it feels like a drum

I think i've gone and done something I shouldn't have.

covered

I love the snow. I don't like the cold and the confusion and the breakdown of society but I like how it covers the whole world. The angles and edges of the town are smoothed and softened. The landscape is changed. It keeps on falling.

my year in lists part 4. miscellany one

Top 5 Favourite People to follow on Twitter

• @loscampesinos : err because they're the greatest band ever. and Gareth really can go off on one sometimes and mostly he just likes football and the X Factor. like a normal person. sample tweet: I love Robbie Williams so much.

• @kanyewest : using Twitter as the soap box that he so badly needed before. sample tweet: I can't be everybody's hero and villain savior and sinner Christian and anti Christ!

• @FakeCraigFinn: doing Hold Steady lyrics better than the Hold Steady on their last record. sample tweet: She said, 'Don't call until you put yourself together' / But lots of the pieces are still at her place

• @serafinowicz : the reason twitter was made. non-stop joke machine. sample tweet: Although he detests The Joker, Batman enjoys attending his standup gigs

• @popjustice : best music website bar none. AMAZING. sample tweet: I wonder what it would take to make Bad Romance to sound bad. I believe it to be IMPOSSIBLE.

Top 2 Songs about the Munich Air Disaster

1. News & Tributes by The Futureheads : this is beautiful and moving and makes me close to tears every time I listen to it.
2. Munich Air Disaster 58 by Morrissey : quite good but mostly about Morrissey in a depressing "woe is me way" and as such, less moving.

Top 3 gigs I went to this year

1. Los Campesinos w/ Frankie and the Heartstrings and Johnny Foreigner : hands down, the greatest the best gig i've ever been to. Obviously the music was brilliant and all that but after a few horrible months, this show was the emotional catharsis I desperately needed. Shouting the best lyrics ever written until my lungs burnt and dancing until I couldn't feel my feet. The year changed that day; things got better (the day after was pretty sweet too.)
2. Vampire Weekend w/ Janelle Monae and Ratatat : a more purely joyous and happy evening I have not spent in quite a while. Good company too. I slept very well that evening, for the first time in ages.
3. Bon Jovi : Completely unexpectedly brilliant. I was being too cool about it for ages before hand and even during the poor and forgettable (forgotten) support band but when the Jovi appeared I got stupidly excited and loved every second.

Top 10 Callum Burgess Facebook status updates of the last few months (in no particular order)

• Rhinana(sp?), Cheryl Cole and Christina Aguilera on my TV- what a saturday night! (because he is a ladies man)

• would love to know how he got home last night? (because he is such a drinker nowadays. this should have a lol after)

• is finally getting to watch inception only had to wait months! (genuinely surprised that he didn't see it sooner.)

• ... Bored (because sometimes simplistic is all you need)

• Definitely just had a night like the Hangover...without the hangover, can't remember what the hell happened but it was awesome...Careys Tonight :D (because there is definitely a tiger and Mike Tyson and loads of casinos in Coventry)

• cereal at 5am i suppose thats breakfast, just havn't been to sleep yet (making the cool not sleeping part incidental and the cereal the bulk of the piece is the masterstroke here)

• ahhhhh gym pain (because he is just so ripped)

• is going on a dangerous trip to birmingham, lets try not to spend everything i have (because he is rich and Birmingham is paved with gold)

• fresh bedding .... aahhhhhhhhhh (?????)

• is definitely still drunk on his way to his lecture :D (I think i know why the Tories voted for the rises now. THANKS CAL)

MORE TO FOLLOW

my year in lists part 3. my cinematic adventures

As it stands, I have been to the cinema 30 times this year, seeing 29 different films. This is slightly disappointing seeing that last year I made 61 trips and saw 54 different films. Over a thirds of the screenings that I went to, I went to alone. There is a stigma to going to the cinema alone but it is not one I understand. Sure, a film is a pretty good thing to go to on a date (the chance would be a fine thing...) but you don't talk to anyone while you're in there. Anyway, that is for another time. GO.

