Top Ten Albums Of 2014..!

As usual, a couple of months late, as usual, one album per band, as usual, no mentions of individual songs! What's been blowing my musical mind this year?

1. Royal Blood – Royal Blood (2014) – I’m going to go with the rest of the UK with this one, it’s very rare that I match the collective consensus of the UK so closely when it comes to music, this was a number one debut album, gracious! I’d go as far as to say that the heavy two man garage-rock outfit’s debut album is the best British rock debut release since ‘Ideas Above Our Station’ over a decade ago, which is a BIG compliment. It’s as close to perfect as it comes.

2. Offspring – Smash (1994) – I never really got into The Offspring, then I heard they were playing this entire album at Download 2014. One listen and I was hooked, it’s sensational throughout, I can see fully why they are allowed to grace festivals and play entire albums like this in one go.

3. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist (2012) – Is it the year I go pop or what?! So many emotions in one album, there’s some genuine humour mixed in with some deep catharsis and some damning opinions on the United States, all in the guise of some outstanding tunes. This is outstanding and deservedly making global waves.

4. The Streets – Original Pirate Material (2002) – My apologies, I skipped over this a decade ago when I went from indie kid onto the rock scene, ignoring some of the other stuff going on and it’s to my detriment that I did. Knowing lyrics and stories from the club, the park and the ‘shit-in-a-tray merchants’ , Mike Skinner made the thinking man dance and think at the same time and now he’s retired to have a kid. All the best, mate.

5. The Menzingers – Rented World (2014) – This band delight in making the most downbeat lyrically punk songs, think Alkaline Trio crossed with Frank Turner and yet smile like gibbons on ganja when playing live. There’s not a finer forty minutes of having a horrible time released this year.

6. The Neighbourhood – I Love You (2013) – The quality of this album is wondrous, gritty yet swoony beats, it’s dark and uplifting, it doesn’t seem to make much sense yet there’s so much to absolutely love here. And the song they are dead famous for, isn’t the best on the album, if it was ranked on how good they are, it’s maybe in the bottom half, as far as I’m concerned. It’s just that strong!

7. Enter Shikari – Take To The Skies (2007) – Speaking of bands that don’t really make that much sense, here’s electro-hardcore-dubstep-screamo-punk crossover monsters Enter Shikari, I’ve never got round to buying their albums and giving them a listen (despite a number of festival stand out shows), it was worth it, so very, very worth it.

8. Patrick Stump – Soul Punk (2011) – Yes, the Fall Out Boy’s side project. I didn’t quite know what to expect from this collection of songs, the result, which seems to at times involve him resurrecting the ghost of Michael Jackson out of the ground and channelling it through his vocal chords to some fantastic funky beats, is tremendous.

9. Paramore – Paramore (2013) – It’s got to be hard to lose half a band and then come back with a new sound and get even bigger. Paramore nail that and more in this album, the only criticism, it’s a couple of songs too long. The unexpected plus side, ukulele! Yes!

10. PUP – PUP (2014) – This was my ‘go to’ album when I had around half an hour to spare, the fact I’m using the phrase ‘go to’ means that I’ve probably been watching far too much NFL in recent months. Weezer but heavier, this is a victory for a band I saw supporting Pure Love, and promptly fell in love with!

So yeah, Patrick Stump gets in but do Fall Out Boy – From Under The Cork Tree (2005) ? No! It’s a fine effort though and one of a number of punk-y bands on the fringes, Alkaline Trio – My Shame Is True (2013) is one of their better efforts, to me, they don’t make great albums (but do some amazing songs) and The Hives – Veni Vidi Vicious (2000) is well worth a listen, not just for the songs that appeared on their next full length, which launched them to stardom.

In the less famous ranks, Yorkshire’s finest DIY Queen-inspired punkers Eureka Machines – Remain In Hope (2013) keep up their fantastic level of consistency with their third album and on the heavy side, it’s an excellent effort from Polar – Shadowed By Vultures (2014)

Pulled Apart By Horses – Blood (2014) – was definitely more in the QOTSA vein than previous stuff but still had its’ more melodic moments, Joy Formidable – Wolf’s Law (2013) contains as per usual, some fantastic drumming and vocals and is just edged out of the top 10.

Final mention goes to, AWOLNATION – Megalithic Symphony (2011), which somehow took forever to cross the Atlantic Ocean as it still had a single playlisted on Radio 1 3 years after the album was released, HOW?! Anyway, it’s full of electro-indie goodness!

