best.......

Heya



And so it is that time once again, look you see. The year that is, or soon to be was, 2018, draws to a close. For the most part I would encourage one to look forwards, but it does no harm to look backwards.

This is then my semi traditional, mostly annual glance back over twelve or so months, give or take (north or south) a day or so. Make no mistake, for I am under no illusions that my view of what counts as the “best” of this or any year represents what is so for all, to be sure. But, here it all is for those who are for some reason interested in how I saw, heard and read the year that was, or “is”.

……….film

No, I didn’t see too many films this year. Of the ones that I did watch, however, I am indeed going to be as perhaps obvious and indeed populist as to say Avengers Infinity War was the best of the lot.

Why? There is no good reason why not. A staggering achievement – fine film in its own right, whilst also raising an ongoing series of these “Marvel Superhero” films to a whole new higher level. It perfectly balances a huge stack of “main characters” whilst allowing them to have depth and dimensions. This is particularly true of the ostensible “big bad” of the film. Best of all is that it stands up extremely well to repeat viewings. This is handy as both the boys have wanted it on again and again.

For want of a better, more appropriate title, “second best” would be another Marvel film, Black Panther. It broke with the colour by numbers plot of virtually all Disney / Marvel films thus far (the “we’re putting a team together” one) and brought something fresh, new and interesting.

Otherwise, Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom did exactly what it said on the box, which is give two or so hours of dinosaurs running about. Splendid, and I must say it is with interest I am watching to see just how far Chris Pratt’s career will go with his “stand around and visibly be Chris Pratt” approach to acting. The Predator was way better than I had anticipated, with only the presence of the awful, rubbish looking CGI “uber” Predator letting it down. Venom was also surprisingly decent.

Disappointments of the year? Well, the other 75% of the family disagree, but to me Ant Man & Wasp was a little dull. I think it suffered coming after Infinity War, but being set before the events of that film. Biggest letdown of the year, however, was by some distance Solo. The magic of Star Wars was always that it was a simple, straightforward, swashbuckling adventure whole families could enjoy. When you have an 8 year old and 12 year old pair of dedicated Star Wars fans getting up and walking away from a Star Wars film because they are bored, well, you know something is wrong.

…….royal wedding

Oh, pretty straightforward really. This honour goes to Harry & Meghan (pronounced “Meghan”). A lot of this is because the wedding was one big massive throwback to a time when such weddings were used to cement treaties, agreements and truces in war. Great Britain and America have taken two ostensibly important but ultimately irrelevant prominent figures and have married them off in a way which tacitly underlines the “special relationship” between our two great nations.

Mostly, though, it gets my vote for “royal wedding of the year” purely because BBC 2 decided to have someone called Rae Morris perform live in their studios on the morning of the wedding as part of their coverage. I had not heard of her before, but was more or less hooked straight away, and so bought her most recent album.

Which leads us quite nicely to………..

……..album

A year of some very good, above average albums, but ultimately none of them with the outstanding, excellence, sheer “wow” factor of the ones which came out in 2016. No, not a typo – 2017 was somewhat poor.

Just so as to avoid getting a needless, quite unnecessary punch in the face, I must of course commence this with a celebration of Roger Daltrey. Yes, Roger did indeed treat us to a most splendid of records in 2018.

Nearest closest to a non-Roger Daltrey album of the year was The Blue Hour by Suede. A haunting masterpiece that seems not to be appreciated by the present day audience. It is, however, an album which shall continue to exist, which is to say one day an audience will seek it out and it shall be understood, rather than it being discarded for all time.

Any others close? Well, James could have had an album as excellent as 2016’s Girl At The End Of The World. Sadly, inexplicably, they allowed themselves to be distracted and for no apparent reason polluted the otherwise excellent Living In Extraordinary Times with at least two attacks on Trump. To be honest, I am entirely indifferent to Trump, and for that matter whoever America elects to elect as leader. Why exactly James decided to distract from the good music on the album with references to him is a mystery.

Welsh Wonders the Manic Street Preachers continued with their transformation into the Relaxed Sat In Comfy Chairs Chatters with Resistance Is Futile. A rather mellow, tranquil, pleasant listening record off of them, then.

Honourable mentions to the records off of Kylie, Simple Minds, (Sir) Paul McCartney, (Sir) Rod Stewart and (as far as I am aware still a commoner) Mark Knopfler, which were all jolly good listening. And, as per the royal wedding observations above, a special mention again for Rae Morris, who is splendid and someone you should give a try.

Re-releases? Or things what had not been released at the time of recording but came out in 2018? Certainly, 2 (two) came out over the year which immediately suggest they should be noted.

Perhaps the best thing about Welcome To The Blackout is that it showcases an on top form David Bowie, sounding relaxed and immensely comfortable with the music he is performing. Appetite For Destruction remains, as in now as it was then and shall surely always be, one of the most devastating, outstanding "throw everything you have at this because you might not get the chance again" rock albums of all time.

Musical comeback of the year is the happy and sad return of Ian Brown. Happy as it’s some decent new music off of Ian Brown, sad as you have to assume that The Stone Roses shall not be making any new records, then, at least not soon.

A seemingly failed comeback of the year was that of Culture Club, although now they are apparently styled “Boy George and Culture Club”. I heard one or two songs off of their new album on Radio 2, and they were quite good. But, no, I did not buy the album, and few others did it seems, for if I remember right it didn’t crack the top ten. Undoubtedly there exists a nostalgia market for their classic hits, but it is a bit of a shame their new efforts seem to have been widely ignored.

Speaking of which, by some distance my most played album of the year was one released late last year – Songs Of Experience by U2. It has become inexplicably fashionable and trendy to be seen to be not listening to U2 these days, which is a great shame as Songs Of Experience is an outstanding record. Should you be one of the many who have not heard it, what can I do but recommend you reconsider this and give it a spin.

…….posh chap

Jacob Rees-Mogg. It beggars belief that anyone could ever be posher. Cherish him whilst we have him, I suppose. It would seem we are stuck with him anyhow.

……..book

A tough one, this, very tough. This year has seen fortune smile on me, for in my selections I have read a great many more good (excellent) books than I have poor (bad) ones.

If I had to choose one that I would say “yes, read this” then it would be the superb Thirteen, or if you will Th1t3en. Just a damned good thriller with an interesting plot or if you like premise. One that I am aware of people giving a try after I sang the praises of it (with some clauses and disclaimers) was Chalk Man. So yes, that was on the shortlist too.

Honourable mention goes to Cass Green with Don’t You Cry. A quite breathtakingly brilliant modern spin on the Desperate Hours plotline; one which brings something quite new to a plot structure one would have thought had already been done all ways possible.

Also Into The Water, by her what done Girl On The Train. Sheena Kamal's Eyes Like Mine was also superb. Despite being somewhat brief, yes, Artemis off of him what done The Martian too. Well, yes, as I confessed, some good reading was had in 2018, to be sure.

……post

I am not sure I am in a position to select my “best” post of the year that was here, but I can at the least tell you which was the most read one. With some delight I can tell or otherwise assure you it was one which sought to celebrate David Lee Roth.

Yes, The Roth Tapes as a blog post attracted somewhere slightly south of 1000 readers. Perhaps this is due to the good taste of people in the world seeking to know the magnificence of Roth, or maybe just some nostalgia for fan compiled videotapes.

Well, then, that’s that. Perhaps, or maybe, I have missed some things of importance or consequence, but overall and on the whole I’d like to think I have covered enough.

And so onto, or into, another year, then. See you in it, I hope and trust.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!