Could the Rough Trade twitter poll really be a sign of plans to open a branch in the provinces? Or is it simply a tease?

Rolo Tomassi. Rough Trade East, in London. May 27th. Like this, only with closer walls:



That's I Love Turbulence live at the Leeds Cockpit.

[Pre-Buy: Cosmology]

Here's an interesting approach to the drop in sales of physical music - Rough Trade is going to take space inside some branches of Top Shop to sell CDs and such:

Stephen Godfroy, director of Rough Trade Retail Group, said, of the decision:

“[it] supports Rough Trade’s belief that the CD format is as popular as ever [and] that it is largely the poor high street retail of CDs that is to blame for declining sales on this format."

Well, perhaps - although something that people would head three or four doors down the street to buy which now has to be taken to them in order to persuade them to buy isn't quite saying "as popular as ever" to me. If once you would swim oceans for your passion, and now only cuddle because they're there, I'd say you might actually be cooling in your ardour.

Let's hope I'm just wrong and overly cynical.

You have approximately an hour an ten minutes:

We're playing at Rough Trade East tonight at 7! Free entry, get there at 6 to avoid disappointment!

@LeisureSociety]

They're playing a proper gig tomorrow, but tonight, for free, The Breeders are doing a warm-up in London, in the Rough Trade East store. Stage time is 7.30, but we reckon to be sure of getting a space in the crowd, you'll want to be out flagging down a taxi about now.

When they were selling In Rainbows as a download, Radiohead promoted online.

Now it's an actual record you can buy, Radiohead are going out to promote it in shops.

We're given to understand they're playing the Rough Trade shop in London this evening.

After months of gloomy prognostication about the future of record shops, Rough Trade is bucking the trend: a massive new shop that understands that sometimes it's the shopping, and sometimes it's the records, but there's something special about shopping for records:

It's the sort of bold move which, hopefully, will be responded to. It's certainly a more inventive response than HMV's idea of cutting floorspace to make room for coffee shops.

It's about twenty years since Are You Scared To Get Happy took Alan McGee to task for the poor value of the music-to-run-out-groove proportions of Creation 12" singles. His embrace of the possibilities for higher margins on CDs, equally, went down badly with the indie purists - there would have been a march and burning effigies and placards, were these not indie kids.

Now, he's calling for record shops to go the way of, erm, Creation Records. Why is the writing on the wall for these places?

Because he doesn't go into them any more:

An entire retail sector doomed because McGee get his stuff off the internet. Let's hope he never discovers Orcado, or that'll be all the out-of-town supermarkets being shuttered overnight.

Never mind that, for some people, the quick-fix attraction of Amazon needs to be balanced by a gentle browsing experience; that travelling to a record store and spending time flicking through product is a different and vital experience - the connections you make from a pile of real CDs are completely different from browsing online. It's why every time I find myself in Denver, I wind up having to find space for a couple of hundred bucks' worth of records I've picked up on a trip into Twist and Shout, for example. Sure, I could have found the Wolfgang Press' Funky Little Demons on Amazon - but without being in the store, idling through the racks, I wouldn't have remembered I wanted it and wouldn't have gone looking.

Alan may or may not realise that the printed NME and NME.com's content actually differs, and we're a little puzzled as to how he can know if there's something in the paper that he "needs for work" if he doesn't read it in the first place - perhaps he flicks through it in the newsagent to save himself a couple of quid. (Good news for WH Smiths, then, if McGee is still using them, at least.)

Actually, MTV has pretty much destroyed itself by mission-drifting into obsolesence, but McGee seems confused about the different ways people consume Music TV and YouTube. MTV and The Box and the others have always been background experiences, floating on the screen in the corner of living rooms and pubs while life carries on more interestingly in the centre; YouTube has merely given the obsessive and dedicated and mainliners a place to go.

Alan, you're getting on for fifty; could that be the real reason why MTV and NME don't hold as much attraction for you?

But how did you fill your iPod, Alan? We bet you didn't buy a load of downloads until the 40 gig was full. And isn't your own argument starting to fall apart here? You don't send your CDs off to live with your aunt in the country in a draughty house - what, even the ones you've just been buying of Amazon in the first paragraph? And there's no point in having record shops like the one your son is spending thirty quid a pop in?

