Week 1, 2025 - My Favourite things

Song of the week:

Thoughts

For 2025, I'll shift the format of my posts up a little bit - just a little. Just to keep things a bit fresh and because there's no need to entirely reinvent the wheel, but there's justice in shaking some ingredients up. I did that a bit in 2024, and nothing broke. Importantly, the thing that absolutely did not break was my efforts to post consistently here.

2025 will be a wild year. I'm sure it'll be successful, filled with magic, happiness and some sadness throughout. As is typical. All while, somehow, the world clings onto some glimmer of a relationship to a positive future while rich people send poor people to battle it out over pieces of land. We'll never learn.

But for this post, I thought it best to reflect on my favourite things of 2024. It's nice to reflect and see the past year (or month, or week!) as a foundation for what's to come. So, without further adieu, a listicle:

Music

My absolute favourite was a surprise from Blood Incantation with Absolute Elsewhere. What if death metal met peak Pink Floyd? Well, we now have our answer!
Wall-to-wall hit album from Dublin's finest; Fontaines DC's Romance album. They nailed this album, which took them in a new direction. When I first heard a teaser for this, I knew something special was coming. And I'm eagerly looking forward to their set at All Together Now in summer!
Chat Pile is a relatively new discovery for me, so having them drop a new album in 2024 was great timing for me. And my word, Cool World goes hard.
Another new discovery for me was Bossk, who released .4 last year. This is one I put in when I need to get into focus, or chill out mode. And each time, I'm taking away to pay attention to something new and wonderful the album provides me.
Mahal by Glass Beams was just captivating. The flow of the EP, the vibes and the Ninja Tune sparkle made this a spectacle I love revisiting.
Thou are always a treat, but Umbilical is them at the top of their song writing game. I don't think I've dipped back into an album as much as this one through the year.
Thylacine producing 'and 74 musicians' was top tier musical magic for me. Thylacine is always something almost spiritual, but hearing him blend is brand of worldly electronic vibes with an orchestral score is worth every second.
Having seen Meute live in 2023, having them drop a new album in 2024 was perfect timing!
Leprous - Melodies of Atonement was a great entry into their catalogue. A year with new Leprous music is always a good one. And to top it off, seeing them live on tour was a highlight of the year.
It felt like we waited 200 years for Jamie XX to release In Waves, but 2024 delivered. And also, with that delivered a load of live DJ sets and interviews where I discovered a trove of new (to me) music. His encyclopaedic knowledge of old tracks is outstanding.
I Häxa's release was new to me. I discovered it trying to find another band's vinyl, and the label also promoted this to me. One quick listen and I was hooked.
If you want to go on a mad journey, look no further than Oranssi Pazunu's new album. They never fail to excite and inspire.

There's probably a small mountain of new music I'm forgetting to list, but that about sums it up!

TV & Movies

I'm not a huge connoisseur of this medium but given my flight schedule through any given year, I do tend to get to catch up in big spurts. Not everything here was necessarily released in 2024, but it's certainly when I watched it.

Conveyance. I have to put this here because it was my wife's short film. Right now unavailable to view anywhere convenient because it's doing festival routes, but stick it on your to-watch list when it does eventually make it out into the internets!
Made for Love S2. Little-known but with bags of personality and HBO craft, this show was probably the best example of Silicon Valley mockery that I'm aware of; down to using 'Gogol' as the protagonist founders' surname. I use past-tense because it looks like the show didn't do well enough to earn a third season, despite the cliff-hanger S2 ending. Which is a huge shame, as the quality of acting, writing and production should have earned it more kudos. But in the end, it was probably a bit too oddball for a modern audience.
The Penguin. Well this was a huge hit. I'm a fan of Colin Farrell. Sure, he's been in some poor movies over the years. And his 'bad boy of Hollywood' era was nauseating. But his redemption arc as a sage actors' actor is paying off. His talent is on full display here. And the supporting cast around him are stellar. I'm a big Batman fan, and this is such a good way to nail a TV series around Gotham in an often over-saturated set of stories in the universe. It sort-of reminds me of the early Marvel universe TV shows that were odd, quirky, and supremely well orchestrated (Loki, Wanda Vision). They had their own space to breathe, and so does Penguin.
Oppenheimer. I've not seen movie mania quite like the Barbieheimer fun before. We all knew Cillian Murphy was a stellar actor, but he was next-level in this. Not only that, the sense of direction, writing, production and the cast around Cillian brought together an absolute masterpiece. A masterpiece that I insulted by watching for the first time months after release on a tiny airplane screen.
Bad Sisters. Being Irish, seeing a full Irish ensemble dominate Apple TV+ is great. But it has a huge flaw; seeing characters in normal jobs or places in life own beach front property in Dalkey!
Slow Horses. This show is just incredible. I love almost anything with Gary Oldman in it anyway, and here he's managed to transform himself to an iconic character for the ages. It's now a few season in, but still has plenty of punch and ability to feel fresh.
Sugar. This show was so weird. It's a Colin Farrell starring role again, but in a film noir-esque detective show with really strange pacing. Some characters seem out of place. But it keeps you engaged until you hit the tail end of the series and the stangeness slaps you in the face.
The Gentlemen. This is about as Guy Ritchie as Guy Ritchie gets. And that's why it's so good. So, so good. Gangsters, British gentry, Irish travellers. It's got it all.
Fallout. As an old timey fan of the games, back to F2, this was wonderful. It captures the essence of the games without compromising on the fact that it's not the same format. It doesn't fall over itself trying to pay homage to fandom, nor does it stray too far from the source material to be alien.
Day of the Jackal. This is stellar. Beautifully acted, written and well orchestrated.

Books

I'm typically a voracious reader but this was a slow year. Mostly due to kids, but some top picks from me are:

Murakami's The City & Its Uncertain Walls. Probably my favourite author of all time. I love the magic realism, the opportunity for pure escapism in his novels and the quirky, uniquely Japanese take on society he provides. I've technically not finished this book yet, but it might actually be more inviting to non-Murakami fans. Which means it's not as purist as any of his prior works.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey. I did my typical gig of finding the books that seem to speak to my sensibilities in the Booker Prize shortlist, and my first pick was Orbital. I didn't realise how short and snappy it was. But in such a short book, the author captivates and captures life in space. I've never experienced any art form that captured life on the ISS in this way. It's enthralling, descriptive and so well constructed. I mean, it won the booker prize so it has to be good!
Playground by Richard Powers is another Booker Prize listed book, which I kind-of read by judging the book by it's cover. And it did not disappoint. As much as Orbital captured space, Playground captures the ocean.
Money - A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams. If you're into economics, history and the study of human nature, look no further than this one. It's a bit of a tome, so you need to be into the subject. But each chapter jumps through human history and how one of our greatest inventions, economics, shaped these chapters all the way up to today.

Photos

Looking at #myflickryear, I had a few highlights to share. Most of which highlight my year traveling to various locations for work, more than anything else!

NYC