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As always, I am forever uncool and this is all just albums I loved and listened to this past year. Truthiness before coolness.
| 5. Childish Gambino, Because the Internet – AMAZON |
I like Donald Glover1 and Culdesac is probably one of my most listened to albums ever. I’ve probably played “Let Me Dope You” hundreds of times and I’m still not tired of it.
Because the Internet is a great mix of solid verses, excellent beats, slow jammin’, and straight up JAMZ. I fell in love with “IV. Sweatpants” because it’s freakin’ great and sounds so, so good being blared out of my car windows the second the weather is good enough to do it.2 I also love “3005” and “II. Worldstar”. It’s just a solid as hell album.
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| 4. Ed Sheeran, X – AMAZON |
I did not know Ed Sheeran the first time I ever saw him — on the Grammys, I think — and I genuinely thought he was Patrick Stump every time they cut to him in the audience. To be honest, I still think of him as “Unwashed Patrick Stump” pretty exclusively, despite really being into this album and feeling kind of terribly swoon-y about it.
I like the album as a whole, played in order as intended — which is pretty rare for me. I’m a pick-and-chooser to the extreme with most albums. But my favorites here are “Don’t” because my ears work pretty well and I’m not a fool and “Nina” because that’s my sister’s name, oh and also it sounds like a damn Jason Mraz B-side which is a good thing. I also love “Even My Dad Does Sometimes” because I like crying a lot and “Tenerife Sea” because I’m a walking First Dance Cliché.
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| 3. Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour – AMAZON |
All I listened to for SEVERAL months this year was Sam Smith. It is a solid album from beginning to end, but I am super guilty of repeating my faves until Crystal was finally like, “Hey, can we maybe listen to something else?” To be fair, that was after the phase where she was like, “Hey, can I hear “Leave Your Lover” again?”
I’m partial to “Stay With Me”, obviously, but it was “I’m Not the Only One” that got me hooked first. “Life Support” is a killer and had I heard “Not In That Way” in the weird mid-period of Crystal and my relationship, I’d have probably cried so much I’d have had to have been hospitalized for dehydration. So good.
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| 2. Taylor Swift, 1989 – AMAZON |
I was very late to the Taylor Swift thing as a whole and if I am being honest, I really only like Red,3 so I was nervous about 1989, but I shouldn’t have been because it’s so, so good.
Okay, “Shake It Off” is genuinely terrible — mostly because the repetition is just so bad — and I really and truly believe that if anyone else except maybe Beyonce released it, it would’ve been universally panned and derided. But the rest of the album is very solid and super fun and satisfying. “Blank Space” is amazing and “Bad Blood” is so good and so hilariously dumb4 dramatic great. I L-O-V-E “Out of the Woods” and I could listen to it so loud and for so long that it would be considered torture were I inflicting it on another human being. So good.
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| 1. Kiesza, Sound of a Woman – AMAZON |
I know absolutely 100% nothing about Kiesza. I have her Wiki up right now to read AFTER I set this for posting because saying I know nothing about her has now piqued my curiosity enough to finally hit Google up. I do, however, know that I love this album.
I love her voice, especially when it gets kind of weird and throat-nasal on “Sound of a Woman” and I love that some of the songs, in particular “Hideaway” sound like perfect throwback 90s jamz a la La Bouche and CeCe Peniston. I mean, “What Is Love” is literally a Haddaway cover. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
I think “Losin’ My Mind” is a killer and “Bad Thing” is great and kind of crazy hot. And if that one doesn’t work for you ~sexually, “Piano” should. So solid, so fun, such a great listen all the way through.
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Honorable Mentions
  
1. Even though he sometimes says stupid shit. To be fair, everyone I like says stupid shit. In fact, from here out feel free to assume that every human being I mention sometimes does and says stupid shit. Some stupider than others, obviously.
2. Which, here, means any time it’s 35 degrees or warmer and not snowing, basically.
3. I’m sorry, I am just not interested in contemporary country music! Sorry!
4. “Bandaids don’t fix bullet holes” and “Still got scars on my back from your knife” are amazingly dumb, but in that magical way that makes you really believe them and want to sing them loudly. But, like, let’s be real: there is not a single lyric on 1989 that is as good as “You made a rebel from a careless man’s careful daughter”, but that is also totally okay.
Previously: 2K13 | JAMZ | MOVIES | BATH & BEAUTY | TV
First of all, sorry for the brief hiatus? I had to travel! And I thought I would be able to work while I traveled! But it turns out that I didn’t even sleep while I traveled, so these posts are a weeeeeeee bit late. Apologies!