My 10 Favourite Films of 2010AD (in chronological order)

Up In The Air

This seems like it was years ago now, especially seeing as that it came out in the previous awards season. I remember how I felt afterwards, distraught and hollow and old. Clooney is amazing. He always is. But especially so in this. All the supporting acting is great too, from Vera Farmiga to the tiny appearance by Zach Galifianakis.

Ponyo

This was a good cartoon and now, looking back, I find it quite hard to talk about. The animation was beautiful and the voice work was very good, especially Tina Fey. I love Tina Fey. Ponyo Ponyo tiny little fish...

Shutter Island

With DiCaprio leading and Scorsese directing, I was expecting quite a bit from this film and I feel that it delivered. Not outstanding, but a very strong psychological thriller, with great performances from Leo and Mark Ruffalo and Ghandi in particular. I seem to remember being especially enamoured with the way it was all shot. It seemed painted and artificial and beautiful and harrowing, all reflecting the plot. Very clever. Good twist too.

Kick-Ass

It kicked ass, didn't it? I meant to watch it again on DVD but never got round to it, I hope I will on Blu-Ray at Christmas. Very funny and bloody, it met all of my expectations and even threw in a LOST joke. Even though I dislike Aaron Johnson very much he was admittedly excellent, as was Nic Cage (obvs) and that little girl. And McLovin.

Cemetery Junction

Why wasn't this massive? It might even be the best thing that Steve Merchant and Ricky Gervais have ever done. Admittedly, that's a massive statement from an Office fan like me but this is a brilliantly moving, beautifully shot film with all amazing performances. The main guy who was in that episode of Doctor Who is brilliant, the angry guy is brilliant, the fat comedy guy is hillarious, the girl who was in that episode of Doctor Who is maybe the most beautiful woman in the world and an amazing actress. Voldemort is evil and he's not even Voldemort. I cannot wait to see this again.

Dogtooth

If I had to choose, this would probably be my film of the year (or, at least, joint first). Mad and scary and hillariously funny, in the darkest possible way. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. Watch it. Now. Seriously, you need to.

Four Lions

A comedy about Suicide bombers by Chris Morris sounds exactly like my sort of thing and it was, but unexpectedly so. While it was funny (Fuck Mini-babybels!), it was more poignant and insightful than it was humourous. Vastly underseen.

Inception

Can this film even be reviewed or explained? It was just top quality stuff and so very clever. Tom Hardy was a revelation and I love Ellen Page's face. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt's. Most discussed film of the year by a country mile. Ending? Dream. Just for the kicks.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Everything that I could want from an adaptation of the books and, in some places, probably even more. The songs were brills and Michael Cera was completely Scott Pilgrim, in a way that I could never have previously imagined. The little touches in the film just made it feel so right. I love Edgar Wright. He should do more.

The Social Network

Really wasn't expecting this. The trailer was interesting on its own but it didn't really make me want to watch it. I mean, a movie about Facebook and lawyering shouldn't be great but it is. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake all put in great performances but the real star is Aaron Sorkin's script with crackles and zips along, bringing so much life to the preceedings.

Special Mentions

Toy Story 3 (I liked it but I really wanted them to die and then they didn't. Am I a bad person?)

The Wolfman (I mean, how shit was that?)

The Killer Inside Me (It is rare that I can't bare to watch, so harrowing were the images.)

Wes Anderson double-bill at the Picturehouse (AMAZING)

NEXT: miscellany!

my year in lists part 2. albums

I think that this has been a pretty good year for music. I've enjoyed it anyway. I've not been to as many shows as I'd have liked to but the ones I have been to have been excellent, including an incredibly life-affirming, all-time favourite gig. So, albums. Here we go...

