My Favourite Songs of 2015

Chris Lane - "Fix"

"Fix" is my favourite song of 2015, like Lane's "Broken Windshield View" was my favourite of 2014. I guess it was a blessing that injuries prevented Lane from pursuing his baseball career, which meant he could focus on music. The first song from an as-yet-unnanounced album is country-pop music at it's best, and Lane smashes the vocals out of the park. I met Lane in St Louis earlier this year, and he seems like a great guy.
 
Keith Urban - "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16"

The first single from Urban's latest album, Rip Cord, is an ode to life growing up in the country, and once more pushes the boundaries of what country music is and can be, which is something that Urban has been doing for years. The catchy beat will get in your head and stay there. Interestingly, Urban plays bass on live performances, and crushes it.

Halestorm - "I Like It Heavy"

Lzzy Hale is my rock and roll crush: big vocals, great guitar chops and a tendency to wear leather pants. She fronts Halestorm, a great hard rock band from Pennsylvania, and "I Like It Heavy" is an ode to the best rock bands the world has ever seen. If you're not already on the Halestorm bandwagon, get on! Their 2015 release Into the Wild Life is sensational.

Luke Bryan - "Kick The Dust Up"

Listen to the lead single from Bryan's Kill the Lights and try to not be immediately hooked by the southern party anthem. Once it's in your head, it'll stick there. Another #1 hit for Bryan. Critics say his music is without depth, and maybe that's the case, but, man, he owns these bro-country anthems.

Rob Thomas - "I Think We'd Feel Good Together"

The first single from Rob Thomas' third solo album, a pop music extravaganza. His voice is as good as ever, and we must never forget that Thomas is as good a songwriter as there's been in the last twenty years.

Brantley Gilbert - "Same Old Song"

Georgian country-rocker Gilbert allegedly penned this tribute to all the things that bro-country critics hate in response to said critics. He makes no excuses for the life he leads, and, aside from anything else, it's a good song. I saw BG in Kansas City in August, and he's one heck of a live performer.

Ryan Adams - "Bad Blood"

The complete re-imagining of Taylor Swift's entire 1989 album was one the more interesting releases in 2015. Adams turns the tracks on their head, his style reminiscent of a Bruce Springsteen during his Nebraska album era. Taylor loved it, and so did I.

Wiz Khalifa (Feat. Charlie Puth) - "See You Again"

The musical tribute to the late Paul Walker that pops up at the end of the Furious 7 and most definitely tugs at the heartstrings. Brilliant!

Lee Kernaghan - "Spirit of the ANZACs"

The title track for Kernaghan's album of the same name is a stirring anthem paying tribute to the all-walks-of-life men and women who have answered their country's call over the years. Like the rest of the album, the lyrics are inspired by memoirs, letters and diary entries stored in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Kernaghan was given access to the vault last year, and his ARIA #1 album is the result. Wonderful album.

Kid Rock - "First Kiss"

I love Kid Rock, and I'm not going to change. Say what you will about the man, but one thing that can't be disputed is his ability to move with the times. On "First Kiss", a song that reminds me of both his big hit "All Summer Long" and the Bryan Adams epic "Summer of '69" taps into the nostalgia of first loves and first kisses in a small town, and Rock does it well. This one gets a heap of plays on my iPod.

Jana Kramer - "Bullet"

The former One Tree Hill released her second album - "Thirty-One" - in the last quarter of 2015, and this upbeat song, allegedly written about her failed engagement to Brantley Gilbert, and how she dodged a bullet, features Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler. It's catchy as hell.

Jake Owen - "Real Life"

I thought it was Sugar Ray at first. It sounds like Sugar Ray, but it's just Jake Owen going down the Keith Urban road of expanding country music. Great lyrics (about the realities of growing up in a small town) + a catchy chorus = another big hit for Jake. Can't wait for his new album to drop!

Motley Crue - "All Bad Things"

As the saying goes, all bad things must come to an end. And so they do, with Motley on their farewell tour (their last show was December 31 in Los Angeles) and releasing this end-of-an-era song about the end of their hedonistic careers. Their tour stop in Sydney was sensational!

Kip Moore - "Wild Ones"

Another country guy who sounds more like a heartland rocker, Moore's new album was one of my favourites in 2015. The lead single reminds me of Eric Church's "The Outsiders", and has plenty of Moore's heavy, gravelly vocals, and awesome guitars.