McGee... you flogged 12" singles and CDs in a market which saw 7" vinyl as being slightly over-comodified ("if it really can't be a flexi"); you have never been a Luddite. There's also been a lingering suspicion over your entire career that you've always elevated the cash transaction above the passion in rock music; now, it looks a little like you're more interested in convenience than experience.

A collection of the best best-of lists and reviews. Yes, they've started posting them already.

Special mentions and thanks to Largehearted Boy and DJ Martian and their respective collections of links to more of this sort of thing.

Altrok radio's most-played artists of 2006:
Graham Coxon
The Futureheads
The Long Blondes
The Pigeon Detectives

Amazon.com editors' picks of the best albums:
1. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
3. The Crane Wife - The Decemberists
4. Eye To The Telescope - KT Tunstall
5. Saint Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley

Architecture in Helsinki's album of the year, according to Filter:
Arthur Russell - First Thought Best Thought

Arctic Monkey's single of the year, according to 6Music:
Fedde Le Grand – Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

Ricardo Baca, Denver Post pop critic's CDs that "defined" 2006:
1. Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
2. The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
3. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
4. Van Morrison - Pay The Devil
5. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped

ContactMusic reviews the year with, erm, Castaldo-like insight: It's been another busy year in the music world. Songs have topped charts, albums have flown off shelves and musicians have kept up the grand old tradition of rock and roll by marrying, divorcing and getting arrested.

Corinne Bailey Rae's album of the year, according to Filter:
Editors - The Back Room
(We know, Summer 2005...)

Douglas Baptie reviews the year for CD Times: Ironically, it was also the year Sleater-Kinney decided to go on "hiatus" (read: split up) but 2006 was arguably the year that women finally broke through and were simply allowed to be, whether they were established acts like The Gossip or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or newer faces like CSS, The Long Blondes, Be Your Own Pet, Blood Red Shoes, Tilly & The Wall, Lilly Allen, The Pipettes, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Metric - all just doing their own thing, but not being heckled or groped or having their attractiveness discussed in the music press.

Basement Galaxy is performing a slow reveal, but has already listed a top 10 ineligible albums list:
1. Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
2. Iron Maiden - Death on the Road DVD
3. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend (Legacy Edition)
4. The Casettes - Neath The Pale Moon
5. Shooting At Unarmed Men - Yes, Tinnitus

Battle's single of the year, according to 6Music:
Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks

BBC Collective albums of the year, in no particular order:
The Young Knives - Voices of Animals And Men
Joan As Policewoman - Real Life
Joanna Newsom - Ys
The Knife - Silent Shout
Hot Chip - The Warning
Burial - Burial
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
Cat Power - The Greatest
The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

Ben from Girlpants albums of the year:
1. Helios - Eingya
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
4. Burial - Burial
5. Tunng - Comments of the Inner Chorus

Best selling UK albums of 2006:
1. Eyes Open - Snow Patrol
2. Beautiful World - Take That
3. Ta-Dah - Scissor Sisters
4. Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
5. Inside In / Inside Out - Kooks

... and the best selling singles:
1. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
2. A Moment Like This - Leona Lewis
3. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira Ft Wyclef Jean
4. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
5. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker - Sandi Thom

Best selling albums, worldwide, with sales figures according to Mediatraffic (and an estimate at the total including markets not measured by Mediatraffic):
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium 5.693.000 (6.119.975)
2. High School Musical - High School Musical Soundtrack 5.397.000 (5.801.775)
3. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds 4.348.000 (4.674.100)
4. Rascal Flatts - Me And My Gang 3.623.000 (3.894.725)
5. Pink - I'm Not Dead 3.419.000 (3.675.425)
6. Nelly Furtado - Loose 3.371.000 (3.623.825)
7. Beyonce - B'Day 3.238.000 (3.480.850)
8. The Beatles - Love 3.152.000 (3.388.400)
9. Evanescence - The Open Door 3.112.000 (3.345.400)
10. Andrea Bocelli - Amore 3.052.000 (3.280.900)

Between Thought And Expression provides an MP3 and videoed guide to the 69 favourite songs of the year:
1. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists
2. Devics - Distant Radio
3. Grizzly Bear - Knife
4. Lily Allen - LDN
5. Basement Jaxx - Take Me Back To Your House

Blender's top albums:
1. My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
2. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
3. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
4. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

Bob Butler, who manages the warehouse for Southern Distribution chose, amongst his favourite things to listen to, The Mike Sammes Singer's Music For Biscuits and Danny Baker's Radio London programme. We suspect these two might be related.

