What're your lists? Best books? Best flicks? Best albums? Best smelling soaps? Best hamburger places in Tempe AZ?
Books:
The Booked. Anthology - various (totally biased here)
The Cost of Living - Roberge
Junkie Love - Clifford
Movies:
Mud
Stoker
The Conjuring
Albums:
The Winery Dogs
The Way Life Goes - Tom Keifer
Bang Bang Boom Boom - Beth Hart
Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane was up there for me. That was this year, I think.
And I'll second The Conjuring for movies, mostly because I hardly saw any movies.
For albums, I'm going with Lustmord's The Word as Power.
Looking back on what I read this year, basically none of it was actually published in 2013. There were new editions (first American editions) of two of Sjon's novels: The Blue Fox and From the Mouth of the Whale, both of which I liked.
Movies: saw many, forgot most. Those which stand out are (in no order) The Place Beyond the Pines, The Counselor, Man of Steel, Only God Forgives, Mud. Saw several (maybe even "numerous") horror movies which all were fair-to-middling.
Music: again, not much new from 2013 for me. What I know of is (in order of appearance in memory) Hank III's Fiendish Threat, The Stranger - Watching Dead Empires in Decay, ERAAS - Initiation (not as good as their first album), and various stuff on various labels. I listened to lots of tracks, not many albums. (EDIT --- And the Garwood/Lanegan album Black Pudding. That had some great stuff. Got me to check out Garwood's other older albums, also good, especially Dreamboatsafari.) (EDIT --- And I liked The Knife's latest record, only one by them I ever bought.)
Looking over all the stuff that came out this year, I think I lack time, I need to prioritize, I need a program for experiencing all the art I want to experience, I need to adjust my lifestyle to allow for more intake, no I don't.
The problem with the books is I've only read a few from this year, and any other kind of list would be too hard because of all the great writers I'd forget to put on there, especially on a site populated by such writers. So my most innocuous category:
Indie Press Writers I Finally Checked Out (and dug)
- Kevin Barry
- Blake Butler
- Fred Venturini
- Alissa Nutting
- Michael Siedlinger
Movies
- Mud
- Prisoners
- Side Effects
- Oblivion
- 2 Guns
New TV
- Da Vinci's Demons
- Gravity Falls
- Hannibal
- @Midnight
- Banshee
Music
- Mazzy Star - Seasons of Your Day
- Ryan Hemsworth - Guilt Trips
- The Weeknd - Kiss Land
- True Widow - Circumambulation
- Cashmere Cat - Mirror Maru
- Wire - Change Becomes Us
Already a lot of stuff I need to check out. Glad other people are giving MUD props. That's really the only solidly great one on the list of movies I've seen this year.
That latest Wire album is one I meant to check on.
Books
The only 2013 book i read was Going Clear, about Scientology, and it was excellent. Some other noteable reads this year were Libra/White Noise by Don Dellilo, Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Films
Silver Linings Playbook - Technically 2012 but i saw it at the beginning of the year. Loved it.
Place Beyond the Pines - Far exceeded my expectations.
Stoker - Creepy and awesome.
Side Effects - I love Soderbergh.
Kings of Summer - So funny, way funnier than i thought it'd be.
Only God Forgives - Really stuck with me.
TV
I don't have much TV to watch right now but Breaking Bad kept me glued to the TV. Louie is great, The Office finale was sad even though it wasn't as good anymore, and Girls always kept me watching.
Albums
Bitter Rivals - Sleigh Bells - Really underrated album, didn't make any best-ofs that i've seen.
Yeezus - Groundbreaking and great, if only Kanye didn't talk.
Reflektor - Arcade Fire. Overrated but still a great album.
Silver Linings was so good, I don't usually care for David Russell or Jennifer Lawrence but that one seemed to come together enough.
JYH - Wire can do no wrong by me.
Spring Breakers and Bling Ring came out this year, both of those were really good.