College Football 2015: Cotton Bowl Classic - Alabama vs. Michigan State - Game Preview

Join The Roar for live blog coverage of the 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic, the second national semi-final, on New Year’s Day from Midday AEDT

It’s likely that the second national semi-final, to be played at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, will be the complete opposite of the first playoff game. At the Orange Bowl, we’ll almost certainly see a stack of points, but under the roof in Jerry World, the Crimson Tide of Alabama and the Michigan State Spartans seem set to batten down the hatches and play a knock-down, drag out defensive epic.

The Cotton Bowl Classic is notable for it being a match-up between Alabama’s brilliant head coach Nick Saban and Mark Dantonio of Michigan State, who was defensive coordinator under Saban at Michigan State, and took over as head coach when Saban departed. Since then, Dantonio has elevated a program often viewed as an afterthought in Michigan compared to the historically successful Michigan Wolverine program.

In the last few years, though, it’s been the other way around, with Michigan State capturing Big Ten and Rose Bowl titles whilst the Wolverines are only just venturing out of the college football wilderness, where they’ve languished for the best part of the last decade. Dantonio’s team are the dominant one in Michigan, and have a chance to advance to their first National Championship game with a win in Dallas.

That win won’t come easily. Not against a Saban-coached Alabama squad that has been the gold standard in America for so long. The Tide were humbled by a Big Ten opponent – Ohio State – in a semi-final last year, and will be keen to avoid a repeat. Yet they will find it tough going against a very good Michigan State defense, which has been plagued by injury this season, but still managed to throttle Ohio State’s JT Barrett and Ezekiel Elliott in late November to hand the Buckeyes their first loss of the year.

Watching Alabama’s star running back/Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry go against the Michigan State front seven is going to be fascinating. For mine, it’s one of two areas where the game will be won or lost. If the Spartan defense can’t limit Henry’s effectiveness – a tall order, I know – then MSU are going to find themselves in a world of trouble. Somehow, the Sparty defenders need to stop Henry and also avoid Tide quarterback Jake Coker from making too many big plays to receiver Calvin Ridley in the passing game. Coker has proven to be adept at making plays with his feet, too. MSU’s defensive unit is going to be stretched close to breaking point for long stretches in this one.

The other key area is this game is the performance and health of Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook. When Cook, a veteran at the controls of the Spartan offense, is healthy, I feel he can match wits with an Alabama defense that’s number one in pretty much every statistical indicator you can think of – and probably a few more, too – but if Cook, who missed that epic victory over Ohio State and looked a little less than his usual, healthy self in the Big Ten championship game against Iowa.

Simply put, Michigan State need their quarterback to be completely able to make every play asked of him or else the Spartan run game is going to be their only real avenue of offensive output, and in that situation, there’s little doubt that the Tide defense will swallow them up.

Cook needs to find veteran receiver Aaron Burbridge to ensure Alabama doesn’t stack the box, thus overwhelming Michigan State’s talented but injury-ravaged offensive line, and their dependable running back L.J. Scott.

If the Spartans are to have any chance of causing the upset – a bigger one than Oklahoma getting past Clemson, for mine – their offense needs to be completely in sync, scoring six rather than three, and holding the football for as long as possible. A few drives of twenty-two plays, as they produced to close out the Big Ten Championship Game against Iowa, would really help. Alabama can’t hurt the Spartans if Coker and co. are sitting on the sidelines.

Prediction: I just don’t think Michigan State can match Alabama stride for stride over the course of sixty minutes. The Tide will win by about ten points and advance to give the winner of Clemson/Oklahoma more than a few issues.

Join The Roar for live blog coverage of the 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic, the second national semi-final, on New Year’s Day from Midday AEDT

College Football 2015: Orange Bowl - Clemson vs. Oklahoma - Game Preview

Join The Roar for live blog coverage of the 2015 Orange Bowl, the first national semi-final, on New Year’s Day from 8:00am AEDT

After more than thirty lead-up Bowl games, New Year’s Day (Australian time) brings us the main event: the first national semi-final, pitting the No. 1 Clemson Tigers from the Atlantic Coast Conference against the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners from the Big Twelve for the right to play for a national title in twelve days’ time.