Isobel Campbell's album of the year, according to Filter:
Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Chatanooga Pulse chooses the best local albums:
1. The Unsatisfied - The Way to the Crumbs
2. Infradig - Clinical Indifference / The Psychology of Breathing double ep package
3. Some Have Guns - Something Happened
4. Lou Wamp and Swing Shift - Wizards of Swing
5. Jennifer Daniels - A Thrill of Hope

Chromewaves: Rankings like that are inherently meaningless (as the uproar whenever someone publishes any sort of list that makes claims of definitiveness will attest) so instead, I've chosen to list off the ten records that meant the most to me in 2006 - the ones that soundtracked my life, so to speak. The post is a thing of beauty, lavishly illustrated with pics and links and mp3s, and highly recommended.
Eric Bachmann - To The Races
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Cat Power - The Greatest
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Early Day Miners - Offshore
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
Land Of Talk - Applause Cheer Boo Hiss
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Shearwater - Palo Santo
Margot & The Nuclear So And So's - The Dust Of Retreat

Billboard's Classical best US sellers year-end charts:
Classic album: Sting - Songs From The Labyrinth
Classic artist: Sting
Classic crossover album: Andrea Bocelli - Amore
Classic crossover artist: Andrea Bocelli

Bloggedy Blog picks albums of the year:
1. Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. Cat Power - The Greatest
4. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
5. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Bootie USA has pulled together a CD of their favourite mash-ups of the year, including Party Ben's Hung Up On Soul (Death Cab For Cutie vs. Madonna) and Go Home Productions' Don't Hold Back, Sweet Jane (Chemical Brothers vs. Velvet Underground vs. U2 vs. Sugababes vs. MARRS)

CBC Radio 3 select 94 best tracks of 2006:
1. Joel Plaskett Emergency - Nowhere with you
2. Malajube - Montreal -40c
3. Islands - Rough Gem
4. Cadence Weapon - Oliver Square
5. The Hidden Cameras - Awoo

Gideon Coe's single of the year:
Joan as Policewoman - The Ride

Andrew Collins, 6Music presenter and 'Not Going Out' scriptwriter track of the year:
Jamie T - Sheila

Daily Mirror's remaining 3AM Girls award their "3a Emmies":
Pop group: Sugababes
Legend: Elton John
Album: Christina Aguilera - Back To Basics
Tour: Take That
Businesswoman: Victoria Beckham
Band: The Kooks
Single: Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous Girl

The Daily Record's Razz column's albums of the year:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
2. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
3. The Feeling - Twelve Stops And Home
4. The Fratellis - Costello Music
5. Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors

Users at eMusic choose their albums of the year:
1. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
2. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
3. Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
4. Cat Power - The Greatest
5. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

Glide Magazine has 20 from 2006, in no especial order:
Built to Spill - You In Reverse
JJ Cale & Eric Clapton - The Road To Escondido
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Cat Power - The Greatest
Elvis Costello & Allan Toussaint - The River in Reverse
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Earl Greyhound - Soft Targets
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Joanna Newsom – Ys
The Roots - Game Theory
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
The Slip - Eisenhower
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

Andrew Parker at The Gong Show took 180 of these sorts of lists, and compiled a best of the best albums:
1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (Number one on 14 lists)
2. The Knife - Silent Shout (8)
3. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America (7)
4. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (6)
5. Bob Dylan - Modern Times (5)

Guardian Music Blog top albums, as voted by music writers on The Guardian and The Observer:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
2. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
3. Hot Chip - The Warning
4. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishface

Blogcritic's assistant music editor A L Harper submitted her own list of best albums:
1. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
2. The Working Title - About Face
3. Pink - I'm Not Dead
4. Green River Ordinance - The Beauty Of Letting Go
5. Placebo - Meds

