2015 Best of Year Entertainment
2015 Best of Year Entertainment2015 End of Year ListsBest Entertainment 2015Best of 2015End of Year Lists+-
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:
- Art Angels - Grimes
- Half Free - U.S. Girls
- Drei - Emika
- Have You In My Wildernerss - Julia Holter
- Currents - Tame Impala
- Automatic - Kaskade
- Georgia - Georgia
- Vulnicura - Björk
- Rose - Abra
- Blackheart - Dawn Richard
- Beauty Behind the Madness - The Weeknd
- To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
- Music Complete - New Order
- Halleluwah - Halleluwah
- E•MO•TION - Carly Rae Jepsen
- Purpose - Justin Bieber
- Deep in the Iris - Braids
- Aero Flynn - Aero Flynn
- Ten Love Songs - Susanne Sundfør
- Hairless Toys - Róisín Murphy
- Caligo - Spor
- Glitch - VV Brown
- Honeymoon - Lana Del Rey
- Modern Warfare - Special Request
- Eclipse - Late Night Alumni
- Gunship - Gunship
- In Colour - Jamie XX
- Elaenia - Floating Points
- Every Open Eye - Chvrches
- Ibeyi - Ibeyi
- E-Project - Jean-Michel Jarre
- The Chopin Project - Olafur Arnalds & Alice Sara Ott
- Changes - Synkro
- Blue Neigbourhood - Troye Sivan
- Blood - Lianne La Havas
- Uptown Special - Mark Ronson
- Lost Themes - John Carpenter
- Lucid Dreaming - Say Lou Lou
- Next Jack Swing Pt.1 Remixes - French Horn Rebellion
- Alternative Light Source - Leftfield
- Communion - Years & Years
- Starfire - Jaga Jazzist
- The Way Back Up - Prides
- Kiddo - Tove Styrke
- Hey Hey - Mapei
- Pretend - Seinabo Sey
- Making Time - Jamie Woon
- St Germain - St Germain
- Narrative of Thee Blast Illusion - Felix da Housecat
- Alone in the Universe - ELO
Top 50 Tracks
By Playback preference / frequency:
- Damn that Valley / Window Shades / Woman’s Work - U.S. Girls
- Flesh without Blood / World Princess part II / Kill V. Maim - Grimes
- Make It Up - Tirzah
- Can’t Feel My Face / The Hills - The Weeknd
- Battles / My Heart Bleeds Melody - Emika
- Lean On - Major Lazer and DJ Snake feat. Mø
- Sorry / I’ll Show You / Love Yourself - Justin Bieber
- Bitch Better Have My Money - Rihanna
- Love is Free (feat. Maluca) - Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique
- What’s a Girl Got to Do - Fatima Yamaha
- XTC - DJ Koze
- Never Sleep Alone / We Don’t Stop - Kaskade
- Run Away With Me / I Really Like You - Carly Ray Jepsen
- Electric Love (Oliver Remix) - Børns
- Worth It - Fifth Harmony
- Feel You / Sea Calls Me Home - Julia Holter
- Let It Happen / Yes I’m Changing - Tame Impala
- Glass and Patron / Figure 8 - FKA Twigs
- ZigZags - Rob Made & The Cool Cats
- The Boss - Rob Made
- Doing It - Charli XCX feat. Rita Ora
- Want to Want Me - Jason Derulo
- The Blacker The Berry / King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar
- I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) Jamie XX feat. Young Thug & Popcaan
- Home Tonight - Lindstrøm feat. Grace Hall
- Just Like We Never Said Goodbye - Sophie
- Jealous - Nick Jonas
- High by the Beach - Lana Del Rey
- All Day - Kanye West
- Real Joy / Everybody Knows - Fono
- Stonemilker - Björk
- Bad Blood - Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar
- Taste - Braids
- Clearest Blue / Leave a Trace - Chvrches
- Here - Alessia Cara
- Love Myself - Hailee Steinfeld
- 2Shy - Shura
- I Can Never Be Myself When You’re Around - Chromatics
- Drummer / Constellation - Late Night Alumni
- Magnets - Disclosure ft. Lorde
- Rewind - Kelela
- Gone Missing (ft BB Diamond) - Shift K3Y
- How Deep Is Your Love - Calvin Harris & Disciples
- Where Are Ü Now - Jack Ü feat. Justin Bieber
- Runaway (U & I) - Galantis
- Carrion Flowers - Chelsea Wolfe
- Pylon - Lakker
- Trap Queen - Fetty Wap
- Hercules - Young Thug
- Where Do We Go - Lion Babe
Top 20 Film
By Viewing Preference:
- Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
- Whiplash
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Sicario
- It Follows
- Birdman
- The Martian
- Wild Tales
- Selma
- Ex Machina
- John Wick
- Inside Out
- The Assassin
- Amy
- Ant Man
- While We’re Young
- The Gift
- Inherent Vice
- Look of Silence
Top 30 TV
By Viewing Preference:
- Fargo S2
- Mr Robot S1
- Mr Norrel & Jonathan Strange MS
- Heroes Reborn MS
- Quantico S1
- The Vikings S3
- Daredevil S1
- Blindspot S1
- Narcos S1
- W1A S2
- The Bridge S3
- Banshee S3
- Into The Badlands S1
- Gotham S2
- Game of Thrones S5
- iZombie S2
- Jessica Jones S1
- Sense8 S1
- Justified S6
- The Last Kingdom MS
- Humans S1
- Master of None S1
- True Detective S2
- Wayward Pines S1
- Wolf Hall MS
- Hell on Wheels S5
- Spiral S5
- Scream Queens S1
- Ash vs Evil Dead S1
- 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:
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- Just Cause 3
- Fallout 4
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- The Last of Us Remastered
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
- Far Cry 4
- Bloodborne
- Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
Top 10 Games Apple TV
In order of pure gratification:
- Geometry Wars 3
- Sky Force
- Guitar Hero Live
- Rayman Adventures
- Shadowmatic
- Transistor
- Manticore Rising
- Xenowork
- Does not Commute
- Oceanhorn