Surprisingly, given that Dabo Swinney’s Tigers come in with the only unblemished record amongst the four semi-final combatants, they are given more chance of losing to the late-rising Sooners than I expected. Whilst the Tigers will deservedly enter the game as warm favourites amongst pundits – not to mention odds makers in Las Vegas – there’s a general feeling across the college football landscape that Oklahoma, who rebounded after a shocking loss to Texas to win seven straight and get into the final four, are poised to spring an upset in South Beach.

Maybe that's because the Tigers haven’t been completely polished in their contests against top-tier opposition this year: they narrowly defeated Notre Dame in the wet, only after a furious Irish comeback, took their time ousting ACC contenders Florida State (also on an ugly day, weather-wise) and had struggles beating North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game in their last start. In that contest, a 45-37 victory, the Tigers secondary looked suspect against a hot North Carolina offense.

You can bet, then, that the Oklahoma offense will look to target that vulnerable unit early and often, and Sooner quarterback Baker Mayfield, a smart quarterback who rarely turns the football over and can make plays with his legs as well, has the weapons outside to really make some inroads, that group led by the nearly-unstoppable Sterling Shepard, who has authored a stack of big plays for the Sooners this year. Not surprisingly, he’s Mayfield’s favourite target, and if he gets loose in the Clemson secondary, watch out.

Of course, Clemson have their own dangerous quarterback in the form of Atlantic Coast player of the year DeShaun Watson, and he has a wealth of talent on the edges, too, if he can limit turnovers, which have been a problem at times this year. One guy I’ve loved – and could be a huge factor here – is tight end Jordan Leggett. Depending on who you talk to, he’s in the top three as far as the nation’s best at that position, and he’s certainly in my top five. If he gets a chance to make some plays, it might tilt things in Clemson’s favour.

Defense will pretty much be an afterthought in a game matching two explosive offenses, but the Sooner defense, led by star linebacker Eric Striker and a stout defensive line, are certainly capable of getting to Watson and really shutting down the quarterback run game, which has been strong all year for Clemson. Limiting Watson using his feet will be a major win for Oklahoma. Undoubtedly, this will be the biggest test of the season for the Sooner defense.

Clemson will rely on their excellent defensive end, Shaq Lawson, to force Mayfield into bad throws, which is something that hasn’t happened often this year. Lawson, though, might be the guy to change all of that. He leads all comers with 22.5 sacks and figures to be a pretty regular fixture marauding in the Sooner backfield.

The run game is where I feel the Sooners can do some damage. After all, they have the giant one-two punch of Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon, who have combined for more than 2000 rushing yards between them. When Perine goes off, on comes Mixon, a guy who would start at most elite programs across the country if he so chose.

Clemson certainly boasts a good back in Wayne Gallman, but he’s pretty much a one-man band for the Tigers, but not quite on the same level as Perine and Mixon, both of whom are game-breakers. Gallman might find it tough going against the Sooner front. Clemson’s front won’t get a break.

Prediction: I’m leaning towards Oklahoma – their coach Bob Stoops has a very good record at getting his teams up for big games – at the moment in a high-scoring game, but may flip back to Clemson before kick-off. Whatever happens, I have a feeling this will be a very close, hard-fought game.

Join The Roar for live blog coverage of the 2015 Orange Bowl, the first national semi-final, on New Year’s Day from 8:00am AEDT

Book Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Allan Dean Foster

 

Loved the movie? You'll love the book. Alan Dean Foster (who also wrote the novelisation of Star Wars: A New Hope) does a great job fleshing out characters and situations. The plot, obviously, folows the screenplay, but I like the extra detail that can be included in writing which doesn't appear in filmic form. A great, fun read to follow up on the film, which was a great, fun watch!

Set thirty years following the events of Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens sets up a new trilogy of films by introducing the Resistance (basically the Rebel Alliance of old) and their struggle against the New Order, a sinister organisation that grew out of the ashes of the Empire. Supreme Leader Snoke has a dark disciple Kylo Ren, whose familial situation, in the spirit of what has come before in the Star Wars universe, is fairly complicated.

What isn't complicated is the good versus evil struggle, pitting old favourites - Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO and Princess Leia - with a new generation of great characters (I loved X-wing pilot Poe Dameron, scavenger Rey and disaffected First Order stormtrooper turned Resistance fighter Finn) to combat Snoke and Ren, who prove that the new evil in the galaxy makes the Empire of Vader, Palpatine and the Grand Moff Tarkin seem comparatively pleasant! And the Death Star, in comparison to the First Order's menacing Starkiller base, seems like a children's toy.