Kenny Herzog, editor of CMJ's albums of the year:
1. The Goodnight Loving - Cemetery Trails
2. Various Artists - Confuzed Disco
3. Ghostface - Fishscale
4. Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
5. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

... and his favourite singles
1. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
2. Rick Ross - Hustlin’
3. E-40 - Tell Me When To Go
4. Girl Talk - Smash Your Head
5. In Flames - Take This Life

Idolator munches through pages and pages of HTML to sum up the year:
Best artist: Gnarls Barkley
Album of the year: TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Top track: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Top reissue: Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
Enthusiasm (Total votes/voters selecting album) ratio: Burial - Burial
Under 30's album: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Bloggers' album: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Newspaper writers' album: Bob Dylan - Modern Times
African/Caribbean voters' album: Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Caucasian voters' album: TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Other race voters' album: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Midwest album: The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
New York album: Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

I Love Everything users gather to suggest albums overlooked by other lists: The new Bleach album. Title is long and the English translation doesn't make a whole lot of sense...something to do with the head nodding from side to side and chewing the meat

Indielaundry mp3-powers their albums of the year:
1. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
2. Hot Chip - The Warning
3. Midlake - The trials of Van Occupanther
4. Tom Waits - Orphans
5. Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Jeroen of MusicMania picked a favourite album:
Sylvester Anfang - Satanische Vrede

Keisha Jenkins of Donewaiting.com's favourite album:
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

The Jpopmusic forum discuss best singles: I vote "Nanairo no Ashita~brand new beat~/Your Color". I think its one of her best singles since "Double" and "Be The One".

Kerrang's albums of the year:
1. Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
2. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
3. The Bronx - The Bronx
4. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
5. Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Largehearted Boy selects the albums of the year in some form of alphabetical ordering:
Asobi Seksu - Citrus
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
Casey Dienel - Wind-Up Canary
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Serena-Maneesh - Serena-Maneesh
Shearwater - Palo Santo

Last FM has a "best album 2006" tag, although it's not been assigned to anything since October at time of writing.

Lee, co-owner of Netherlands store Patta, according to Slam X Hype:
Band/music of the year: Peter Bjorn and John
The Long Blondes
Clipse
Nas
Concert: Be Your Own Pet (Lowlands)
EPMD Amsterdam

Douglas Lyttle at Bloomberg reviews the year: Most Unwelcome Trend: Singers cranking out "tribute" records to long-dead artists, or worse, going whole hog and covering batches of songs from entire eras. Notable offenders this year include Michael Bolton ("Bolton Swings Sinatra'') and Rod Stewart ("Still the Same ... Great Rock Classics of Our Time.") Ol' Rooster Head has now hit a second wind by working his way through most of the eras, starting somewhere around Pearl Harbor and ending in Woodstock. What's next? "Stewart Sings Streisand"?

Matador Records are celebrating their year with the Matador Player, featuring a couple of tracks from their big-hitters of the year, including Pretty Girls Make Graves, Matmos, Brightblack Morning Light and Yo La Tengo. [Link probably going to decay at some point]

Mediatraffic's best-selling in week of release worldwide albums
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium 1,108,000
2. Kumi Koda - BEST (second session) 983,000
3. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds 932,000
4. Evanescence - The Open Door 775,000
5. Tool - 10,000 Days 756,000
6. Beyonce - B'Day 736,000
7. Rascal Flatts - Me And My Gang 733,000
8. The Beatles - Love 721,000
9. The Killers - Sam's Town 706,000
10. Ayumi Hamasaki - Secret 696,280

Metacritic scientifically feedback the best-reviewed albums of the year:
1. Ali Farka Toure - Savane 94 points out of a possible 100
2. Tom Waits - Orphans Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards 91
3. Clipse -Hell Hath No Fury 90
4. Bob Dylan - Modern Times 89
5. Joanna Newsom - Ys 89
6. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain 89
7. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale 88
8. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies 87
9. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America 87
10. Los Lobos - The Town And The City 87

Amongst Metric's favourite albums of the year, according to Filter are:
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped

Mixtape Monday from MTV.com picks its six artists "that had it poppin' so hard that the streets and the mainstream had to pay attention":
Lil Wayne
The Game
TI
DJ Drama
Mick Boogie
DJ Green Lantern

