Trying to Cover My Shadow - a look back at 2015 through music, film and TV.
- Graham Quinn
- Dec 31, 2015
- 7 min read
Just how personal do we wanna get here? Well, let's just say that without a lot of the stuff I'm going to talk about below, 2015 would have been even crazier, harder, more draining and more confusing than anything I've ever known. These are the things that have entertained, informed, diverted, bewildered, supported, educated, consoled, excited and explained........
Anthems For Doomed Youth by The Libertines I've always sort of liked The Libertines without ever being immersed or caught up in the whole culty Albion thing. Moments like Music When The Lights Go Out always for me belied their image (earned or not) of slightly ramshackle, rough edged indie mainstays, because it is so beautiful and vulnerable. With Anthems...however they have produced an entire record which keeps your attention, shows (gulp) a level of maturity in the writing and arrangements without losing a single iota of the spunky, edge-of-catastrophe tension.
You're My Waterloo
Ones and Sixes by Low Another one of those bands I have often flirted with, but seeing Low perform What Part Of Me? and The Innocents on Later.... this autumn drew me properly towards Ones and Sixes, and I wasn't disappointed. Low produce dense, brooding music which remains melodic - sometimes the structure can be a little metronomic as opposed to motorik but the tunes and harmonies elevate the whole thing to a special place.
What Part Of Me?
Courting The Squall by Guy Garvey
One of the year's major triumphs - of course Garvey is fundamentally identified with Elbow but here he delivered his own identifiable sound, his own craft. Unshackled grooves mixed with calm quietude and the usual deft and poignant lyricism - I'm not sure there's been a better lyric this year than the title track's paean to the power of personal connection:
"In the hills it's an overcoat colder
Come by, see me
If big things, life things are waves at your door
Come by, see me....
I'm the son of a saint and a leader of men And I'm neither of them but I'm yours I'll build us a house out of wrestlerock shale With some everyday windows An anytime roof And I'll open the doors To you and yours"
Broken Bottles and Chandeliers
Nadine Shah Probably my favourite discovery of the year, though technically I HEARD her for the first time in late 2014. A singular voice, saw her live twice and was blown away both times. Hilariously filthy between song banter. Awesome, beautiful, angular and disquieting songs.
Divided
Star Wars - The Force Awakens Yeah, ok.....not a great shock to be writing this bit. However I think the key is that whilst it did tick all my 7 year old boxes, and was a 'proper' Star Wars film, The Force Awakens is also just a great action movie in its own right. The Prequels are now mere narrative fodder with some cool fights in them. Star Wars is now all about the future.
Spectre The (lengthy) re-booting of Bond continued with Spectre, and probably delivered the best Craig Bond (Craig Bond??) movie yet. I get the whole 'psychological exploration of Bond's past' bit we have had in the last 3 movies, but it seems that the reintroduction of a significant yang to his yin in Spectre has brought a more rationalised whole to the narrative. 'What next?' is now a slightly more interesting question.
Spectre by Radiohead
Delivered without much warning in late December, the news that Radiohead had been asked to provide the new Bond Movie theme tune was a surprise. Yet it was still a bigger shock, once you had heard the track, that anyone in their right mind would have thought that the actual theme used was a patch on this gorgeous and evocative piece of work. Right up there with anything else Radiohead have done.
This Is England 90 I was going to write that 2015 was the year of the 'long awaited' but then realised that yesterday I read an article about all of the long awaited stuff for 2016 (Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Roses gigs, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, The Strokes, Bowie, Animal Collective, various Marvel follow up movies, X Files, Peaky Blinders) , so it's probably the same every year. The advent of This Is England 90 was undoubtedly a highlight however, despite some initial idiotic complaints that it wasn't dark enough - like the premise isn't the narrative or the characters but just seeing how far certain quite tawdry voyeuristic boundaries can be pushed. No, it probably isn't as bleak as some of the previous episodes, but that didn't stop it being complex, brusing, heady and disturbing, and yet at the same time utterly hilarious and totally uplifting. In other words proving that real life what it was all about as opposed to just the extremities.
