Music, games and gadgets. Some gift suggestions for Christmas
Music
It’s the album that has taken over the world, and it is just getting started. If a significant person in your life has not yet acquired a copy, perhaps it’s because they are — hint, hint — hoping to receive 25 as a gift.
Coldplay go pop! Again! Only this time Chris Martin is getting over Gwyneth Paltrow — and totally digging it. Sure it’s cheesiest premise for a concept album ever. However, with producers Stargate in the wheelhouse, and Coldplay at their straight-ahead crowd-pleasing setting, the results are strikingly — dare we say ‘wickedly’ — catchy.
More than a year since the Wicklow singer’s debut saw daylight, Andrew Hozier-Byrne remains literally on top of the world. ‘Take Me To Church’ is one of the defining singles of the era — and, with a touring schedule to make Mick Jagger blanch, Hozier has demonstrated his work ethic also. Released last month, the 2CD edition features live tracks from his sell-out American tour.
The opening theme! The ‘Imperial March’! The melancholy bit that plays whenever Luke seemed a bit pensive. All your most beloved Star Wars flourishes are present and correct in the official John Williams score accompanying the biggest movie of … well, possibly ever.
The second record by LA rhymer Kendrick Lamar is astonishing — effortlessly moving between jazz, funk and gangsta rap, with smart political commentary overlaid. Apparently Donald Trump turns into a pillar of salt if played in his presence.
What would Elvis sound like backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra? Finally the question that has stumped generations is answered with this mash-up of crooning and classical pomp. As expected, Elvis, sampled from beyond the grave, more than holds its own against the swirls and flourishes of the RPO.
Cork guitar hero Rory Gallagher is at his best in this box set chronicling the short-lived adventures of his first band, Taste. Four discs of outtakes, live recordings and studio work capture Gallagher finding his voice and on the way to blues greatness.
Dylan’s iconic mid-1960s phase is revisited in this outtakes compilation that includes rare studio versions of ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ — in short the ragged anthems that cemented his place in the culture.
Incredibly, country troubadour Adams’ revisiting of Taylor Swift’s 1989 find hidden depths in a throwaway lark.
Especially impressive, his mournful take on her big city anthem ‘Welcome To New York’ — complete with utterly random seagull samples.
Films
Dinosaurs! Politically-incorrect banter! Annoying kids! It’s the golden age of the Hollywood blockbuster revisited, only with better special effects and endless DVD extras. Plus, leading man Chris Pratt channeling Indiana Jones AND playing papa bear to a tribe of Velociraptors (and no, you aren’t allowed whinge about the plot-holes).
Marrow-squelching violence, mindless destruction, the shriek of the innocent as they led to slaughter. But enough about Munster’s disastrous European Rugby Cup campaign. Season five of HBO’s epic delivered a payload of eye-watering melodrama too, with oodles of controversy and the scariest TV dragons this side of a Twink Christmas special.
There’s absolutely no escaping JJ Abrams sequel, so why not reacquaint yourself with the originals? Or at least George Lucas’s late 1990s digital makeovers of the originals.
A surprise summer smash, this sing-along blockbuster will gladden the heart and forever change your views on spontaneous public singing.
Both of which are ticks in the positive column in our book.
Funnier than its parent show, Breaking Bad, yet with an undertow of melancholy, Vince Gilligan’s desert-set prequel delivered payload of melodrama with movie-quality cinematography as a bonus.
Games
A board game that changes as you play it! Such is the revolutionary premise behind this Z-Man smash, which required participants to write upon and affix stickers to the game-board over the course of a 25-session campaign in which humanity combats a killer disease.
It’s (still) the end of the world as we know it — but that’ s hardly a tragedy when it results in a post-apocalyptic romp as compelling as this first person shooter — a seamless blend of action and snarky comedy.
A board game with a difference, in Colt Express you manoeuvre your characters on a three-dimensional train as bad guys try to gun you down.
If you ever wished that Monopoly had a bit more Sergio Leone in its veins, behold the afternoon pastime for which you’ve been crying out.
Have you heard — a new Star Wars movie has just been released in cinemas?
For the tiny minority with a passing interest in this news here’s a heaven-sent appetite whetter: a massive multiplayer game in which you can variously play a Tie Fighter fly-boy, X-Wing jockey or At-At pilot blasting anything that moves (we recommend you also zap anything that ISN’T moving, just to be sure).
Kids adore Minecraft. Adults, on the other hand, are at best vaguely aware of the who what and why of the world building video game. That isn’t likely to change with the latest release from the brick-happy juggernaut — a linear romp that tacks a storyline onto the Lego-like virtual platform. Your children will love it though.
Gadgets
Attach to your TV and stream from your computer. The future — and a whole lot of irresistible television — just crash landed in your living rooms.
#Google #ChromeCast commercial is out!! Look out for it online and on TV! pic.twitter.com/LWIjY5dcgn
— Dylan Landon (@DylanLandonLive) December 16, 2015
You — or your kids — have already fallen in love with R2D2’s younger, more cutesy cousin. How better to bring the new movie home, than this extraordinary reproduction of the physics-defying robot?
Bring the boom with this understated speaker system — easy to heft yet packing impressive oomph.
The best iPhone EVER (ever) isn’t cheap. But, cent-by-cent, it stands tall as the finest smartphone on the market.
Your phone’s battery keeps dying and you’re not happy. Here’s the cheap — and surprisingly stylish — answer; a svelte brick that attaches to your handset and offers 2x recharges.
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