LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
Ever since hearing Losing My Edge I’ve been in love with LCD Soundsystem, and by extension DFA Records. This was a great album that I have no qualms about declaring being better than the debut LCD Soundsystem album proper. Only the title track was a little disappointing, being a bit too close to The Mighty Boosh’s “Crimping” in it’s delivery. Everything else was good, good, good with “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” my utter favourite.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Despite claims to the contrary, GAINAX had never really stopped being good, they’d just been being rubbish in equal measure. Hiroyuki Imaishi’s mecha series for kids brought the goodness that GAINAX had been confining to OAVs back to television audience. When animation talent is spread ever thinner in Japan these days, the dense amount of eye candy this show served up was amazing. Coupled with a story by playwright Kazuki Nakashima, it was concentrated anime pop thrills that few shows can match. ADV’s R1 DVDs cannot come soon enough.
Never Not Funny
I picked up on Jimmy Pardo’s podcast late last year after near constant mentioning from The Sound Of Young America’s blog. I think the appearance of Paul F. Tompkins as a guest sealed the deal. After a somewhat sudden end to the first “season“, it came back better than ever with the rotating third guest of season two. After a year, I still can’t wait for Fridays to come around so I can get my fix of NNF.
30 Rock
The best sitcom in the world right now. Despite some truly dreadful trailers for it on Channel 5 in the UK that sucked all the humour from the clips they showed, it seems to have caught on in the UK, at least among critics. Of course, through the evil powers of the internet, I’m watching the second season at the moment, and it’s still going strong though with more of a focus on character’s personal lives rather than the show within the show.
One Piece
Eiichiro Oda’s manga rounded off the epic Water Seven/Enies Lobby saga at the start of the year, and began the more humorous Thriller Bark story full of homage to Tim Burton and Hammer Horror. The now 10 year old series has been credited this year with an increase in Shonen Jump sales in Japan this year, and it’s a good estimate to expect it to run another 10 years. Oda’s boundless imagination (Thriller Bark looks at times like 2 years of doodles escaped onto a page) and the series structure of story arcs that have their own resolutions, seems to guarantee it’s longevity. The anime has suffered a little from talent drain to other shows (Lovely Complex and the aforementioned Gurren Lagann to name but two), but seems a little surer footed as the year ends with even an anime-only filler story proving appealing.