This year, in anticipation of their new album, I’ve become a fully paid up Haim fan. Somewhere along the line, these girls wormed their way into my heart. Whether it was listening to their album, or their radio show (currently on hiatus), or just following them on Twitter… I’m in love. Quirky and unique, with their own style and a comfort in their own skins, these ladies are also supremely talented.

It all started with this note from my Zombieland Film Watch post: 5:06 – Recognise that petrol station from that music video. Because there was a shot of a petrol station right at the beginning, when he was laying out some of his ground rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse. Now, I know what you’re thinking - it looks like any petrol station ever, and… well, we’ll get to that. For now, stick with me.

I love Demi Lovato, but I realised recently that she is an expert at picking songs to be featured on. Whilst her own work is plenty good enough, when she is featured on a song, it’s always a brilliant one! Don’t believe me? Let’s review. First up, The Vamps. Yeah, you! Then she teamed up with Olly Murs for the catchy Up, and took on the myth created by N Sync in Irresistible.

Now, I have to be careful writing this post, because in our household there is one human who is utterly obsessed beyond comprehension with Taylor Swift, and just to be clear, it’s not me. I like Ms Swift, I think she’s very talented and pulled off an incredible feat switching from country to pop the way she did. 1989 is a really good album. I also like the stuff she does with her fans and the way she really seems to care about what’s going on around her.

I really love this music video for Sweet Lovin’ by Sigala. The song itself is your standard dance number, but the video takes it a step further with roller skates that issue smoke from the back. I want some! What is really fab about the whole thing is when more skaters join the fun towards the end of the video, creating a sort of roller skating version of the Red Arrows.

This music video from The Chemical Brothers is incredible. A single-shot sequence of a lone dancer moving around a grungy industrial warehouse space. So far, so normal. But gradually parts of her body become like wireframe, see-through, and that’s when the magic happens. It’s just so detailed and intricate. That you can see her leg through her other leg. That the red pants are wrapped around an essentially non-existent body by the end.

Following swiftly on from the films of 2014, Mr C turns his attention to music. The playlist to choose from was up to 17 songs at one point, and narrowing it down to five proved to be a difficult task, but one which was great fun for me to watch him agonise over. You can view previous years via the handy links at the end of the post, but for now, let’s see what the end result of the hours of weighing up country against girl groups against guitar bands were.

I love that game where, you’re listening to a song and it sounds just like another song and you compare and contrast. In this day and age, there aren’t a lot of new things in music left to be discovered - almost everything has been done before and can be picked up as “copying” a previous artist. Whilst driving, I was listening to Return of the 90s, a surprisingly cheap album stacked full of songs that bring back memories.

Watching a bit of Vevo TV on the Nashville channel (it’s more entertaining than it sounds), I stumbled across this video from Brad Paisley. It’s a terrible song but a great video, have a peek! It’s a water-skiiing squirrel! At first I thought, jeez, some animals must have been harmed in the making of this video, but a little closer investigation revealed it’s an actual squirrel that has been trained to water ski.

I’m not a huge music video aficionado, but Mr C tends to point out those that catch his eye whenever he spots them. Recently, a new video from Kelly Clarkson emerged, for her single People Like Us, and it’s worth a look… for the wrong reasons. There’s an odd story about saving a colourful child from a world of black and white, but that’s not what I saw. I’m fully aware that product placement is part of how these things get funded, and I’m totally okay with that - if it is done with a bit of subtlety and/or restraint.