Listopia 2014

I like writing my yearly summary lists on the first of January- because what if something universe altering will happen late on the 31st of December? Well, nothing ever did, but I am still somehow hoping. Maybe I can organize a movie marathon this year, or listen to all the overlooked albums in one go and find a hidden gem. As things stand however, here is a totally subjective list of concerts, songs, albums and movies I loved this year.

 Anna Calvi/March/A38

 Foals/July/VOLT

  Arctic Monkeys/July/VOLT 

La Roux/August/Sziget

 Miles Kane/August/Sziget

Yasmine Hamdan/August/Sziget

Queens of the Stone Age/August/Sziget

Stromae/August/Sziget

St Vincent/October/A38

Triggerfinger/November/A38

It's been a pretty sweet year overall- I had dreamt of seeing St Vincent live at the beginning of the year, and not only did she come to the wonderful A38, but in the meantime she also released the album that would finish first on so many year end lists. (My preferences have no particular order, but let's say the top 3 is mostly accurate.) 

I dreamt of Arctic Monkeys and Foals- well they came as well, and although at first I was a bit cross about hurtling through half of Hungary all the way to Sopron, I have to say it was one of the highlights of the year. There's a particular bliss to being so dead tired waiting for the first train in Sopron station that the whole world basically melts into a lucid dream. 

And then there's the Horrors, who were supposed to come, but cancelled in the end, so I decided why not cross half the continent for them. And that was also wonderful,for I finally my eternal dilemma of London vs Paris and well, there is of course a definite plus to seeing a British band on home turf. As I already mentioned, I was however slightly traumatized by the exile of my camera- while I do agree that having people shove smart phones into each other's faces or flash the band at the worst of times is a pure nuisance, I see no point in banning enthusiasts who actually come with the proper equipment and take good pictures. The live the moment argument also fails in my case- for I see no better way of living the moment than capturing it forever.

Given the epic success of my 2014 dreams, I'll aim for Interpol, Lykke Li and Perfume Genius this time, and see what comes out of it. It's quite encouraging that Sziget already has Florence and the Machine, ALT-J and Fauve on the line up- I sense another vintage year coming our way.

Perfume Genius- Queen
St Vincent- Digital Witness
Interpol- My Desire
The Horrors- I See You
Damon Albarn- Heavy Seas of Love
Jamie T- Love is Only a Heartbeat Away
Lykke Li- No Rest for the Wicked
Elliphant feat MO- One More
Triggerfinger- By Absence of the Sun
FKA Twigs- Two Weeks

St Vincent- St Vincent
Perfume Genius- Too Bright
Interpol- El Pintor
The Horrors- Luminous
Lykke Li- I Never Learn
La Roux-Trouble in Paradise
Leonard Cohen- Popular Problems
Jamie T- Carry on the Grudge
Caribou- One Love
Damon Albarn- Everyday Robots

When it comes to the movies, try as I might to restrict the list to 10, I felt physical pain each time I attempted throwing out one of the movies, so I said, 12, why the hell not, it will be my not at all dirty dozen. 2014 proved its greatness again. Well truth be said, some of the movies do actually date back to 2013, but I will spare you the rant about Eastern European film distribution and say I included the movies that I saw in 2014 and shaped my year and yet again, maybe it's for the best like this, because I actually love all these twelve movies and the more I look at them, the more I see them uniting into a strange wholeness. 

Only Lovers Left Alive
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inside Llewyn Davis
Under the Skin
Snowpiercer
Two Days One Night
Van valami furcsa és megmagyarázhatatlan (For Some Inexplicable Reason)
Ida
A Most Wanted Man
Guardians of the Galaxy
Her
Nebraska

Arctic Monkeys @ VOLT

When I finally go to see Pulp, The Stones Roses and Blur on Sziget a good decade or two after their heyday, I could not help feeling just a bit left out- they were a generation or so older than mine, and when I finally got around to listening to Blur's first albums with a serious ear, they already felt like history. Great music, undoubtedly, but something that reached me with nostalgic delay. It then quickly dawned on me that if I searched for the band that would relevantly chart my musical coming of age, I could only come up with one answer- the Arctic Monkeys. 

I clearly remember the first articles I read about them in the British Council library's NME copies and my modem slowly coming to life to buffer their first tracks on MySpace. When I first lovingly sported the band T-shirt for which I had to move smallish mountains, the questions mirrored their first EP: Who the fuck are Arctic Monkeys? I grinned and said, I think one day you'll know. 

The day is now- last Sunday at VOLT every second kid was wearing a band T-shirt (But only two people had the old design, like mine, and we duly smiled in recognition at each other.) They love the band, but seemed slightly taken aback by some of the older tracks- this is their Blur and Pulp, the band they discover at the height of their glory and fall in love with that one album that is a synthesis of all that came before.

The concert was hardly flawless, Alex Turner might have been a bit too Elvis high on something for the general taste but for me, they're the one band that still sends giant butterflies to my stomach when I see them live- bands come and go, genres become popular and fade away, but in 50 years' time, if I make it, I can see myself feeling that rush of being 22, and finding the band that can be forever 22 with you. The Arctic Monkyes, they r mine.

I Bet You Look Good in Sopron

Shot by Dean Chalkley for NME

It’s always a bit strange when the once obscure band you loved from day one become huge. I can still remember the days when it was a logistic nightmare to get hold of an Arctic Monkeys T-shirt in Hungary or Romania- it involved enlisting friends of friends to order the item from webshops that delivered to the UK only and then synchronizing schedules with several people to have the prized object transported to its final destination. Where, upon wearing it with pride on the streets of your hometown, you were met by wtf looks and asked whether it’s some WWF style foundation aimed at saving monkeys. The same looks were weighing my beloved NME poster with increduity- it’s just British kids in trainers.

Well those British kids in trainers are now important enough to add one whole Sunday to VOLT festival and be heralded by the local press as the biggest band in the world. That’s subjective of course, but they are definitely one of the hottest acts to ever land at a Hungarian festival. While I am a bit cross that they’re not coming to Sziget, maybe it’s for the best this way. VOLT was a must this year anyway, plus I can live up to my promise to explore new sides of the country . In another fascinating twist, last July I went to see the Monkeys right across the Austrian border in the strawberry farming village of Wiesen which is connected to Sopron by little boxlike trains.

So this July, the 6th of it more precisely, will be one glorious Sunday. I’ll wear the much loved T-shirt and have a smug smirk of how mine is one of the old classic ones, because when, in 2005, I was listening to four British kids pretty much my age I knew that some day they’ll take the world by storm. And I just love being right.