Mojo magazine's year-end selection of albums:
1. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times by
3. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
4. Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
5. Archie Bronson Outfit - Derdang Derdang

More Cowbell's top albums:
1. M. Ward - Post-War
2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
3. The Brother Kite - Waiting For The Time To Be Right
4. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
5. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America

Mr Red Penguin's Top 100 singles of 2006:
1. Art Brut - Nag Nag Nag Nag
2. Metric - Poster Of A Girl
3. Young Knives - Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer)
4. New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream
5. Long Blondes - Weekend Without Makeup

MTV UK collects some of the notable popstar quotes of the year:
“Don’t hate me cos I’m a superstar and I’m married to a superstar” - Er, okay, Kevin Federline.

Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good offer best albums:
1. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
2. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
3. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
4. Mates of State - Bring It Back
5. Beirut - Gulag Orkestrar

Craig Ness of Donewaiting.com's track of the year:
Beirut - Postcards From Italy

NME's albums of the year:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
3. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
4. Hot Chip - The Warning
5. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexi

NME's tracks of the year:
1. Hot Chip - Over And Over
2. Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
3. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
4. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
5. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

Chicago's North West Herald singles of the year, in no particular order:
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push
Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous
Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice
Belle and Sebastian - The Blues are Still Blue
Beyoncé - Irreplaceable
Prince - Black Sweat
AFI - Miss Murder

Listeners to NPR voted for their CDs of 2006:
1. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
2. Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
3. Bob Dylan: Modern Times
4. M. Ward: Post War
5. TV On the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

Obscure Sound mp3-enabled albums of the year:
1. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
2. The Divine Comedy - Victory For The Comic Muse
3. The Veils - Nux Vomica
4. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up, I Am Dreaming
5. Scott Walker - The Drift

Off The Record contributors choose their favourite albums:
Grace: M Ward - Post-War
James: Sarah Blasko - What The Sea Wants The Sea Will Have
Sandra: Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country

The Onion AV Club writers struggle to produce a best music of 2006 listing: We used a weighted voting system—meaning passion proved nearly as important as widespread popularity—and tallied the votes using a highly scientific combination of computer spreadsheets, solar calculators, and an abacus, in a scientific formulation designed to ensure that only the finest albums would make the list.
1. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
2. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
3. Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
4. Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
5. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

And, from the Onion AV Club's essential guide to the Least Essential Albums of the 2006, including:
LEAST ESSENTIAL "REUNION" The New Cars, It's Alive
LEAST ESSENTIAL MUSIC TIE-IN TO AN INESSENTIAL TV SHOW Various artists, The Biggest Loser: Music Featured In And Inspired By The NBC Series
LEAST ESSENTIAL RACHAEL RAY BRANDING VENTURE (MUSIC DIVISION) Various artists, Rachael Ray: Too Cool For School Mixtape For Kids
LEAST ESSENTIAL GHOULISH LIVE ALBUM: Blind Melon, Live At The Palace
LEAST ESSENTIAL SEQUEL TO A TOTALLY FORGOTTEN RINGTONE-BASED AMPHIBIOUS ARTIST: Crazy Frog Presents More Crazy Hits
LEAST ESSENTIAL ALBUM OF 2006 (THE YEAR OF THE FISH IN THE BARREL): Kevin Federline, Playing With Fire

Picadilly Records of Manchester staff albums of the year:
1. Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
2. Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
3. Cat Power - The Greatest
4. Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up
5. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Picadilly Compilations of the year: "The "Rip It Up & Start Again", "North By Northwest", CD86, John Peel and Hacienda compilations had us older Piccadilly people happily tripping down memory lane regaling 80s obsessive Brad with tales of post-punk life. All in all it was another great year for compilations."

Picadilly reissues of the year: After an inclusion of one track on Gilles Peterson's "Digs America" compilation had tipped us off to his greatness, Darondo's "Let My People Go" became a firm favourite on the shop stereo at the beginning of the year. Also totally new to us was the Fern Jones "Glory Road" collection which put a smile on our faces and spring in our step on those busy Saturday afternoons, and Las Malas Amistades early work release which filled our heads with weirdness.