Records That Are The Best (according to me) from the year 2010AD

10. Total Life Forever - Foals

I only purchased this on Monday afternoon and its appearance in my top 10 is proof (I hope) of its quality rather the lack of quality in other albums this year. A real progress from their first album which was good but didn't meet the hype. Less frenetic than their older stuff but really quite moving and mature (do all things get maturer and darker, except Weezer?). If i had got this in May when it came out, I am pretty confident that it could have made my top 3.

9. One Life Stand - Hot Chip

Though Hot Chip have always been obviously brilliant, their albums have always left me wanting something more. Their singles are never less than AMAZING but The Warning was empty in places and Made In The Dark was the ultimate in suffering from an overabundance of ideas. On One Life Stand however, I feel that they have reached a happy medium. Cohesive in tone and darkly melodic, it finds places that their music couldn't quite reach before. Soul music.

8. Scott Pilgrim OST - Various Artists

Is this cheating? I don't care. An ecclectic musical soundscape that perfectly matches the film in tone. Beck's work on making Sex Bob-omb and Crash and the Boys' music from the books come alive would be worth the album price alone. It is nice when things that you've had an idea of in your head for so long get realised and it was like it should be. Alfred thought that Hagrid would be blue and have actual dustbin lids for hands and he was disappointed. Luckily, I didn't have this problem here.

7. Contra - Vampire Weekend

I like Vampire Weekend a lot and I enjoyed Contra when it came out (especially when Clara thought that it was "in December drinking hot chowder") but it didn't maintain repeated listens for that long. However, when I saw them live last week it really made the album make a bit more sense, especially the longer, slower tracks (that you can't easily do a nodding dance to.) Giving Up The Gun is particularly brilliant. Plus, Jake Gyllenhaal in the video playing tennis super-seriously is funny.

6. Serotonin - Mystery Jets

As the Mystery Jets get weirder as people (see Blaine's haircut), they get more and more mainstream as in terms of their music. The melodies are beautiful and the voices of all have never been better. While the lyrics can be hit and miss, the best (there's an invisible line where your bodies meets mine/and crossing it seems like a drug) far outweigh the worst (the weather man he says that soon it will be snowing?) This album should have been a lot bigger than it was.

5. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West

In one word, grandiose. In a few, Kanye's best album by far. I've always felt that before his work has been best in the singles whereas the albums have been overlong and messy, full of skits that I can never quite get the point of. On this, Kanye brings it all in and has created an album that must go on to be seen as his best. While on their own, the songs don't reach the crossover level that songs like Gold Digger did, together they show insight into the incredibly fractured mind of the man who is the World's Greatest Popstar. It is bigger, badder and better than anything he has done before.

4. Love King - The-Dream

Looking back a year, I wouldn't have expected an album anything like this in my top 10, let alone 4th. Sure, I've always been a fan of classic RnB styling (see Everybody In Love's high placing in my top 10 singles of '09) but it has always been a singles affair, feeling that on an album it can become tiresome. Love King is anything but. The production is so shiny and glossy and the Dream has one hell of a knack for a melody. FLORIDA UNIVERSITY

3. The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae

There is nothing sexier than ideas (or am I thinking of breasts? IDK, ask again later) and The ArchAndroid is full of them. A afro-futurist space opera about oppression, identity and love from the perspective of a messianic cyborg sung by the human she was based on who has been sent 700 years back in time. What more could you want? Great music in a plethora of styles, sung with a beautiful and unique voice? It just happens to have that too. I can't wait to see where this goes next.

2. The Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens

I had never mega been into Sufjan Stevens before but I took a chance with this album and I do not regret it at all. The Age of Adz can transport you to another place, so thick and glorious is the production. A 25 minute long song should never work but it does and it is beautiful and stunning and it makes life better by existing. This whole album does that. Sublime.

