Best of the Year 2014 - Audiovisual

At the end of every year I run through the highlights of the preceding 12 months, and no matter how much I experience I never catch everything, and not necessarily in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate it. I have been composing this list pretty much since the start of this month, and every day I make some minor tweaks. The top few entries are relatively safe, but there is a lot of movement lower down, as something catches my fancy and forces me to elevate it. As far as music goes, it was always going to take a lot to shake St Vincent from the top of the tree this year, same goes for Star-Wars-level-brilliant Guardians of the Galaxy - the perfect marriage of Sci-fi with humour and 70’s soundtrack. I certainly watched a lot of films and television this year and reacquainted myself with the wonderful world of Anime, mostly courtesy of Crunchyroll...

Best Albums

Glastonbury 2014 really switched me on to St Vincent, who’s eponymous album justifiably takes the top seat. I really liked FKA Twigs LP1 too, but expected it to be even better than it turned out. The top 10 features a lot of ’Scanditronica’, while Angel Haze’s debut was my favourite hip-hop long player, ahead of most others’ favourite ’Run the Jewels 2’. Hardly any rock in this year’s chart, which is dominated by electronic music.

1. St Vincent - St Vincent
2. LP1 - FKA Twigs
3. Goddess - Banks
4. Cut Your Teeth - Kyla La Grange
5. Beauty is Pain - Rebecca & Fiona
6. The Inevitable End - Röyksopp
7. Chiaroscuro - I Break Horses
8. Blue - Iamamiwhoami
9. Kiasmos - Kiasmos
10. No Mythologies to Follow - Mø
11. Dirty Gold - Angel Haze
12. Selectadisc - Ronika
13. New Eyes / NE SE - Clean Bandit
14. Junto - Basement Jaxx
15. Little Red - Katy B
16. Recognise / Unrecognisable - Fred V & Grafix
17. Tough Love - Jessie Ware
18. It’s Album Time - Todd Terje
19. Sound of a Woman - Kiesza
20. Ultraviolence - Lana Del Ray
21. Queen of the Clouds - Tove Lo
22. Faith in Strangers - Andy Stott
23. Tremors - Sohn
24. The Future’s Void - EMA
25. Our Love - Caribou
26. Lost in the Dream - War on Drugs
27. Look to your own heart - Lisa Ekdahl
28. Run The Jewels 2 - Run The Jewels
29. Wonder Where We Land - SBTRKT
30. Unflesh - Gazelle Twin
31. Clark - Clark
32. Trouble in Paradise - La Roux
33. Jungle - Jungle
34. 1000 Forms of Fear - Sia
35. Xen - Arca
36. Aquarius - Tinashe
37. Silkidrangar - Samaris
38. Complètement Fou - Yelle
39. Sirens - Gorgon City
40. Universal Language - Metrik
41. The New Classic / Reclassified - Iggy Azalea
42. Sleepygirls - Yagya
43. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 - Soundtrack VA
44. Cadillactica - Big K.R.I.T.
45. Saudade - Thievery Corporation
46. Late Night Tales: Atlantic Soul - Groove Armada
47. Acoustic - Above and Beyond
48. Saudade (Best of) - Phonique
49. EX - Plastikman
50. G I R L S - Pharrell

Best Tracks

Excellent year for singles, really love Soak and believe she has an enormous future, even though I don’t usually go for the singer/songwriter type. Sia’s Chandelier was everywhere this year (love the choreography), as was St Vincent and Kiesza’s Hideaway, which pips ’Rather Be’ for my favourite dance track of the year, and Ten Walls ’Walking with Elephants’ deservers a mention for most memorable proper club track.

