Best of 2023 Entertainment - Favourite Albums, Songs, Movies and TV Shows

• Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other [Rush, What's The Time Where You Are?, One of Your Girls, Got Me Started, Honey]
• Karol G - Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) [Bichotag, Qlona, Una Noche En Medellín, Me Tengo Que Ir, Provenza RMX]
• Alison Goldfrapp - The Love Intervention / Reinvention [Love Reinvention, Gateau & Gelato, So Hot So Hard, Digging Deeper, Impossible 'Touch The Sky', Fever (SR Club Mix)]
• Sofia Kourtesis - Madres [Madres, Si Te Portas Bonito, Vajkoczy, How Music Makes You Feel Better, Estación Esperanza]
• Roisin Murphy - Hit Parade [What Not to Do, CooCool, You Knew, Can't Replicate]
• Laufey - Bewitched [Dreamer, From The Start, Misty, Serendipity, Bewitched]
• Orbital - Optical Delusion / Deluxe [Ringa Ringa, Day One, Are You Alive?, You Are the Frequency, The Crane]
• Everything But The Girl - Fuse [Nothing Left to Lose, Run a Red Light, Caution To The Wind, No One Knows We're Dancing, Forever]
• PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows [Another Life, Mosquito, Nice to meet you, Capable of love, Boy's a liar Pt.2]
• Ladytron - Time's Arrow [City of Angels, Faces, Misery Remember Me, The Night, The Dreamers]
• Pangaea - Changing Channels [Installation, Hole Away, If, Bad Lines]
• Yeule - Softscars [x w x, sulky baby, inferno, cyber meat]
• Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy [Rice, I Saw, Geronimo, Be Your Lady]
• Sleaford Mods - UK Grim [UK Grim, Force 10 From Navarone, On The Ground, So Trendy]
• Nation of Language - Strange Disciple [Weak In Your Light, Sole Obsession, Spare Me the Decision, A New Goodbye]
• Tainy - Data [Pasiempre, Mojabi Ghost, Colmillo, Sci-Fi]
• Paul St Hilaire - Tikiman Vol 1 [Little Way, The Weather Man, Ten To One, In Door]
• Tzusing - Green Hat [Take Advantage, Idol Baggage, Clout Tunnel, Gait]
• Headache - The Head Hurts but the Heart Knows the Truth [The Beginning of the End, That Thing with the Rabbit, Bucket Listener, The Party that Never Ends]
• AntsLive - Just a Matter of Time [Lightskin Beatle, Number One Candidate, Glow Up, Skeet]
• a.s.o. - a.s.o. [Go On, Rain Down, Love in the Darkness, Cold Feeling, True, Understand]
• Jungle - Volcano [Candle Flame, I've Been In Love, Back on 74, Don't Play, Problemz]
• Hannah Diamond - Perfect Picture [Affirmations, Poster Girl, Flashback, Divisible By Two]
• Speaker Music - Techxodus [Techno-Vernacular Phreak, Futurythmic Bop, Dr. Rock's PowerNomics Vision]
• Purelink - Signs [In Circuits, 4k Murmurs, We Should Keep Going]
• Marina Herlop - Nekkuja [Busa, Cosset, La Alhambra, Reina Mora]
• Georgia - Euphoric [It's Euphoric, Give It Up For Love, All Night]
• Metric - Formentera II [Detour Up, Just The Once, Who Would You Be For Me]
• Holly Humberstone - Paint My Bedroom Black [Paint My Bedroom Black, Into Your Room, Flatlining]
• Barbie The Album OST [Dance The Night, Barbie World, Speed Drive, What Was I Made For?]

I always find the Songs selection somewhat trickier than the Albums one - I'm still very much an albums guy - and  love the emotional build up over the entire arc of an album - great albums are always greater than the sum of their parts. While the Singles / Songs selection is all about the 'parts' and where instantly satisfying earworms kind of owepower the subtleties and nuances of smartly sequenced album tracks.

Caroline Polachek's quirky Dang - was the track that most impacted me this year - that beautiful juxtaposition of slightly janky verses and melodic choruses - something about that track really appealed to me. Also Romy's 'The Sea' and Ammarae's Angels in Tibet - funnily the same trio at the top of my albums - so those albums to the double trip of sequencing - and stand-out singles - all 3 albums are filled with interesting tracks.

There's a smattering of dance grooves in there too - and I was glad to get the speaker-quaking Baddadan in there too! Another really interesting and eclectic section - with a smattering of slow tracks too - which I can stand in relative isolation - while a whole album of such material would put me to sleep within about 10 minutes!

Interesting tracks for sure - throughout that selection!

