Much like last year's inclusion of Katzenjammer's A Kiss Before You Go, Of Monsters And Men's debut comes here due to two reasons: it's an excellent album, and their live performance (at Lowlands) was moving.
I didn't know the Icelandic folk-rock sextet at all before I started my Lowlands-research, only to find out later that Little Talks was aired quite frequently at Radio 3FM. (Hipster points: -1, a result of having to listen to Radio 538 at work.) The energetic is a nice showcase for the album. It features the two contrasting voices of Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Póhallsson and anthemic choruses that are perfect for singing along with. The folk rock is made a bit more exotic by grand production and horns, while the mood is a touching mix of romanticism and melancholia. The album features some more of these showcases (Mountain Sound is another catchy tune), but there are also more lo-fi, introvert songs.

Their performance at Lowlands was my personal highlight of the festival. I had high expectations because I liked their album so much, but also because I had watched one of their American gigs on YouTube. (To wit, Of Monsters And Men Live from Music Hall of Williamsburg.) That showed a band that had genuine fun in performing, while connecting with their audience. Sure, it has some rough edges (Nanna specifically seems to have hard time hitting the high notes and longer phrases) but that makes it better in my opinion, as it shows character. Not coincidentally, this echoes my review of Katzenjammer.

The last few years I noticed that it's getting harder for me to get excited about new music, movies or books. I figure that's one of the drawbacks of getting older, like my ever-receding hairline. So I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the genre "dubstep" this year, and found it to my liking. Of course, I'm late to the party and I won't get any hipster points for this either. Dubstep is a relatively old genre, more than 10 years old and counting, or so Wikipedia tells me. It's an electronic genre and very much dependent on technology. You couldn't make this stuff 20 years ago, I don't think. So what does it sound like? It is taking the harder genres of drum 'n' bass (think Noisia and Black Sun Empire) to their natural extremes, mixing it with either dub, dance, trance or rock. It's also been compared to the sound of a remixed 14k4 baud modem. My favourite name for it is "wubwubscreech" and yeah, it's pretty much like that.

There are many variations in the genre, from mellow atmospheric ambient to hyper-aggressive branches with all the subtlety of gabber house or punk hardcore. Here's a clip of Skrillex' Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, the quintessential "brostep" song, a mostly American offshoot which, according to purists, is hardly dubstep at all.

Skrillex probably couldn't care less about being "impure". I imagine him laughing all the way to bank because the guy is enormously popular, and that at 25 years. His performance at Lowlands was a great show with a packed Alpha tent obeying his every whim.

If Skrillex represents the aggressive, oafish side of dubstep, Nero is what you get when you cross dubstep with trance and some pretention. Welcome Reality is a soundtrack to a fictional film about some post-apocalyptic future where the world is wrecked in 2808. Whatever floats their boat, because it results in a lot of great songs. I particularly like the songs where singer Alana Watson gets to collaborate. Here ethereal voice works wonderfully on the solid synthesizer sound and breakbeats, much like Dido perfectly complemented Maxi Jazz and Sister Bliss in Faithless. It's a bombastic album with lots of sonic layers, various stylistic influences and immaculate production, which unfortunately gets a bit samey and predictable towards the end.

It took some time for this to land. Let's see: _ensnare_ is one of the alter egos of Paul Taylor, next to nervous_testpilot. He's part of Mode 7 Games, which made Frozen Synapse, an indie game I got in the Humble Bundle. Impeccable Micro was added as a bonus. I still haven't played the game, but I adore the album. _ensnare_ makes 8-bit dance music, a very niche genre called "chiptunes". It's bright, it's happy, it's energetic and lovely quirky. And how could I not love an album which title is a StarCraft II reference, and where the best track (Top Five Control) is a shoutout to one of my favourite StarCraft pro-gamers?

The Gaslight Anthem continues cranking out great albums. Handwritten continues in the same vein as The '59 Sound and American Slang: good, well-written rock with an undeniable Springsteen influence. What I would give to have an awesome gravely voice like Brian Fallon's... He's ably supported by good guitars and a sturdy rhythm section. Handwritten contains a handful of rockers that cry out for singing along and some introspective not-quite-ballads, everything with a sort of romantic, melancholic twist as if the Anthem is still yearning for the Fifties and Sixties they never experienced and probably never existed.
Unfortunately, their gig at Lowlands this year was marred by horrid sound which even their enthusiasm could overcome. I still heartily recommend their live performances as they add a spark to their studio work.

The Nightwatchman is Tom Morello's alter ego. The gentleman rocker is well-known for his incendiary guitar work, first in Rage Against The Machine and then in Audioslave. With the Nightwatchman, Morello returns to the topics of Rage like political activism. Instead of dressing them in feedback-driven hard rock, these topics come with folk clothes. I didn't see this coming, but it makes all kinds of sense if you think about it. There are still some trademark solos to be found here, but they are relatively sparse. Morello himself sings and while he is no Zach de la Rocha, let alone Chris Cornell, his warm voice has a honest delivery that fits the sometimes Dylan-like folk songs. There are some rousing choruses and even some harmonica — I did mention Dylan, right? I guess the Nightwatchman is what Morello would have become if born twenty years earlier.

Some years ago I gave The National's High Violet an honourable mention. For some unknown reason, however, I never took the time to dig into their earlier works, like Boxer. I'm unsure how to categorise this album, so I'll just go with the terribly vague "indie rock". Boxer has a warm sound that's at the same time intimate and grand, both melancholy and hesitatingly optimistic. The grand sound comes courtesy of a whole flock of guest musicians, but they never overshadow the melodies. There are traces of Tindersticks here, and not just in the way Matt Berninger's mumbling vocals resemble Stuart Staples' timbre. Special mention deserves the percussion by Bryan Devendorf: his rhythms are deceptively simple in appearance. Song picks are the opener Fake Empire (a piano-driven ballad that erupts in triumphant trumpets) and the romantic Apartment Story with its sincere "tired and wired we ruin too easy". Both also have expertly placed (female) backing vocals that add another subtle layer.

I guess there's always a need for no-nonsense hard rock, and there are always bands that deliver that. In 2012, Halestorm released their second album, The Strange Case Of... and delivered, while certainly not the best album in the genre ever, a very worthwhile effort nonetheless. Halestorm is fronted by Lzzy Hale and apart from the way she spells her name, I like her. She has a powerful voice and she can scream the aggressive songs like Mz. Hyde and Daughters of Darkness convincingly. She's not afraid, however, to change it up with some power ballads like In Your Room. This makes for a varied album that keeps its momentum for the entire length, right up until the anthemic Here's To Us.

This is the most watched YouTube video ever (currently at 1.365 billion views), so you've probably heard about it. It spawned a gazillion imitations and parodies. It's a catchy song, but it's not brilliant. Its popularity comes largely from the hilarious video. There's more to the song than just silly Koreans and big beats, though: it packs a lot of satire and references in its lyrics and video clip. Without a background in South Korean (pop) culture, you'll miss them, so be sure to read this article.

For once, I can score some hipster points, too. I heard the song within two weeks of its release, thanks to my obsession with StarCraft II and its connection with South Korea. Little did I know that it would become the hit it became.

Mix one of my favourite film scores with spirited violin playing and a cute fey-like girl and you get Lindsey Stirling's Lord of the Rings Medley. The acrobatics are over the top, but she reined herself in for her rendition of Skyrim's theme music. And apparently you can also mix violins with dubstep.

I guess I've had an interest in anime ever since I saw Akira when I was about 16, even though I could not begin to wrap my head around it. It was beautiful and wild and tripping and exotic and I wanted more of it. That didn't happen until several years later when I saw some movies and series like Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiment: Lain and Spirited Away. This year I visited Japan and due to the fact that manga/anime permeate their culture, it was unavoidable that my interest was rekindled. I even visited the manga museum in Kyoto and the Ghibli museum in Tokyo, both of which I fully recommend.

The manga museum had an exhibition on studio Gainax, which reminded me of this crazy anime music video: Shameless Rock Video.

It uses images from their six-part series FLCL ("fooly cooly") and frenetic editing to craft something beautiful. I never dug up FLCL when I first saw the music video, something I remedied shortly after returning to the Netherlands.
There's no way the source material could be as fast-paced and crazy as the music video, right? Well, the clip does add some additional effects, but it's not much. FLCL is absolutely bonkers, with a story that deals with the 12-year-old boy Naota who gets run over by a pink-haired twentysomething on a Vespa, who proceeds to hit him on the head with a vintage bass guitar. Shortly afterwards, enormous robots begin to appear out of his head, like Athena sprang from Zeus' head. Things only get weirder after that.

But it's also about Naota growing up and dealing with the departure of his brother, the immaturity of his father and grandfather, and the attentions of a girl in his class.

There are also a lot of references to other movies (some of them earlier works by Studio Gainax, like Neon Genesis Evangelion). FLCL also deliberately plays with, parodies, subverts or downright murders many manga/anime tropes, and is steeped in Japanese culture, all of which makes it very hard to understand for us gaijin and a horrendous way to start watching anime.

This is doubly so because the production values of FLCL are off the charts. While being flabbergasted you are treated to lavish visuals, amazing animation and gorgeous backgrounds, splendid voice-acting, and a gnarly soundtrack by the underground band The pillows. Do not make the mistake of thinking that FLCL is par for the anime course.

I watched it once, then watched it with the director's commentary on, and then read this series of excellent articles on the AV Club. I intend to see it once again.

In 2006 we were treated to Casino Royale, a reboot/re-imagining of the James Bond movie franchise. Leading man Daniel Craig proved to be a different kind of Bond, less suave, less fantastic, more "realistic" and more, well, blunt. At the same time he showed that Bond was not necessarily an emotional black hole — he displayed true warmth in that tale. In other words, a welcome update to a movie icon that was getting a bit long in the teeth. Critics and fans alike were delighted, only to be sorely disappointed with the next instalment, Quantum of Solace.
The sophomore effort was a lacklustre movie that missed the sparks of Casino. It was unfortunately highlighted by the fact that it was a straight sequel, its tale continuing directly after Casino's.

To be honest, Skyfall is no Casino Royale either, just like Bérénice Marlohe and Naomie Harris are no Eva Green. The movie is easily 20 minutes too long. There's a superfluous middle act where Bond visits Shanghai, which feels like it's only there because Bond needs to visit a certain amount of exotic locales in every movie. However, the plot is again personal and lets us learn a lot about Double Oh Seven. There are meaty roles for Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig to dig in, and Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem do a good job of supporting them. There's some necessary setting-up for the continuation of the franchise but it's not intruding too much. All in all, a satisfying Bond and a great action flick.

Drive is a weird movie. It mixes hyperviolence with heartfelt romance, and 2010's sensibilities with an eighties soundtrack. The story is as follows: the nameless protagonist (Ryan Gosling) is a stunt driver by day, getaway driver by night. He meets a very nice neighbour (Carey Mulligan) and her kid. Shortly after their relationship blossoms, the neighbour's delinquent partner is released from jail. He doesn't react jealous, but instead recruits the driver for a heist. The driver accepts the offer, mostly because the husband needs the money to settle an old debt with the mob, who threatened to exact revenge on the woman and the kid. Hijinks ensue, as they are wont to do.

The most important thing in Drive is atmosphere. The synth-pop soundtrack delivers a dreamy eighties vibe. There's little dialogue, especially between Gosling and Mulligan. The latter reportedly summarised making the film as "staring longingly at Ryan Gosling for hours each day." Instead, the viewer is largely left alone to fill in the blanks their acting create. While we learn a little about Mulligan's character, the driver is even more of a cipher. We learn next to nothing about him, which makes him intriguing.

Gosling and Mulligan's chemistry is undeniable and believable. If I were a woman, I'd pine for Gosling as well. (I'm not, so I'll just harbour a crush for Mulligan instead.) The smaller parts have excellent actors as well, like Ron Perlman and Christina Hendricks.

By the by, I saw a lot more pictures starring Gosling this year, and all are worth your attention. In The Notebook, he plays in an unconventional love story spanning an entire life. This could be the summary of Blue Valentine as well, but whereas the former is positive, the latter is utterly depressing. You want the couple in The Notebook to succeed in their fairy tale; the married couple in Blue Valentine, not so much. It's a much more grounded movie, basically showing what could happen after the boy gets the girl in a romantic comedy. Such a comedy could be Crazy, Stupid, Love., where Gosling plays a pick-up artist.

Back to Drive. I already mentioned the dreamy soundtrack, but I must stress its excellence. Most of the tracks are by Cliff Martinez. While absolutely good, the real standouts are the other songs; most importantly, A Real Hero by College featuring Electric Youth. I can also recommend this awesome remix by MegaMan & Panic City.

(Post-)apocalyptic media have always held a certain fascination to me. I'm not so much interested in why the world ends (disaster movies usually don't thrill me), but how people react to it. Mad Max shows us the results of an energy crisis, On The Beach shows human dignity in the face of impending nuclear doom. The Fallout games have nuclear doom in their past, but in a retro way — it plays with the idea of how people in the 1950's imagined how the world would look after a nuclear armageddon.

Perfect Sense, however, shares more similarities with Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men in that it focuses on only a few people and their reaction to a very specific kind of apocalypse. In Children of Men, there hasn't been a birth for 18 years. In Perfect Sense, people lose their senses: first smell, then taste, hearing and finally eye sight. But there are large differences as well: Children is, despite its intriguing premise, an action movie. Perfect Sense shares some philosophical touches but is a romance.

The budding romance is between a cook and a epidemiologist, played by Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, respectively. I love both actors and I think they do very well here. Their chemistry is believable and understated, underscoring the tragedy of finding a true love just when the world ends.

Another movie I saw last year with McGregor in it is Beginners. He plays a guy whose dad comes out as a homosexual after his mother's death. The sparkling Mélanie Laurent plays his love interest in this touching story. (I'd recommend Green's Dark Shadows as well if it was any good, but it's just Burton's latest excuse to cast Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in quirky roles.)

I usually refrain from bashing in this list, but I'll make an exception for this disaster. It's often hailed on the internet as a "cult classic" but it doesn't get there. It's not even "so bad it's good", it's just plain bad. The production design and costumes are grand and lavish, but that only highlights the awful story, the horrendous special effects and the terrible "acting". Not even the soundtrack by Queen stands the test of time. Its '80s synth sounds didn't age gracefully, unlike most of their other songs.

To pick up the thread of post-apocalyptic settings that was started while discussing Perfect Sense earlier, here's another variation. In Y: The Last Man, every mammal with a Y chromosome has been killed, including embryos and sperm. Except for protagonist Yorick and his monkey.
I've only read the first two story arcs, which consist of ten issues out of a total of sixty. I have no idea where the story is going, but I like the world shown so far. The characters are believable, there have been some intriguing hooks, and the full-colour art is good.

Jen Van Meter's Hopeless Savages is something entirely different. Essentially, it's a coming of age story. Our protagonist is Skank "Skankabelle" Zero Hopeless-Savage, daughter of Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage, British punk rock royalty. She has three siblings with three equally crazy names, and they are a family. Maybe not a traditional family, but the recurring theme of the stories is that they stick together. The black-and-white art is handled by different artists, injecting a bit of additional variety. I like Chynna Clugston's fine and elegant lines best, but Bryan Lee O'Malley (author of Scott Pilgrim) and the others do a nice job as well.

Order of the Stick is a webcomic that started as a parody of fantasy role-playing games in general and Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 in particular. The art style is very simple. I've known it since 2003, I think, and now, almost 10 years later, I feature it in my Best Of article. So, what happened?

Well, I finally bought and borrowed the print editions, that's what happened. You see, while OotS started as a parody and consisted of solely single-page gags, it outgrew its roots. Rich Burlew quickly steered the strip towards a rather complex tale with multiple storylines and a host of interesting characters. It became, for me, hard to follow via the updates. When a new strip referenced the previous instalment I'd often forgotten that. References to comics months or years earlier became more common as the tale grew, so I bowed out.

My interest was revived by Burlew's rindonculously succesful Kickstarter to get the out-of-print collections back into print. Rich had been collecting his webcomics in print editions, and even released some new books, for some time. I didn't take the time to read those, assuming that they were "just the webcomics". After I contributed a bit to the Kickstarter, I borrowed the rest of the books from my brother and a friend (thanks guys!) and I was shown the error of my ways.

The first thing is that the comic works just better in my not-so-humble opinion in this format. Reading the comics back-to-back with easy browsing capabilities improves the experience tremendously. Even the simple inclusion of proper chapter divisions goes a long way. Additionally, Rich has included extra, brand new comics into the collections that were originally left out because of pacing issues. Last but not least, he also adds introductions (in-character!), designer's notes and commentary in between the chapters. In short, the print books are actually extended editions with a commentary tracks by cast, director and producer.

If you're interested in Order of the Stick, you can start reading here.

The premise of Ready Player One could be seen as an inventive excuse to put as many 1980's pop and gaming culture references in a scifi adventure. In the year 2044, the world has mostly gone down the drains and poverty and pollution are rife. It's no surprise that a lot of people are escaping this dreary life for the OASIS. It's the kind of virtual reality Internet that was envisioned in the Eighties, complete with full-body haptic simulation suits.

The twist now is that the maker of OASIS, James Donovan Halliday, has passed away many years ago. His immense fortune will be given to the first person who completes a three-stage treasure hunt in the OASIS. All the "Gunters" (Treasure Egg Hunters) have to work with are the will and a collection of Halliday's writings. Since he was heavily into geeky things during the Eighties, the Gunters have immersed themselves in the nerd culture of a time long past. Back To The Future, Dungeons & Dragons, Japanese monster and mecha movies, John Hughes teen comedies, Atari games, they're all lovingly referenced.

The book leans heavily on 1980's nostalgia, but it is not without other merits. Cline has a breezy writing style and plays adroitly with the juxtaposition of the real world and the no-holds-barred virtual reality. The latter reminded me of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, the book that popularised the term "avatar". The characters are a bit flat but charming and the adventure is well structured.

As its magnificent title suggests, Lamb tells the story of Joshua's (Jesus') life through the eyes of Biff. Biff (full name: Levi bar Alphaeus) was Joshua's friend since childhood but his story, or even his presence, was never included in the New Testament. He's resurrected in the current day and given the task to compile his gospel by a bumbling angel. Having thus set up the frame story, the rest of the book is an irrverent look at their life. There are many references to the New Testament: Jesus' miracles and famous sayings are an especially fertile ground for wordplay and slapstick. Though irreverent, the story is also touching. Biff is very loyal to Joshua, even though he knows that it will probably end in tragedy. Indeed, he rages against Joshua's fate while Joshua has resigned himself.