I liked that there was more detail on some of the more mysterious characters in the film, particularly Snoke and Kylo Ren, and also the back story of Finn's life as a First Order stormtrooper. Allan Dean Foster is a veteran of the genre, and does a good job writing this companion to the film. I loved it!

Book Review: Las Vegas - High Stakes Game by Jeff Mariotte

High Stakes Game is a great, fast-paced novel that bridges the gap between the Season Two finale episode and the debut episode of Season Three. 

That gap was probably the most interesting cliffhanger moment in Las Vegas' entire five-season run, and Mariotte does a good job of continuing the storylines started in the S2 finale and moving the familiar characters - Danny McCoy, 'Big' Ed Deline, Mary Connell, Nessa Hot, Sam Marquez, Mike Cannon, Delinda Deline and others, in Las Vegas and elsewhere around the world - up to the debut of the third season. For mine, the final two episodes of the second season and the first two or three in the following season were the high-point of Las Vegas.

Jeff Mariotte has written a few television tie-in novels that I've enjoyed including CSI: Miami and the original CSI. Generally, he has a very good feel of the characters that he's writing - I really hate reading a TV tie in when the dialogue in the book is absolutely nothing like what you're used to from scripts - not to mention the situations that those characters find themselves in. Mariotte has also written another Las Vegas book, called Sleight of Hand, which is also well worth tracking down.

If you love(d) Las Vegas on television, you'll love High Stakes Game. The characterisations are so good that it feels like you're watching the show, and the detail about Las Vegas as a city, and the characters and fictional locations is top-notch. A good, easy and fun holiday read!

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Finally, after the subpar prequel trilogy that told the story of Anakin Skywalker’s descent to the dark side of the Force and his transformation from Jedi hero to the sinister Darth Vader, we have a modern Star Wars film that evokes all the things – action, humour, drama and a struggle between good and evil – that have made the original trilogy so revered. This was the Star Wars film we had to have!

J.J. Abrahams, who has an exceedingly good track record when it comes to rebooting film franchises to great acclaim, is a genius. I’ll just go ahead and throw that out there now. Clearly, he carefully and closely watched George Lucas’ prequel trilogy as a guide for what not to do, and the film that he’s helmed is the complete opposite. Gone are the annoying characters, talk of taxes and politics…and basically every other questionable thing that George Lucas managed to cram into the first three episodes of the saga, to something less than critical and fan acclaim.

It’s hard to review a film like this properly whilst remaining spoiler free, but suffice to say, there’s scarcely a dull moment in The Force Awakens. I was on the edge of my seat from the opening sequence on the distant planet of Jakku – a Tatooine-type wasteland where scavengers and sketchy types seem to rule, and where living is hard – through to the final confrontation between the Resistance, as the Rebel Alliance/New Republic is calling itself these days in it’s struggle with the New Order, an organisation born out of the ashes of Palpatine’s Galactic Empire.

The new characters meld seamlessly into the Star War universe and it’s wasn't long into proceedings before the fates of the newcomers, hot-shot Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, disaffected New Order stormtrooper Finn and the mysterious Jakku native Rey, were as important to me as the fates of our old favourites, Han Solo, Chewbacca and the battle-weary Leia Organa. We can thank a tight script, written by Star Wars veteran Lawrence Kasdan – apparently based on the shell of an idea from George Lucas himself – for that. Our introduction to Dameron and Finn, who make a pretty good team, is nothing short of scintillating.

What’s most fantastic is seeing Harrison Ford back at his wisecracking best. Han Solo is one of the greatest cinematic creations, and the prequel trilogy just didn’t feel right because the Corellian smuggler-turned-Alliance hero wasn't a part of them. He’s back in full force here, somehow finding time to shoot dead legions of storm-troopers and a few squadrons of menacing TIE fighters in between great banter with Chewbacca. Obviously returning to the role that made him famous sat nicely with Ford, and he’s done a fantastic job. I saw plenty of Solo’s fast-shooting, fast-talking in Poe Dameron, too. Let’s hope that continues!