• Overmono - Feelings Plain, Arla Fearn, Good Lies, Walk Thru Water, Cold Blooded, Skulled
• Miley Cyrus - Flowers, Muddy Feet (w/ Sia)
• Björk & Rosalía - Oral
• PinkPantheress - Another Life, Mosquito, Nice to meet you, Capable of love, Boy's a liar Pt.2
• NewJeans - Super Shy
• Lama Del Rey - A&W
• Billie Eilish - What Was I Made For?
• Olivia Rodrigo - Vampire, Get Him Back, Bad Idea Right?, Lacy
• Troye Sivan - Rush, Got Me Started, One of Your Girls
• Skrillex, Fred Again, Flowdan - Rumble
• Fever Ray - What They Call Us, Shiver, Kandy, Carbon Dioxide
• Inji - Bored
• Latto Featuring Lu Kala — Lottery
• HYRA — Mary, Jane, and Me, Air U Breathe
• Shakira and Bizarrap - Bzrp Music Sessions Vol. 53
• Karol G  - TQG (w/ Shakira, Bichotag, Qlona, Una Noche En Medellín, Me Tengo Que Ir, Provenza RMX
• RR : Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro - Vampiros, Promesa, Beso
• Pangaea - Installation, Hole Away, If, Bad Lines
• Tirzah - U All the Time
• Jorja Smith - Little Things, Try Me
• Charli XCX - Speed Drive
• Chappell Roan - Red Wine Supernova
• FLO Featuring Missy Elliott — Fly Girls
• Aluna & TSHA — Killing Me
• Hudson Mohawke, Nikki Nair, Tayla Parx - Set the Roof
• Peggy Gou – (It Goes Like) Nanana, I Believe In Love Again w/ Lenny Kravitz (Jex Opolis RMX)
• Everything But The Girl – Nothing Left to Lose, Run a Red Light, Caution To The Wind, No One Knows We're Dancing, Forever
• Nia Archives – Bad Gyalz, leavemealone, Off Wiv Ya Headz
• Young Fathers - Rice, I Saw, Geronimo, Be Your Lady
• Yeule - x w x, sulky baby, inferno, cyber meat

The Creators combination of Bladerunner, Avatar, StarWars, Platoon, and the Golden Child - was the film that impacted me the most this year - sure it was a touch derivative - but beautifully executed and perfectly paced - I found it really rather emotional!

Asteroid City and Wonka - were both really joyful experience - I beamed throughout both of those - Oppenheimer was different to what I imagined - more of a political and court drama to a degree - did not really concern itself with the minutiae of the Manhattan Project - and the many scientist who perished through radiation poisoning during the development of those atomic bombs.

There's a smattering of horror there - but laced with humour really - and I loved Suzy quite a bit more than Across the Spider-Verse - which I enjoyed but found a little disjointed, And after a somewhat slow start - I really enjoyed Rebel Moon - which for me is the best StarWars film since Rogue One!

These's quite a broad selection here - I intended to - but did not get to Anatomy of a Fall, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and The Boy and The Heron. There were also several movies premiered in the USA - which we don't get to see here until next year.

A mixed movie year really - where I'm not sure there was a single perfect film - all were somewhat flawed in places - including Leo DiCaprio's one-note performance in Killers of the Flower Moon - I expected a little more of that film - but there were some spectacular sequences for sure.

Critics favourite Past Lives didn't particularly gel with me - I prefer a little more wit in my sort of romantic dramas - not bad by any means - but like Killers of the Flower Moon - not quite as good as the critics say!

• Killers of the Flower Moon [Amazon Prime]
• Godland [BFI Player]
• Barbie [Cinema / Cineworld]
• Past Lives [Amazon Prime]
• Spider-Man : Across the Spider-Verse [Amazon Prime]
• Infinity Pool [Sky / Now]
• Pearl [Sky / Now]
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 [Cinema / Cineworld]
• Dungeons & Dragons : Honour Among Thieves [Cinema / Cineworld]
• The Killer [Netflix]

There was much to love On Demand this year - and One Piece and Blue Eye Samurai totally worked for me on every level - One Piece's casting was genius - as was their character development and wonderful cartoony / anime flourishes. Weirdly Succession rather just bored me overall - while the single best episode this year was the Family Christmas Episode of The Bear - just genius (episode #6)!

Another eclectic selection - where I watched a load of tat this year mostly which helped me get through the average day of work! There's no space here for much of what I watched this year - I started twice as many shows as I finished - several promising premises ran woefully short - but for others there were some interesting spins of theme. I think we've run out of most distinct programming now - so it's mostly a matter of interesting fusions - as we see with music and cinema too - near enough every formula and basic narrative arc has been done already, every sequence of musical melody has been scripted - now it's all about combining those constituent parts in interesting ways.

There's a lot to say about character development and being able to empathise in some way with the protagonist of the drama / dramedy - however well or ill -intentioned they might be. Too many become caricatures of stereotypes - weighed down by artificially augmented gravitas.

In these troubled times I long for escapism - in my music, film and television - and all my favourites here work in taking my mind to new places with shimmering optimism for better days ahead!