The Leftovers The best TV show of 2014 delivered again this year, and for pretty much all of the same reasons. The title says it all - there isn't, for even a single moment, any serious amount of effort put into finding out what caused all the departures, just on looking at how those who are left behind - individuals, society, humanity - unravel, survive, triumph, implode. It is still an utter headfuck and at times is brutal, both viscerally and emotionally.
Blackstar by David Bowie Not the media coup de grace of 2013 but even without that there was perhaps even more excitement that Bowie was back - again. Any thoughts of him retreating into a dotage of recycling the The Next Day ad infinitum were expunged when Blackstar landed, a 10 minute jazz infused, multisectional opus.
Dog Man Star 20th Anniversary Live by Suede
One of my favourite albums for it's sense of drama at a time when the common notion of Britpop was really starting to take hold. This Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the Albert Hall offers a full run through of the record plus an extra disc of comtemporaneous b sides and a few other favourites, and it loses nothing of the recorded work's power, grace and style.
The 2 Of Us
Still Life
Currents by Tame Impala
My first real exposure to Tame Impala, another of those bands you're aware of but don't really connect with. I was intrugued by reviews of Currents as being a somewhat psychedelic experience - and it is but it is more than that, it takes psyched ideas and tropes and creates something spacious and alluring. Plus you always need a lyric or two to really hook you in on a personal level, and when on Yes I'm Changing Kevin Parker sang "I saw it different, I must admit, I saw a glimpse I'm going after it, they say people never change but that's bullshit", he certainly got my attention.....
Let It Happen
Ride Live in Manchester May 2015
The Nowhere gigs in October might have got a lot of the attention, and they were ace, but for the fan boy like me the real thrill was the first set of shows in the spring. That band, those songs 20 plus years on was a joy. A noisy, belligerent, shimmering, juggernaut of joy.
Leave Them All Behind
Polar Bear
Saint Etienne Christmas Party, Sage Gateshead, December 2015
The lovely setting for this gig actually dampened the party spirit a bit, it would have been better in a non-seated environment, yet the performance itself was incredible. Old favourites, covers, slightly more obscure tracks, and a sumptuous version of Avenue which would have been worth the asking price on its own.
There isn't any footage that I can find from the actual event, so these will have to do.....
Hobart Paving
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver / The Daily Show with John Stewart / The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Yep, sort of all kinda the same thing....but all were unfailing brilliant this year. John Oliver came of age with LWT, becoming angrier towards and more adept at eviscerating the more fundamental and ridiculous side of American/Global life - his bits on what he would do if Sepp Blatter resigned from FIFA, the dogs as the Chief Judges of the Supreme Court and the OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL EXEMPTION Church idea that got BIG legs were all comedy gold. The Daily Show went through the most fundamental of shifts, John Stewart's departure as magnificent as every moment that had preceded it, and Trevor Noah proving quite quickly to be a clever choice as replacement - fresh and individual but knowing how best to handle the legacy he had inherited.
Matt Berry On..... Funny man. Funny, funny man....... Check these surreal short pieces out and you will know immediately if you are a good soul, as if you are you will laugh like a drain. If you're unmoved.......hell awaits you.
Humans / Ex Machina A TV series and Movie respectively, both of which represent a well trodden path, but they both do it better than most - though I say that as someone who doesnt think AI is any more than a cloying, doe-eyed weep fest instead of the work of emotional genius many see it as. Plus they both grasped the thorny nettle of emotional / sexual human relationships with artificial intelligence, examening our dependence and mistrust at the same time.
Peter Kay's Car Share Kay's undoubted writing and stand up genius was being a little undermined by his inreasing ubiquity - maybe the X Factor spoof was a step too far at the time - but the balance has been redressed this year in style. Car Share is true weeping, shuddering comedy. A simple premise allowed the focus to be on the writing, the characters, and then the performances (perfect from both Kay and Sian Gibson as Kayleigh).
The Game The BBC do the best domestic drama - still, hands down - and this Cold War period thriller was right up there. Great performances, tense and taut all the way through.
Inside Out Yes, it does owe a great and probably unpaid debt to The Numbskulls, but once again Pixar delierved a visually stunning, funny, emotionally complex and often heartwrending story - or perhaps even lesson - on how to deal with change. I learnt a lot, even though these films are just for kids.......
And so there you are. I'm already expecting to spend the rest of the day remembering all the things I forgot to not leave out.......
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