2014 Best Ofs: Here They Come

It’s that time of year again. The time of year I look back on what I did, and all I see is a vivid question mark. I like to take an inventory of what I do, what I see, what I experience in a given year. In that inventory, I have to keep special note of those things which are not just ‘new to me’ but new to the world. After all, writing about my deep dive into Guilty Connector’s catalog, or my first encounter with Maximum Joy, or my 90 days of consecutive Brave Frontier logins, doesn’t really have the same sheen as the kinship that emerges from being current on music, movies, and other such things. The vague awareness of the yearly release catalog of video games or clothing, saying “oh… I saw that” as someone else’s list brings it more keenly into focus.

Needless to say, I find these lists quite fun.

This year, I have taken to journaling. In fact, as a result of this, I have a fairly exhaustive list of video games, films, and television shows I’ve encountered over the year. Somehow, what got lost in the shuffle was music. So, here I am, cramming through a list of about 70 or so albums the majority of which it would be disingenuous to say had any real impact on my year at large — notable exceptions like Big Contest, Tercer Mundo, m-flo, Ty Dolla $ign, and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu which were on heavy rotation alongside my standard diet of Break Down The Walls, Ball of Destruction, and Dehumanization. Still, it is a yearly ritual, with my feelings running from “I guess I have to listen to this…” to “I can’t believe they had a release this year and I didn’t know!” And the 11th hour discoveries are always the best, aren’t they?

When all is said and done, though, nothing that I could possibly hear could outdo the unmistakable and totally unique sound of the sole of an Adidas Tubular hitting the ground. A shoe (pun) in for the number one spot on my “top 10 anythings of 2014” list if there ever was one.