1. B a NoBody / Blud - Soak
2. Chandelier (Four Tet Remix) / Free the Animal - Sia
3. Prince Johnny / Digital Witness - St Vincent
4. Hideaway / No Enemiesz - Kiesza
5. Tough Love (Cyril Hahn Remix) / Say You Love Me (Gorgon City Remix)- Jessie Ware
6. Two Weeks / Pendulum - FKA Twigs
7. Rather Be / Real Love - Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne
8. Beautiful / Hey QT - A.G. Cook / Sophie
9. Change / Beggin for Thread - Banks
10. Do It Again (Original) / Monument (TIE) - Röyksopp and Robyn
11. Candy Love / Holler / Hit the Drum - Rebecca & Fiona
12. Klapp Klapp / Pretty Girls - Little Dragon
13. Burnt / Bent- Kiasmos
14. Heavenly Shower / Sing & Dance - Lisa Ekdahl
15. Thru Da Night - Shash’U
16. Push - A-Trak
17. Drummer - Late Night Alumni
18. West Coast / Ultraviolence - Lana Del Ray
19. Yellow Flicker Beat - Lorde
20. New Dorp New York - SBTRKT ft. Ezra Koenig
21. The Rhythm - MNEK
22. Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars
23. Blue Blue / Shadowshow - Iamamiwhoami
24. TNR - Kasper Bjørke ft. Jaakko Eino Kalevi
25. Uptight Downtown / Cruel Sexuality- La Roux
26. Busy Earnin’ / Time - Jungle
27. Blockbuster Night Pt. 1 / Close Your Eyes - Run The Jewels
28. Walking With Elephants - Ten Walls
29. Go - Grimes ft. Blood Diamonds
30. Fancy - Iggy Azalea
31. Sleep Sounds / Girl - Jamie XX
32. Belly of the Beast - Gazelle Twin
33. Satellites / 3Jane - EMA
34. No More - Shlohmo / Jeremih
35. Benz Friendz - Future / Andre 3000
36. Crossfade (Maceo Plex Mix) - GusGus
37. Depth of My Soul - Thievery Coporation
38. Let’s Dance - Emika
39. Habits (Stay High) - Tove Lo
40. Never Say Never / Sneakin’ Toronto - Basement Jaxx
41. Faith / Denial - I Break Horses
42. Delorean Dynamite / Preben Goes to Acapulco - Todd Terje
43. Changes - Faul & Wad Ad & Pnau
44. Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj
45. Go All Night / Ready for Your Love - Gorgon City
46. Liberate - Eric Prydz
47. Quincy - Deep Dish
48. Dangerous (Robin Shculz Remix) - David Guetta ft. Sam Martin
49. Rhymes - Hannah Wants & Chris Lorenzo
50. Turn Down for What - DJ Snake / Lil Jon

Best TV

Great new modern family on Amazon’s new series Transparent - like a cross between Royal Tenenbaums and Woody Allen - superb dialogue. Best realised season yet of GOT, Peaky Blinders showing UK can still do global HBO quality shows. Much to love from various directions and genres, a number of seasons ended weekly which marred my enjoyment - e.g. In the Line of Duty. Lots of Anime for me this year, extended my own collection, plus plenty of viewing on Netflix and Crunchyroll.

1. Transparent
2. Game of Thrones S4
3. Peaky Blinders S2
4. Fargo
5. Orange is the New Black S2
6. The Good Wife S5/6
7. Akame ga Kill S2
8. Utopia S2
9. The Bridge S2
10. The Honourable Woman
11. True Detective
12. Hell on Wheels S4
13. Marco Polo

Best Films

For sheer enjoyment factor, nothing can beat Guardians of the Galaxy or Grand Budapest Hotel - different audiences for sure, The first a worthy successor to Star Wars, for my nephews’ generation. Some asinine critics branded Wes Anderson’s latest as distinctly humourless where I found it utterly delightful and likely Wes’s best to date. Nigthcrawler was also an extraordinarily surprising film with Jake Gyllenhall pulling off a scary career best too.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Nightcrawler
4. Gone Girl
5. Boyhood
6. Maleficent
7. Edge of Tomorrow / Live Die Repeat
8. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
9. Raid 2
10. Interstellar
11. The Lego Movie
12. The Hobbit - Battle of the 5 Armies