1. Romance Is Boring (and Alls Well That Ends EP) - Los Campesinos!

Romance Is Boring has been the soundtrack of my year and it'll likely be the soundtrack to the rest of my life. It contains every feeling I have ever felt. The specificity of Gareth's lyrics to his own stories only make them more relatable to all of my mistakes and missteps in life. I cannot imagine 2010 without this album and I cannot imagine my life without this band. Even when everything else seems bleak and I feel so painfully alone that I cannot speak, I know that I have Los Campesinos!

Special Mentions

Learning - Perfume Genius (like so many things I've written about, haunting)

Hurley - Weezer (album cover of the year)

The Suburbs - Arcade Fire (sorry to say I didn't give it enough of my time)

Heaven Is Whenever - The Hold Steady (well, it's The Hold Steady)

Quarantine The Past - Pavement (great introduction to a great band)

Albums that didn't come out this year but I found out about this year and love

Yeah, So - Slow Club (all kinds of stunning)

Waited Up 'til It Was Light - Johnny Foreigner (band with three members AND boy/girl vox? PLEASE)

At The Club - Kenickie (is there a more desirable woman than Lauren Laverne?)

next, films? x

merry christmas, i wish you were here

Last night was my Christmas ball(?) off of college. It was at the Soul Tree. I like the Soul Tree because of the time that Amy (ha), Bry and I went to see Mumm-Ra there. I love Mumm-Ra. I miss them. The same space was filled with people dressed in pretty varied costume, from ball gowns to jeans and a t-shirt. More importantly, it was filled with people that I don't really know. And the ones that I do, I care about deeply but I never get the sense that it would matter if I were to disappear. I wanted to run. It's been a long time since I ran.

The whole situation set me thinking about my life and all the little chains of consequence that had led me there, whilst simultaneously dancing to some pretty dire musical choices from the poor DJ. (I do a lot of thinking whilst dancing, I think it's because I can set my body on autofunk and just let my mind reel.) What had I done to get myself here? Did I deserve it? What am I missing? Are the positives of my life that I wouldn't have had anyway enough to outweigh the constant drain on my soul that living seems to bring? Is that last question far too melodramatic? I'm sure we'll agree that it is.

I don't know if it was the drink but I thought of Clara. I wanted to call her. But I didn't. This is restraint. Well done. What would have I even said? I don't know if there are words. There are no connections between us any more, our mutual friends on facebook I have sheared to a bare minimum. But yet she still haunts my dreams and I wake up in the morning and I don't know how to feel. Or if i even feel.

I know I do feel. I can feel it in the pit of my stomach. A yearning. For anyone inparticular? Or for anyone? People on the dancefloor last night, cavorting in both senses of the word. I felt disgusted at the actions of some, particularly Pav and Alan. Like women are meat, game to be hunted, a game to be played. What makes me feel worse is knowing that if I had the nerve (lack of class, confidence?) I'd play the game too.

OH WELL. It's been a good week otherwise. This time a week ago, I was watching Janelle Monae. Excellent. And on Sunday, Matt called Shelia a cunt at our Christmas meal. And there is a new LC! christmas song. you've got to untie me from these bows, wrap your arms round me like swaddling clothes

my year in lists part 1. singles club

December becomes less about the birth of Christ (maybe a good thing considering he probably wasn't even born then) and more about lists. This is good. Lists are a religion I can wholly and fully worship. I tried to do some last year but only got to singles. There is where I will start again this year, but there is more to come. So here it goes.

My Top 10 Singles of 2010AD

10. Dreaming of Another World - Mystery Jets

I have loved the Jets since they were the first band that I ever saw in a proper gig and their progression from the quirky weirdo folkprog of their earliest singles to the shimmering pop that is Dreaming of Another World has been magic. I usually prefer the Blaine-led tracks to the Will ones but the chorus on this is just sublime.