And here's last year's musical slices of marvellousness:

http://jeffthelion.livejournal.com/256587.html

Top 10 Films Of 2014..!

2014 seems to have been a year of listening to more music than watching many films and this list is skewed heavily towards documentaries on Netflix but there’s still some ‘big’ movies in there too.

1. Gone Girl (2014) – Just an extraordinary film, an extraordinarily bleak film; albeit one with a curve ball that will send most people home dazzled. Don’t be put off by the fact Ben Affleck and his gigantic chin is in it, it’s amazing.

2. Narco Cultura (2013) – Best documentary of the year, amid Toni’s post-Christmas bleak TV watching period to wash away the festive schmaltz, this incredibly brave documentary was filmed with the Police of Juarez tackling the drug gangs’ murderous warfare in the city with the highest murder rate in the world, which is situated just over the border from the safest city in the USA, El Paso.

3. Let The Right One In (2008) – A brilliantly acted and subtle vampire film. Carefully crafted and tremendously acted, the shifts from innocent childhood conversations to utter carnage are seamless and so natural and its’ final scene stay with you for a long while, always a good sign.

4 Capturing The Friedmans (2003) – Wow! Is the central character in this a rampant sex offender or an unlucky victim of hearsay who took the fall to save his son in a media witchhunt?! It’s hard to say and we’ll probably never know. You can see why this doc’ won so many awards over a decade ago.

5 The Wrong House (2013) – A truly unique horror film, the premise is clever, the threat is always there but never in shot. I wonder if it had a big budget, it would be even better or would its’ very soul be corrupted by the tendency for reliance on special effects that comes with it?

6 Undefeated (2011) – An astounding look into American Football at High School level. See the trials and tribulations of a coach trying to get a consistently losing team from the poor side of town to be winners. It sounds much better than it is and I hope all you NFL fans on the friends list track this down.

7. The Last Broadcast (1998) – More low budget stuff, which probably heavily inspired the Blair Witch Project to launch its’ genius on the world stage a couple of years later. Shot as a documentary but it’s a film, it’s dark but so enjoyable.

8. The Lego Movie (2014) – A kids film that half way through just goes into Jack Black’s attic?! What the hell?! A film that will enrapture the kids, keep the adults laughing with jokes and plot above the kids’ heads and unleashes the most stupidly catchy film song of the year.

9. American Hustle (2013) – Sometimes producers just manage to get a stunning cast together and the script is shit, this wasn’t one of those occasions – Bale, Lawrence, Cooper and the underrated Amy Adams are a sensational quartet of characters is this crime caper, tremendously well shot and paced too.

10. Mortified Nation (2013) – As bloggers, we must all see a bit of ourselves in this raucously funny documentary. Adults read their uncensored kid/teenage diaries out to strangers as comedy in nights now staged worldwide. Straight from the filthy fucking mouths of kids, it’s incendiary.

There or thereabouts were a couple of comedy sequels, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) and Inbetweeners 2 (2014), both of which I liked more than the originals, both of which were very funny but only one of which did a fantastic gag with a massive turd going down a waterslide; I’ll let you guess which one..!

There were even more documentaries on the fringes, The Muslims Are Coming! (2013) and their plan of taking Muslim comedians on a tour around the stage is certainly relevant given the last few months’ events and Being Elmo: The Puppeteers Journey (2011), a look into the unassuming guy who ‘IS’ Elmo, a charming little film.

Devil’s Tower (2014) won’t win many awards but we did see a film premiere of it this year in Manchester so it sticks in the mind and as the Directors had a chat afterwards, we know the pains they went through to make it. Imagine the building/set burning down, midway through!

The Scandinavians don’t just do looney tunes horror like ‘Dead Snow’, they also make stuff like Troll Hunter (2010), a kind of Blair Witch versus The Ring type of mystery, featuring giant monsters, lovely.

Oh and some film called Frozen (2013) has been out in the past year or so, I can’t see it doing that well..!

Finally, in the ‘So Bad It’s Good’ award it’s… The Dog Who Saved Halloween (2011), the camerawork is so amateurish, you’ll know that you could do it better, poorly delivered jokes miss their target by miles and almost bemused actors try and work around the fact the plot is about a canine saving this most ridiculous of holidays. Oh and this is the THIRD in a trilogy, fuck me!

And here are my 2013 picks: http://jeffthelion.livejournal.com/256471.html