Review of the Year
In 2000 I made a 'Review of the Year' CD, highlighting the most popular chart-tunes that had been around for the last twelve months, and gave them to all my family and friends - a sort of multimedia Christmas Card.
I also asked them to vote for what their five favourite songs of the year had been so that I could compile a chart amongst my friends of the songs that we actually liked. This was a hangover from something I used to do a long time ago back in school on a weekly basic. In fact, for three year 1997-1999 I'd done a vote just via email without a CD musical reminder, and my friends would say to me "We can't remember what all the songs were from this year!", and that's when I decided to first make a CD.
Download them - per year - here:
2000 : 2001 : 2002 : 2003 : 2004 : 2005 : 2006 : 2007 : 2008 : 2009 : 2010 : 2011 : 2012 : 2013
The first few years were just music with me talking, then I added in news clips to highlight some of the major news stories of the year, thus turning it into a proper 'Review'. One year, I got carried away and made a double CD set out of it all before scaling it back the next year.
As world evolved and technology moved forward and we call got iPods, 2006 was a download only year, where I didn't make a physical CD. Turned out that some people still liked having something physical, so in 2007 onwards I made it available for download and burnt copies for people on CD as well.
In 2009, there was not a review of the year! For the first time in ten years I was unable to do one due to moving countries and having all mt PC's/production facilities unavailable to me. But it cam back for 2010, and carries on into 2011 as well.
Christmas Songs Used
Starting from the year 2002, I tagged on a Christmas song at the end to wrap things up and make the whole thiing feel a little bit festive and merry. The songs are as so ...
2002 - Low "Just Like Christmas"
2003 - Badly Drawn Boy "Donna and Blizten"
2004 - No Christmas song used
2005 - Small World Incident "Have yourself a merry little Christmas"
2006 - Murray Gold "Song for Ten"
2007 - Coldplay "2000 Miles"
2008 - Goldfrapp "Winter Wonderland"
2009 - No review of the year
2010 - Coldplay "Christmas Lights"
2011 - Aimee Mann - Calling On Mary
2012 - No review of the year
Previous years voting results
Between 1997 and 1998 (when I wasn't even making CD's) and then up until 2005 I additonally asked peple to vote for their favourite 5 songs of the year, and compiled the results into a chart, the results are thus:
1. Coldplay - Fix You
2. Madonna - Hung up
3. James Blunt - You're beautiful
4. Kaiser Chiefs - I predict a riot
5. Killers - Somebody told me
6. Athlete - Wires
7. Green Day - Wake me up when September ends
8. Franz Ferdinand - Do you want to
9. Arctic Monkeys - I bet you look good on the dance floor
10. Gorillaz - Dare
1. Keane - Somewhere only we know
2. Snow Patrol - How to be dead
3. Franz Ferdinand - Take me out
4. Green Day - Boulevard of broken dreams
5. Snow Patrol - Run
6. Embrace - Gravity
7. Maroon 5- This love
8. Outkast - Hey ya
9. Hoobastank - The Reason
10. The Rasmus - In the shadows
1 Darkness - I believe in a think called love
2 Evanescene - Bring me to life
3 Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
4 Beyonce - Crazy in love
5 Michael Andrews & Gary Jules - Mad world
6 Amy Studt - Misfit
7 TATU - All the things she said
8 Black eyed peas - Where is the love?
9 Dido - White flag
10 Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage
1 Robbie Williams - Feel
2 DB Boulevard - Point of view
3 Avril Lavigne - Complicated
4 Liberty X - Just a little bit
5 The Calling - Wherever you will go
6 Doves - There goes the fear
7 Sophie Ellis Bextor - Murder on the dance floor
8 Appleton - Fantasy
9 Darius - Colourblind
10 Vanessa Carlton - 1,000 miles
1 Dandy Warhols - Bohemian like you
2 S Club 7 - Don't stop movin'
3 Kylie - Can't get you out of my head
4 Hear'Say - Pure and simple
5 Dido - Here with me
6 Roger Sanchez - Another chance
7 Wheatus - Teenage dirtbag
8 Dido - Hunter
9 Gabrielle - Out of reach
10 I Monster - Daydream in blue
1 Andreas Johnson - Glorious
2 Spiller - Groovejet
3 All Saints - Pure shores
4 David Gray - Babylon
5 Robbie & Kylie - Kids
6 Coldplay - Trouble
7 Moby - Natural blues
8 Tom Jones - Sex bomb
9 Texas - In demand
10 Sugababes - Overload
1999
1 Madonna - Beautiful Stranger
2 New Radicals - You get what you give
3 Shaft - Sway
4 Shania Twain - That don't impress me much
5 Sixpence non the richer - Kiss me
6 Britney Spears - Baby one more time
7 Travis - Writing to reach you
8 Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5
9 Cardigans & Tom Jones - Burning down the house
10 Shania Twain - Man! I feel like a woman
1998
1 Cornershop - Brimful of Asha
2 Robbie Williams - Let me entertain you
3 Madonna - Frozen
4 Sash - Mysterious times
5 Savage Garden - To the moon and back
6 Jennifer Page - Crush
7 Bryan Adams & Mel C - Baby, when you're gone
8 Manic Street Preachers - If you tolerate this ...
9 Garbage - Paranoid
10 Steps - Last thing on my mind
1997
1 Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
2 Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
3 Sash - Encore un fois
4 Prodigy - Breathe
5 Depeche Mode - It's no good
6 Radiohead - Paranoid Android
7 Republica - Ready to go
8 Sash - Ecuador
9 Echo & Bunnymen - Nothing ever lasts forever
10 No doubt - Don't speak
Review of the Year Compilations
Downloadable every year, and sometimes on CD too ...