Second, I’ve been genuinely atrocious about watching TV this year. I am sure this is shocking with how much I’ve already talked about being culturally-delooped in the last twelve months, but it bums me out far more than my movie-watching falling by the wayside. Television is my favorite. Well, after books. And this list is proof that I have ignored my love for too long. I mean, I watched 237 episodes of TV this year. Last year, I had watched that many by the first week of March and had watched another 831 by the end of the year. I’m slipping. But on to the list anyway!
5. Parks and Recreation — AMAZON |
Parks and Recreation is probably my favorite show of all time. I’ve loved it for such a long time now that it obviously shouldn’t be on a list of shows I just discovered this year, but since its last season is about to air and it’s one of the only shows I watched and rewatched this year, it’s taking a spot.
Parks and Recreation is really important to me because it helped me understand that what I want from a sitcom is found-family and kindness and characters that are full and care about each other. Some instances aside1, Parks hits all of those points hard. Leslie Knope should be a hero to all human beings alive on earth and Leslie and Ben’s relationship is probably my favorite TV romance of all time.
My day is better with Parks and Recreation and I am going to miss it so much
4. Broad City — AMAZON |
The only reason Broad City is this low on the list is because I’ve only gotten a chance to watch the pilot and though that may seem a narrow margin on which to stick it in my list of favorites, you must also consider that I’ve seen a lot of gifsets on Tumblr.
Okay, maybe that’s slim reasoning anyway, but Broad City has awesome, funny women! And great, painful awkwardness! And FRIENDSHIP. And great jokes. And a legit understanding of reality. And awesome secondary characters! And cameos! And that was just the pilot. How can you argue with any of that? You can’t. 2015 has Broad City‘s name all over it and I can’t wait to see more.
3. The Goldbergs — AMAZON |
I know that The Goldbergs isn’t a show that someone childless and under the age of 40 is supposed to like. The Goldbergs isn’t cool or hip or edgy or ground-breaking. It’s a nice, kind, sitcom with narration done by the living embodiment of a douchebag2. It’s manipulatively nostalgia-laden, often to complete disregard for the actual timeline of pop culture and human development and it can be a little… You know, family sitcom-y. But every episode makes me feel good. It makes me laugh. It reminds me of my family who I actually like a lot. It, of course, reminds me of things I loved when I was young and it just, it never makes me feel bad.
The Goldbergs are not a chosen family, but they are family who makes the best of what they have by caring for and loving one another, even when they’re at their worst. The jokes can be… not great, but the heart of the family is what compels me to keep watching. Good people trying their hardest. Love it.
2. The Good Wife — AMAZON |
I started watching The Good Wife while I was sickly in the beginning of the year because all the seasons were on Hulu and I was spending a lot of time on the couch. I didn’t expect to like it because, well, it seems like it’s for old people. And it’s on CBS, so I questioned its quality. But I was really wrong on both counts.
It’s smart and is really funny and can be painful3 and it’s just super easy and enjoyable to watch. I think I finally gave in because of the constant chatter about it on Twitter because I figured, like always, “If these people I like like this, why am I not already watching it?”4 and it definitely deserves the praise it gets.
1. The Mindy Project — AMAZON |
I did not plan to ever watch The Mindy Project. I like Mindy Kaling a lot5 and I wish I were 1/10th as smart and talented as she is, but the previews all made it just seem terrible. Like, legitimately awful. And even as I watched the pilot earlier this year, I tweeted about how painful the pilot was to watch. It was just… so bad. So much potential, but so badly managed.
Thankfully, as I was advised, it got better. And even though I still watched those unbearable early episodes, it ended up totally being worth it. I love everyone’s weird interactions and their goofy exchanges and how hostile everyone can be even though they love each other. It’s got that found-family feel except it’s like everyone hates each other a little bit more than you should in a found-family, but it never gets so mean as to lose its heart. I love the Danny and Mindy dynamic6 because I always love when people who are going to date kind of hate each other.
Basically, The Mindy Project hits the things I love about sitcoms — friendship and found-family and lots of goofy, awkward laughs — but it’s like, the slightly meaner version of it. Plus, I love that it’s so excruciatingly awkward and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten so much better at not only tolerating it, but loving it. I love Mindy Lahiri and I love her beguiling group of idiots.
Previously: 2K13 | JAMZ | MOVIES | BATH & BEAUTY
1: I don’t like how the show often treats Jerry/Garry/Larry and it bums me out that a show with such a warm heart can be so weirdly and needlessly cruel, particularly when it feels so counter to what the show wants to be and do. But, you know, you can’t have everything.