9. I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know - Los Campesinos!

I could have chosen any of the 15 tracks from Romance Is Boring for this list but I'll go with I Just Sighed because it most sums up for me Gareth's lyrical intensity, somewhere between poem and novel, and features a handful of his best lines (tbf, all LC! songs do). The couplet "Please just let me be the one to keep track/of the freckles and the moles on your back" seemed even more relevant to my feeling as the year wore on.

8. Shutterbug - Big Boi

It's that buh-buh-buh bass line. As my musical lists will be testament to, I have become a lot more influenced by rap, rnb and hip-hop this year (especially in its latter half) and this just feels like it has everything. 6 or 7 little pieces of music interlocking to form a bombastic song. The back to life, back to reality bit is a treat too.

7. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

It was a tough choice for my favourite shiny, lacquered American pop song this year. Lady GaGa put herself to the max with Telephone and Alejandro but this year was very much the year of Katy Perry. I loved California Gurls (video of the year in the Shakira tradition of these things) but it's Teenage Dream that takes the place. Initially, I was not too sure of it at all but it's an earworm that has snuck into my brain and is, on closer inspection, really quite sincere and heartfelt. Now that I am no longer a teenager, I get what the new Mrs Brand is saying here.

6. Cold War - Janelle Monae

The first half of The Archandroid is pretty much all single-worthy (as will be discussed in albums of the year) but I will choose Cold War for specific praise. Though not as mad and out there as perhaps the also-excellent Tightrope, Cold War is easily the most complete song on the album. It fulfills its job on the album in context but on its own it is lyrically a brilliant statement. As I find myself becoming increasingly politicised, I find myself wondering if I really know what I am fighting for. Janelle's outstanding and emotional vocal really brings the song and her story to life. Compelling.

5. I Feel Better - Hot Chip

One Life Stand is Hot Chip's best and most satisfying album and I Feel Better is, for me, the most outstanding song from it. The interplay between Joe and Alexis' individual vocal lines is haunting beautiful and the use of string samples shows them as an outfit that are really refining their sound. The Peter Serofinowicz directed video is the most disturbing thing I have seen all year. I fear for the 5 year old children who stumbled upon it.

4. Rad Pitt - Egyptian Hip Hop (and pretty much the whole Some Reptiles... EP)

I first read about EHH in The Fly, not my usual source for new music but something in the over-stylised and sycophantic writing (which I hope to God this blog post is nothing like) really made me want to know more. I'm very glad I went with it. This song is just stunning. It isn't burdened by the troubles of the world but that's not to say that it is completely happy. For me, this feels like being a teenager in a song. I look forward to hearing more from them. They remind me a lot of The Mavericks of Love.

3. Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding

Me dressed in my best and smartest outfit running from my house, all the way down the Clements to meet a bus in the dark, listening to Starry Eyed on my iPod. This song is really electrifying and tingly. I don't think i've ever heard anything like it. I tipped Ellie Goulding for this year and she has done me proud. This should have been the biggest pop song of the year.

2. Heartbeat Song - The Futureheads

I remember when I first got into music for reals in the now far-distant 2004. Decent Days and Nights was one of the first songs I ever loved for myself and I have been a fan of the Futureheads ever since (being the only person who I've heard of that rates News and Tributes as their best). Heartbeat Song is a perfect encapsulation of everything they do best. Life-affirming. What a chorus.

1. Yamaha - The-Dream

It only ever could have been one. 5 minutes of glistening pop, lacquered with soul. I really don't know why The-Dream isn't the biggest male pop star in the world. YAMAHA YAMAHA OH YAMAHA

Special Mentions

All the singles from Total Life Forever by Foals

Hang On by Weezer (yes, I like Michael Cera backing vocals)

Homework by Big Deal (great space in the music, boy girl vocals ftw)

Limit To Your Love by James Blake (haunting innit)

Doo-Wah-Do by Kate Nash (her best for sure)

Shine A Light by Mcfly feat. Taio Cruz (a close 11th)

The Flood by Take That (need to hear the album more)

Will be doing top ten albums tomorrow. I think. YEAH