On the flip side, I thought that Leia, now known as a general rather than a princess, was underused. It felt like a token appearance because the other original cast members were there, and I can only imagine that, given the events of The Force Awakens, she plays a larger role in the final two instalments of the trilogy. As for Luke Skywalker…well, you’ll have to watch the film! No spoilers here!

Across the hall from the Resistance is the New Order, whose strings are pulled by the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke, about whom we don’t know much, and his offsider Kylo Ren, about whom we learn plenty as the film races by – a pretty solid one-two baddie punch, if you ask me?! These two have the same dynamic as Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, and Ren is as menacing as Vader ever was. Clearly, the disaffected man, who wields an impressive crimson lightsaber, sees some of himself in Vader, going so far as worshipping Vader’s crumpled mask. It’s yet one more nod to the original trilogy.

Surely, there’ll be a few people who complain about the New Order being a re-tread of the Galactic Empire, and in a way, they’d be correct, but it didn’t actually feel like I was watching a recycled plot with recycled characterisations. The New Order has it’s own sinister streak, and their Starkiller base makes the Empire’s Death Star seem like a child’s toy, so they’re a step up from the Galactic Empire in many ways. For mine, Star Wars is at it’s best when it pitted a small band of rebels against an overwhelming military force, so I’m totally okay with the New Order rising up.

To be honest, I loved everything in The Force Awakens – okay, well, maybe not every single thing, but…spoilers – and, really, and if the first instalment in the new trilogy is anything to go by, the third trio of Star Wars films is going to seriously nudge the original grouping as far as awesomeness goes.

Is it 2017 yet?

Book Review: State of Emergency by Marc Cameron

Jericho Quinn, the Alaskan native and Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) operative who now works on sensitive missions directly for the National Security Advisor Winfield ‘Win’ Palmer, is back for his third go-around in State of Emergency, another fast-paced affair where the body count seems to get higher with every chapter, and where Quinn, teamed up with his offsider, Gunnery Sergeant Jacques Thibodeaux, US Marine Corps, and sometime-love interest Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Garcia, must save the world again.

This time, the stakes are higher than ever: the murder of a Russian a conglomerate of Middle Eastern terrorists and unsavoury types from South America have combined to both murder an undercover Russian operative and steal a nuclear device, one that dates back to the bad old days of the Cold War. The Islamic extremists have designs on detonating it on American soil – of course – as a final strike in a campaign that has begun with explosions in both San Francisco in America and St Petersburg in Russia. In Idaho, an expert on nuclear weapons has been captured at gunpoint to help the bad guys complete the assembly of the bomb. If he doesn’t, they’ll kill his wife and son.

Quinn is exactly the right guy to sort through the mess of drug dealers, terrorists and spies and get to the guys with the dirty bomb before they’re able to detonate it. He’s aided by Thibodeaux – the banter between the two is as good as ever – and a Russian agent, who was close friends with the Russian killed in the opening pages of the novel. Even Jericho’s younger brother, Bo, who has a shady past connected to motorcycles and gang crime, gets to join the mission on this one – a little improbably, I thought. A guy who is a convicted criminal isn’t likely to be working on a top-secret job, no matter who his brother is!

It’s no secret by now, three books in, that Cameron loves both bikes and knives. Quinn manages to employ both with effective (and sometimes deadly) force, and in State of Emergency manages to partake in the dangerous Dakar Rally, ostensibly because the crazy Venezuelan who is at the centre of the entire plot is there, too. Why he’d be competing in a bike race whilst his cohorts are putting together a nuclear bomb is beyond me. It seemed like a weak way to squeeze in some ultimately-meaningless detail about a bike race more interesting, clearly, to the author than to me.

That Dakar race chapters made little sense to me – I mean, it didn’t really serve to advance the plot a great deal – and there was a noticeable lull in the middle of the story, which sapped the early momentum that the storyline had built. The action really didn’t pick back up until they left the race and began the hunt in earnest in the muggy jungles of Bolivia, and then back to American soil.

As generally happens in these types of formulaic but still very entertaining thrillers, the bad guys are vanquished and the good guys are able to move on with their lives, content that they’ve saved the world once more, leaving Jericho to ponder who he really wants to be with, his ex-wife or Ronnie Garcia.

Look, State of Emergency isn’t the best Jericho Quinn instalment I’ve read, but the cliff-hanger ending will be more than enough to pick up the next book in the series pretty soon! I guess that's the way to get people coming back for more!