bitch Better Have My Money - Rihanna
9. Love is Free (feat. Maluca) - Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique
10. What’s a Girl Got to Do - Fatima Yamaha
11. XTC - DJ Koze
12. Never Sleep Alone / We Don’t Stop - Kaskade
13. Run Away With Me / I Really Like You - Carly Ray Jepsen
14. Electric Love (Oliver Remix) - Børns
15. Worth It - Fifth Harmony
16. Feel You / Sea Calls Me Home - Julia Holter
17. Let It Happen / Yes I’m Changing - Tame Impala
18. Glass and Patron / Figure 8 - FKA Twigs
19. ZigZags - Rob Made & The Cool Cats
20. The Boss - Rob Made
21. Doing It - Charli XCX feat. Rita Ora
22. Want to Want Me - Jason Derulo
23. The Blacker The Berry / King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar
24. I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) Jamie XX feat. Young Thug & Popcaan
25. Home Tonight - Lindstrøm feat. Grace Hall
26. Just Like We Never Said Goodbye - Sophie
27. Jealous - Nick Jonas
28. High by the Beach - Lana Del Rey
29. All Day - Kanye West
30. Real Joy / Everybody Knows - Fono
31. Stonemilker - Björk
32. Bad Blood - Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar
33. Taste - Braids
34. Clearest Blue / Leave a Trace - Chvrches
35. Here - Alessia Cara
36. Love Myself - Hailee Steinfeld
37. 2Shy - Shura
38. I Can Never Be Myself When You’re Around - Chromatics
39. Drummer / Constellation - Late Night Alumni
40. Magnets - Disclosure ft. Lorde
41. Rewind - Kelela
42. Gone Missing (ft BB Diamond) - Shift K3Y
43. How Deep Is Your Love - Calvin Harris & Disciples
44. Where Are Ü Now - Jack Ü feat. Justin Bieber
45. Runaway (U & I) - Galantis
46. Carrion Flowers - Chelsea Wolfe
47. Pylon - Lakker
48. Trap Queen - Fetty Wap
49. Hercules - Young Thug
50. Where Do We Go - Lion Babe

Top 20 Film

By Viewing Preference:

1. Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
2. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
3. Whiplash
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Sicario
6. It Follows
7. Birdman
8. The Martian
9. Wild Tales
10. Selma
11. Ex Machina
12. John Wick
13. Inside Out
14. The Assassin
15. Amy
16. Ant Man
17. While We’re Young
18. The Gift
19. Inherent Vice
20. Look of Silence

Top 30 TV

By Viewing Preference:

1. Fargo S2
2. Mr Robot S1
3. Mr Norrel & Jonathan Strange MS
4. Heroes Reborn MS
5. Quantico S1
6. The Vikings S3
7. Daredevil S1
8. Blindspot S1
9. Narcos S1
10. W1A S2
11. The Bridge S3
12. Banshee S3
13. Into The Badlands S1
14. Gotham S2
15. Game of Thrones S5
16. iZombie S2
17. Jessica Jones S1
18. Sense8 S1
19. Justified S6
20. The Last Kingdom MS
21. Humans S1
22. Master of None S1
23. True Detective S2
24. Wayward Pines S1
25. Wolf Hall MS
26. Hell on Wheels S5
27. Spiral S5
28. Scream Queens S1
29. Ash vs Evil Dead S1
30. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend S1

Top 25 Graphic Novels

Alphabetical:

• Anibal 5 (Humanoids)
• Chew (Image)
• Death Vigil (Image)
• Descender (Image)
• Divinity (Valiant)
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Boom!)
• East of West (Image)
• Genius (Image)
• Hawkeye (Marvel)
• Izuna (Humanoids)
• Kill Shakespeare (IDW)
• The Life After (Oni Press)
• Low (Image)
• Lumberjanes (Boom!)
• Monstress (Image)
• Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
• Saga (Image)
• Sex Criminals (Image)
• Shahrazad (Big Dog Ink)
• Sunstone (Image)
• Thor (Goddess) (Marvel)
• Wayward (Image)
• The Wicked + The Divine (Image)
• Wild Blue Yonder (IDW)
• Wytches (Image)

Top 10 Games PS4

In order of pure gratification:

1. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
3. Just Cause 3
4. Fallout 4
5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
6. The Last of Us Remastered
7. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
8. Far Cry 4
9. Bloodborne
10. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Top 10 Games Apple TV

In order of pure gratification:

1. Geometry Wars 3
2. Sky Force
3. Guitar Hero Live
4. Rayman Adventures
5. Shadowmatic
6. Transistor
7. Manticore Rising
8. Xenowork
9. Does not Commute
10. Oceanhorn