2: Patton Oswalt is categorically terrible. That article doesn’t even really touch the surface of his embarrassingly stupid pond.
3: I haven’t even gotten to that point yet and I am already in deep and unending pain about it. I’ll never be ready.
4: This happens often. Currently, I am killing myself because I haven’t watched Fargo yet.
5: With the caveat that I think she tends to uphold a lot of stereotypes — gender and sexuality in particular — in her work that bum me out, but I find this often turns out to be true of comedians that I love and it is always more disappointing with the women because I expect men to be terrible. I’m reading Bossypants (FINALLY) right now and I keep groaning and lamenting that the people I love aren’t more perfect. LIFE.
6: I haven’t gotten to the fruition of that tension yet and I am not looking forward to it because shows almost always handle it so, so poorly. Looking at you, New Girl. Applauding you, Parks and Recreation.
I didn’t really watch anything this year! This is a theme I am sure you will notice in the coming month of posts. I am hoping 2015 will be better, partly because I like to be able to talk about stuff, but mostly because I really miss stuff. Winter was long this year too, which meant that our trips to the nearest almost city — two hours away! where we have to travel! for a decent theater! — were fewer than the year previous. We did, however, get to watch one of this year’s faves in an actual huge, beautiful theater with reclining leather seats and an extremely enthusiastic crowd. Glorious.
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5. X-Men: Days of Future Past | | AMAZON
I liked Days of Future Past just enough. Like, it was good and all. I did really enjoy it while I was watching it and I was glad I watched it once it was over, but it was pretty much forgettable otherwise and only ends up at number five on this list because I literally watched almost nothing else that was new to me.
My favorite X-Men movie is obviously X2 because I’m not a complete fool, so I was decidedly amped about seeing my babes back together, but we didn’t even really get enough of them for me to love it. I like the new cast for the most part — I think Nicholas Hoult has the charisma of a tree branch — but they just don’t seem fun at all. I didn’t like X-Men: First Class, like, at all, so I am not surprised I didn’t love this one more. X-Men stories need to be fun and need to lay hard into conversations about disability and racism1 and this didn’t do enough of either. Still a deece watch though. |
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4. Veronica Mars | | AMAZON
Veronica Mars is my favorite TV show of all time. I have watched the pilot the second most of any episode of TV ever.2 Crys and I backed it on Kickstarter the day it went live and long, drawn-out Internet arguments about wealth and art aside, I was really happy with what we got. It’s at number four because I loved it, but it’s also at number four because it’s not at all what I wanted for my favorite teen detective.
Veronica was dealt a shitty hand and she didn’t always manage it well, but she is intensely loyal and smart and awesome. The Veronica in the movie…? Eh. She left. She way left. And though I don’t blame her, I do think it doesn’t so much seem like her. But I’m not Rob Thomas, so I don’t get any say so. And that’s okay! Because what we got was pretty great anyway.
Really, just give me, like, an eight hour mini-series about Weevil. Or Wallace and Mac. Or everyone. Can I get another season? Please? |
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3. Big Hero 6 | | AMAZON
I went into Big Hero 6 with little to no expectations — which is generally the way to go in life, let’s be real — and it just blew me away. I thought it was visually bananas amazing with a great story and great, rich characters, and so much — like an amazing amount — heart.
I love Tadashi and Hiro’s relationship and I love Hiro’s very real pain and I, obviously, think Baymax is the sweetest, cutest, best, most awesome robot to ever cross my path. I love each of the secondary characters and I was glad to see so many female characters in roles (STEM!) that don’t usually go their way.
I really loved this one and I think it’s such a great antidote for a lot of what kids — and adults — are getting in media. These are normal kids, young men and women, who rise above, who experience real pain and real consequences, but who keep trying hard anyway. It was multicultural! It was fun! It was moving! It was so, so good. |
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2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier | | AMAZON
I did not love the first Captain America movie. I liked it a lot, but I didn’t love it. I love love loved The Winter Soldier. I think it’s cleaner, less meandering, and since it isn’t an origin story, it has only the meat of the current narrative to carry. I like the way it interconnects to The Avengers and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. I like what it did for Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff as characters and I loved Sam Wilson and the absolute agonizing pain of watching Bucky Barnes try to kill his best friend in the entire world.