Pitchfork files its top videos of the year, including the sub When The Whistle Blows that was Keith Allen's daughter's Smile and, inevitably, the OK Go one with them on the treadmills. Admittedly, that was more inspired than anything they've done musically.

Pollstar track the largest US tours of the year:
Rolling Stones lead in sales value at $138.5 million
Kenny Chesney sold the most tickets, 1.13 million

PopMatters best 'world' music:
1. Ali Farka Touré - Savane
2. Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Panic in Babylon
3. Anouar Brahem - Le Voyage de Sahar
4. Värttinä - Miero
5. Kékélé - Kinavana

Q Magazine file the sort of best albums list that you'd expect from Q:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
2. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
3. Razorlight - Razorlight
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
5. The Killers - Sam's Town

Q's best reissue is The Clash - The Singles

Rebecca Raber, associate editor at CMJ, with a list of her favourite albums:
1. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
2. The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
3. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
4. Islands- Return To The Sea
5. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming

Raven Sings The Blues offers an MP3ed best-of, in no particular order:
Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
Beach House - Beach House
Shearwater - Palo Santo
Wooden Wand & The Skyhigh Band - Second Attention
The Skygreen Leopards - Disciples Of California
Woods - How to Survive in/ In The Woods
Flying Canyon - Flying Canyon
Horse Feathers - Words Are Dead
Kahoots - Fourteen Ghost
Benoit Pioulard - Precis
Nina Nastasia - On Leaving
Howlin' Rain - Howlin' Rain
King Tuff - Mindblow
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultra Violet
Sinoia Caves - The Enchanter Persuaded
The Black Angels - Passover
Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
Indian Jewelry - Invasive Exotics
M. Ward - Post War

Reverend Moose, content editor at CMJ, picks albums of the year:
1. The Knife - Silent Shout
2. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
3. VAUX - Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice
4. Dead Heart Bloom - Dead Heart Bloom
5. Against Me! - Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live In London!!!

Revolver Magazine chooses best albums:
1. Lamb of God - Sacrament
2. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
3. Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
4. GOJIRA - From Mars To Sirius
5. Converge - No Heroes

Marc Riley's single of the year:
Das Wanderlust - Orange Shop

Tom Robinson's single of the year:
Camille - Ta douleur

Rocksound magazine delivers a top 75 via its MySpace blog:
1. The Bronx - The Bronx
2. Converge - No Heroes
3. Isis - In The Absence Of Truth
4. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
5. Kylesa - Time Will Fuse Its Worth

Rolling Stone's Top 50 albums of the year:
1. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
3. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
4. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishcake

... and Rolling Stone's 100 tracks of the year:
1. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
2. The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
3. Chamillionaire - Ridin'
4. TI - What You Know
5. The Pack - Vans

Ron of MusicMania picked a favourite album:
TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain

Rough Trade Shop top 100 albums:
1. Beirut - Gulang Orkestar
2. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
3. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
4. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
5. Brakes - The Beatific Visions

Rough Trade Shop best reissue:
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional

Rough Trade Shop's favourite compilation:
Jarvis Cocker & Steve Mackey/Various - The Trip

Seattle Gay Blog gathers top albums...
1 Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case
2 With Love and Squalor - We Are Scientists
3 Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
4 Carnavas - Silversun Pickups
5 Wolfmother - Wolfmother

... and the Seattle Gay Blog's best singles:
1 Well Thought Out Twinkles - Silversun Pickups
2 Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
3 Analyse - Thom Yorke
4 My Love - Justin Timberlake featuring T.I.
5 Woman - Wolfmother

Skatterbrain tracks of the year:
1. Pants Yell - Our Turf
2. The Most Serene Republic - You're Not An Astronaut
3. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
4. Belle and Sebastian - Sukie In The Graveyard
5. The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health

Status No Object from the Village Voice picks the New York gigs of the year:
1. Jay-Z at Radio City Music Hall, 26/6/06
2. Sleater-Kinney at Webster Hall, 2/8/06
3. TI at the Apollo Theatre, 1/6/06
4. Cat Power at Town Hall, 10/6/06
5. Boredoms at Webster Hall, 2/7/06

Stylus Magazine's best singles collated by JBones, based on the rating given by the magazine averaged from a number of reviews. Maximum possible score is ten:
1. Nelly Furtado - