2017

My annual end-of-year list blog post...

My favourite songs that came out this year:
1. Don't Delete The Kisses - Wolf Alice
2. Hard Times - Paramore
3. On Hold - The xx
4. Love - Lana Del Rey
5. Rose-Coloured Boy - Paramore
6. Green Light - Lorde
7. Told You So - Paramore
8. Passionfruit - Drake
9. Idle Worship - Paramore
10. Beautifully Unconventional - Wolf Alice
11. Lust For Life - Lana Del Rey & The Weeknd
12. Sign Of The Times - Harry Styles
13. Coachella - Woodstock In My Mind - Lana Del Rey
14. After The Zero Hour - Wolf Alice
15. Fake Happy - Paramore
16. Revolution - Rat Boy
17. Kill For Candy - Dreamcar
18. Sadboy - Wolf Alice
19. Right Now - HAIM
20. Going Backwards - Depeche Mode

My favourite albums of the year:

1. After Laughter - Paramore

2. Visions Of A Life - Wolf Alice

3. Lust For Life - Lana Del Rey

4. Material Control - Glassjaw

5. AFI (The Blood Album) - AFI

6. Dreamcar - Dreamcar

7. More Life - Drake

8. I See You - The xx

Concerts I went to this year:

1. TRNSMT Festival: Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian, Kasabian, Catfish & The Bottlemen,  The Kooks,  George Ezra, Stormzy, Biffy Clyro, The 1975, Two Door Cinema Club

2. Depeche Mode

3. Paramore/Bleached

4. AFI/Deftones

5. Lana Del Rey

6. The Smyths (The Smiths tribute)

7. Room 29 (Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales)

8. Cloudbusting (Kate Bush tribute)

9. Taking Back Sunday

New films I saw this year:
1. Baby Driver
2. T2: Trainspotting
3. The Killing of the Sacred Deer
4. La La Land
5. Wonder Woman
6. Loving Vincent

Favourite old films I saw for the first time this year:

1. Trainspotting

2. The Doom Generation

3. Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

4. Kill Bill: Vol 1

5. Kill Your Friends

6. Sing Street

7. The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert

8. Depeche Mode: 101

9. Purple Rain

10. Chéri

Books I read this year:

1. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

2. Porno - Irvine Welsh

3. Skagboys - Irvine Welsh

4.Kill Your Friends - John Niven

5. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

6. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

7. Talk To The Snail - Stephen Clarke

8. The Pact - Jodi Picoult

9. The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

10. The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy, & Other Stories - Tim Burton

11. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

12. Top Gear Skin - Richard Allen

13. Geek Girl - Holly Smale

14. Weekend In Paris - Robyn Sisman

15. The Gift - Vladimir Nabokov

Top 5 most listened songs of the year according to last.fm...
1. Hotline Bling - Drake
2. Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin - The Runaways
3. Moaning Lisa Smile - Wolf Alice
4. True Trans Soul Rebel - Against Me!
5. Disco 2000 - Pulp

...and Spotify:

1. Born Slippy (Nuxx) - Underworld

2. Dads Best Friend - Rubberbandits

3. Silk - Wolf Alice

4. Lust For Life - Iggy Pop

5. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais - The Clash

2016 in lists

My favourite songs of the year:

1. All My Friends - Snakehips ft Tinashe & Chance The Rapper
2. Alluria - Dear Boy
3. The Ballad Of Me And My Brain - The 1975
4. Bury It - CHVRCHES ft Hayley Williams
5. Controlla - Drake
6. Desire - Years & Years ft Tove Lo
7. False Alarm - The Weeknd
8. Good Grief - Bastille
9. Greedy - Ariana Grande
10. Hands To Myself - Selena Gomez
11. Hype - Drake
12. I Took A Pill In Ibiza - Mike Posner
13. Into You - Ariana Grande
14. Let Me Love You - Ariana Grande ft Lil Wayne
15. Love Yourself - Justin Bieber
16. Miracle Aligner - The Last Shadow Puppets
17. Needed Me - Rihanna
18. One Dance - Drake ft Wizkid & Kyla
19. Paris - The 1975
20. Pillowtalk - Zayn
21. Revolution Radio - Green Day
22. Robbery Love - Dear Boy
23. Sometimes - Ariana Grande
24. The Sound - The 1975
25. Starboy - The Weeknd ft Daft Punk
26. This Girl - Kungs vs Cookin' On 3 Burners
27. This Is What You Came For - Calvin Harris ft Rihanna
28. Tilted - Christine And The Queens
29. Too Good - Drake ft Rihanna
30. UGH! - The 1975
31. Work - Rihanna ft Drake
32. You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Blaqk Audio

Great movies I saw for the first time this year:

1. The Lobster
2. Zoolander 2
3. Joy
4. Kill Your Darlings
5. True Romance
6. The Nice Guys
7. Funny Face
8. The Princess And The Frog

Bands I saw live this year:

1. The 1975, 5 times including their Live Lounge Symphony show and three dates on their arena tour
2. As It Is
3. The Smyths (The Smiths tribute band)

Cool things I did this year:

1. Got promoted at work and made a set of great friends
2. Started a pub quiz team with my work friends and won a few times
3. Discovered a new band to obsess over in The 1975, went off on an arena tour by myself
4. Earned a bronze badge for 2 years volunteering with Shelter
5. Completed the 2016 Reading Challenge I set myself in January

Favourite books I read this year:

1. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
2. Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
3. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
4. Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice
5. Valley Of The Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
6. Poe's Helen - Caroline Ticknor

The 5 songs I listened to most this year according to last.fm...

1. Love Me - The 1975
2. Menswear - The 1975
3. The Sound - The 1975
4. One Dance - Drake ft Wizkid and Kyla
5. Robbers - The 1975

...and according to Spotify:

1. One Dance - Drake ft Wizkid and Kyla
2. The Sound - The 1975
3. Desire - Years & Years ft Tove Lo
4. Love Yourself - Justin Bieber
5. Pillowtalk - ZAYN

Favourite purchases and acquisitions of the year:

1. Matte nail polish
2. Matryoshka dolls from Prague
3. iPhone
4. I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it by The 1975
5. Glittering statue of Jesus
6. Pink fairy lights
7. Black crochet/lace dress
8. Platform soled shoes
9. Nude nail polish
10. Shiny silver backpack
11. Rose gold The 1975 rectangle necklace
12. Bullet journal
13. Masses of second hand vinyl and books
14. Super high waisted skinny jeans
15. Sheet music from the BBC Philharmonic's performance with The 1975

New Year's Resolutions:

1. Don't worry or stress about work, accept I can only accomplish so much in one day and that there's no point getting annoyed at the mistakes made by other people because they're probably just doing what they think is right
2. Make sure I stay in touch with my Shelter family who are moving on to other things
3. Take some selfies, use Snapchat filters, have a picture of myself I like enough to use on my social media profiles
4. Keep up quizzing with my work friends and go on nights out with them every now and again
5. Make a friend who loves The 1975 as much as I do so I have someone to talk with about them and someone to go to future tours with

2015 in lists

My favourite pop songs of the year (in no particular order)
1. Drake - Hotline Bling
2. Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean?
3. The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face
4. Major Lazer - Lean On
5. David Guetta - Hey Mama
6. Jack U - Where Are U Now?
7. Taylor Swift - Style
8. The Weeknd - The Hills
9. Calvin Harris - How Deep Is Your Love?
10. Justin Bieber - Sorry
11. The 1975 - Love Me
12. Taylor Swift - Bad Blood
13. Little Mix - Black Magic
14. Fetty Wap - Trap Queen
15. Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk
16. Disclosure - Magnets
17. Hozier - Take Me To Church
18. Ariana Grande - Focus
19. Lana Del Rey - High By The Beach
20. Chvrches - Leave A Trace
21. Kendrick Lamar - Alright
22. Diplo - Be Right There
23. Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money
24. Omi - Cheerleader
25. One Direction - Perfect
26. Rihanna, Kanye West, Paul McCartney - FourFiveSeconds
27. Years & Years - King
28. Lost Frequencies - Are You With Me
29. Pvris - St Patrick
30. Ariana Grande - Love Me Harder
31. Avicii - Waiting For Love
32. Brand New - Mene
33. Young Guns - Daylight
34. WSTRN - In2
35. Iggy Azalea - Trouble
36. Phillip George - Alone No More
37. Taylor Swift - Blank Space
38. Glowbug - The Night My Heart Stopped
39. Beyoncé - Crazy In Love (Fifty Shades Of Grey Version)
40. Young Guns - Speaking In Tongues

The best movies I saw for the first time this year:
1. The Place Beyond The Pines
2. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
3. The Punk Singer
4. Big Eyes
5. Birdman
6. Big Hero 6
7. Amélie
8. Me Without You
9. Drive
10. Chappie
11. Inside Out
12. Trainwreck
13. The Theory Of Everything
14. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2

Bands I saw live this year: 
1. Die Antwoord
2. The Blackout at Takedown Festival and four times on their farewell tour
3. The Swellers, on their farewell tour
4. Young Guns, twice
5. Brand New

Cool things I did this year:
1. Got a job and made a whole lot of new friends
2. Went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival twice and saw 11 events
3. Went to the Kerrang Awards and met Patty Walters
4. Followed the whole of The Blackout's last tour with my friends, then survived the next nine months without them around
5. Started my blog and kept it going until the end of the year

Bands I loved most this year:
1. Die Antwoord
2. The Blackout
3. Glassjaw
4. Kids In Glass Houses
5. As It Is
6. PVRIS
7. Taking Back Sunday
8. Dear Boy
9. AFI
10. Young Guns

Favourite books I read this year:
1. Letters Home by Sylvia Plath
2. Not That Kind Of Girl by Lena Dunham
3. How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran
4. An Abundance Of Katherines by John Green

The 10 songs I've listened to most this year (according to last.fm):
1. Die Antwoord - Cookie Thumper!
2. Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean?
3. Drake - Hotline Bling
4. Die Antwoord - Happy Go Sucky Fucky
5. Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk
6. PVRIS - My House
7. Die Antwoord - Fok Julle Naaiers
8. PVRIS - St Patrick
9. Culture Beat - Anything
10. The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face

Favourite fashion/beauty purchases this year:
1. Leather jacket
2. Lush Silky Underwear dusting powder
3. Thick black platform boots
4. Lace blouse with a Peter Pan collar for work
5. FSHNCNCS t-shirt and jumper
6. Varsity jacket
7. Choker necklaces
8. Mavala Mavadry fast drying topcoat nail polish
9. The black lace dress I wore to the work Christmas ball
10. Sequined Christmas jumper

New Years Resolutions:
1. Keep my blog going all year
2. Remain employed
3. Keep a diary
4. Drink more water and wash my hands more
5. Decide what I want to do next