I cried so much in this movie that it actually started to get weird. Like, I kind of started to worry about my own mental health. And I just yelled “BUUUUUUUUCKY” a lot afterward and then dry-sobbed and wrenched my hair from my skull in a plaintive manner.
A lot of people think the whole MCU thing is getting big and unwieldy and annoying and, sure, that’s valid enough. But I don’t care because I love these characters and I’m going to keep dragging myself to the theater to watch them suffer and succeed. |
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1. Guardians of the Galaxy | | AMAZON
Guardians of the Galaxy was by far the most fun I had in a theater this year. We got to see this one in that big, beautiful theater with a whole bunch of other excited people on opening night and it was so, so incredibly fun. Like everything I watch, I had some issues with it, but I really and truly loved it anyway. I loved every character and I liked that we got less backstory than most origin stories — Quill aside — and that they still felt like whole characters with real lives and a million stories to tell.
I loved the music, like everyone else, and I loved the emotional impact of those songs for Quill. I loved the villains and the visuals and the great big space opera of it. And I particularly loved turning around while I as weeping into my peanut butter M&Ms and seeing the row of teenage boys behind us openly weeping.
Any movie that can truly make me care about a RACCOON WITH A MACHINE GUN and a GIANT TREE deserves an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Give Guardians the EGOT and give me the bluray already. |
Honorable Mention
Previously: 2K12 | 2K13 | JAMZ
1: None of the movies thus far have done the latter enough. I mean, there’s so much potential! And it’s never carried through. To be fair, the comics also often fail at it though, so.
2: Parks and Recreation‘s “The Fight”
There was great stuff in 2K12! And some more great stuff in 2K13! And now the end of 2K14 is upon us and it’s time to talk about all the great stuff I loved this year!
Like always, we’re starting with the ~jamz~ I loved this year and, like always, we’re talking truthiness before coolness. I am not cool. I am the antithesis of cool. This probably means that the things I love are automatically also uncool by association, sooooo, sucks to be them probably. Here we go!
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5. Iggy Azalea featuring Charlie XCX, “Fancy” – YOUTUBE | | AMAZON
This was a song I listened to basically non-stop for like two months this year and it’d be higher on the list if Iggy Azalea wasn’t constantly saying stupid, ignorant, hateful things. I also really like “Bounce”, “Work”, and “Black Widow” and spent a lot of time jamming to those as well. I love Charlie XCX and her voice and, truthfully, I think her contributions here are really the highlight. At the very least, I bought the album with a gift card, so I feel semi-okay about at least not having spent my own cash on it. Sometimes you have to try to do your best to divorce the artist from their work and give them as little money as possible. A Jam, nonetheless. |
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4. Nick Jonas, “Chains” – YOUTUBE | | AMAZON
I’m 90% sure this was the song I listened to most this year, but since I’m trying to give this list a “Songs I Loved” instead of “Number of Plays” order, it’s coming up a little lower on the list. I like the slow, ~sensual~ thing going on here and I legit laughed out loud when I found out it was Nick Jonas. Don’t get me wrong, Nick Jonas is my favorite Jonas brother, but I mean. Really. I think I really like this because it feels like a sweet-as-hell 90s R&B jam, to be honest, and that’s all I ever really want. |
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3. Shakira, “Empire” – YOUTUBE | | AMAZON
I love Shakira. She was one of the great loves of my adolescence — when she was Spanish-language only! — and though that love remains, I stopped following her music pretty much after Laundry Service but heard this on the radio and fell hard. Her voice is phenomenal here and it’s plaintive and beautiful and I’m just enthralled by the entire thing. So good, such a jam. |
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2. Sia, “Chandelier” – YOUTUBE | | AMAZON
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been running around screaming this for what seems like forever at this point and I’m shockingly, amazingly really not sick of it. It’s got sucha great rhythm and so much great, soaring vocal and her voice is awesome. The song is huge and exciting and bright. I like that Sia’s moved toward a more pop-anthem thing from her gentler, indie-er thing. Not that I don’t love “Breathe Me” and “Moon” and, you know, all that. I’m just into this right now. And this is awesome. |
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1. Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun” – YOUTUBE | | AMAZON
I have never been interested in Paramore before this year. Well, aside from singing along with “Misery Business” whilst playing Guitar Hero. But “Ain’t It Fun” became an instant fave from the first time I heard it on the radio. Or Songza, probably. I also love love love “Still Into You” which is kind of devastatingly romantic, honestly. But “Ain’t It Fun” is fun and dance-y and great. A+ jam, Paramore. |
Honorable Mentions
  
Previously: 2K12 | 2K13
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