I probably should've updated this over the weekend but I couldn't be bothered, it seems. I wasn't even really doing anything yesterday either, although I was busy Friday and Saturday so there's my excuse.
On Friday I went and saw It's a Wonderful Life, my very favourite-est film, and it was the first time I saw it on a cinema screen. Obviously it was fantastic, the picture was clearer than I thought it would be too. It was at the Filmhouse on Lothian Road in Edinburgh. The film's still running until Christmas Eve so there's still time for you to pop off and see it, it'll probably be the best thing you do all week and a welcome rest from Christmas shopping ;)
Anyway, last time round I said I'd get onto the music I've been listening to over the course of the past year, so here I go. I'll try and keep it varied, not just focus on the same genre but inevitably I'm sure some styles will be favoured over others, that's just my personal preference shining through.
Once again this'll be almost entirely older albums and artists I've only recently discovered, rather than brand new material released this year of which I've not actually even listened to that much of. I will start with the few newer albums I did listen to, though.
The best of the bunch from this year would be The Tallest Man on Earth's latest full-length The Wild Hunt. We're treated to much of what we've come to expect from him, intricately fingered acoustic guitar music underneath his unique vocals. Love is All and the titular track The Wild Hunt are my personal highlights, and seeing them performed live back in November was just wonderful and even better than on CD.
Two other decent albums were Rinoa's post-rock/emo album An Age Among Them and the soft sounds of Pearly Gate Music's self-titled album. If you want to get a flavour for either album, check out Sol Winds (Rinoa) and Navy Blues (Pearly Gate Music). Meursault's latest album All Creatures Will Make Merry was also good, but nothing compared to their first album.
On the more mediocre side of things was Weezer's latest full-length, Hurley. Naming an album after a character from Lost and having the album cover be a picture of his face just seems uninspired, lazy and boring to me. The music of the album itself is fairly in keeping with this sentiment. Although there are flashes of the Weezer of old there is never anything more than that, any of the halfway decent songs seem to depend on catchy choruses to get them through, with the verses merely there to act as borders between choruses (the first track, Memories, is a great example of this). Probably their best album since Maladroit, but it's probably not even half the album that was, and an even more resounding failure when compared to the untouchable Pinkerton and Blue Album.
I've mostly been into post-rock this year, listening to mainly to Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Joy Wants Eternity and This Will Destroy You. My favourite post-rock album is probably The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky. The second track, The Only Moment We Were Alone is absolutely fantastic. Other than that I've listened to a bit of singer-songwriter and folk-ish stuff such as Jackson C. Frank, Woody Guthrie, Tim Hardin and Van Morrison. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's album Architecture and Morality has seen a lot of play as well, along with Grateful Dead's American Beauty.
I haven't really played many games this year, the ones I bought were Red Dead Redemption, Fallout : New Vegas and, as usual, the latest Pro Evolution Soccer. Red Dead Redemption wasn't a bad game, but it grew tiresome very quickly. Every mission seemed to be the same, go to location, kill bad guys, leave location whilst killing bad guys who happen to be chasing you, end mission, repeat. New Vegas was practically the same game as Fallout 3 but it was still very enjoyable indeed, thanks to the new world and storyline. It was big enough to not just feel like an expansion to Fallout 3, but not so different that you might not feel aggrieved paying full price for it. This year's Pro Evolution Soccer is an improvement on the last installment, with improved and more accurate passing, more polished graphics and an online Master League mode being the most prevalent improvements.
I spent about a half hour today cataloging some of my computer games, I got my Super Nintendo games done, I have around 50, 20 of which are boxed with instructions. I'll do N64 and NES next when I can be arsed, I have less of them though. I should do my CDs and records too but that would actually take forever.
Off to play football in a little bit, fantastic. Next update should be in a couple of days, maybe post my SNES games or something. Ciao!
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