Time for my own personal ‘best-of’ 2011 list!
Best Song
Nominees:
Fuck This Place - Frightened Rabbit
Baby I Got the Death Rattle - Los Campesinos!
Itchin’ On a Photograph - GROUPLOVE
Freaks and Geeks - Childish Gambino
Holocene - Bon Iver
Winner:
Baby I Got the Death Rattle - Los Campesinos!
From the opening rhetoric about burning the skin off your hands before visiting a palmist, to the powerful ending chant (Not headstone, but headboard, is where I wanna be mourned), Los Camp! once again proved they have full mastery of the one-two punch of pairing morbid, heart-broken lyrics with upbeat, fun music.
Best Album
Nominees:
Camp/EP - Childish Gambino
Hello Sadness - Los Campesinos!
Bon Iver, Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Watch the Throne - Jay-Z & Kanye West
C’mon - Low
Winner:
Bon Iver, Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Ethereal, sweeping sounds underlying the most poetic lyrics of not just this year, but the last few years of music, Justin Vernon’s sophomore album is a slower burner than 2007’s For Emma, Forever Ago, but it has a hell of a lot more to offer under its surface.
Best TV Show
Nominees:
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Parks and Recreation
Archer
Adventure Time
Community
Black Mirror
Winner:
Community
Come on. It was always gonna be Community. Fan-favourite, critical darling, and the funniest show since Arrested Development. If you’re not watching this yet, you should be.
Best Film
Nominees:
Submarine
Drive
Shame
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
30 Minutes or Less
Winner:
Submarine
The debut of IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade, this is one of the best British films of the last decade, that really needs to be seen. Funny, original, and with heaps of fourth-wall breaking, I simply can’t recommend this enough. Pick up a copy and you won’t regret it.
Best Videogame
Nominees:
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Wii
Persona 3 Portable - PSP
Skyrim - Multi-Platform
The Binding of Isaac - PC
Portal 2 - Multi-Platform
Winner:
Portal 2
This year was a fantastic year for videogames, in my opinion. We had some good music, films and tv shows, but these nominees are some of the most phenomenal games I’ve played since I got my first Game Boy Color with Pokémon Red at Christmas 1998. So for the choice for my winner to be this easy means Portal 2 must be something truly more than phenomenal. Memorable set-pieces galore, quality of humour and story just not found in any other game, and fantastic game design meant there could be no other choice for me but this game. And that ending… I’m not ashamed to say I leapt up from the sofa and just yelled at my TV when I fired that last portal. You know the one I mean.
Best Anime
Nominees:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Evangelion 2.22 - You Can (Not) Advance
Winner:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
I’ll admit, I didn’t watch a lot of current anime this year. In fact, it was my very first year watching currently airing series, and buying DVDs as soon as they came out. If it had been released this year, I probably would have chosen Toradora! as my winner (which I just finally finished watching), but you’d be a fool to let that cheapen the quality of this series. Do yourself a favour and don’t look up too much about it, go in with a fresh mind and once you get to episode 10, come back here and feel free to shout at me how incredible it was. The worst mistake you could make would be to judge this book by its cover.
So there it is! Disagree with any of my choices? Want to call me out on how intensely wrong I am or how much you agree with me? Drop me a line in my ask box and let me know. Have a great 2012, and I hope you find some awesome media this year too!
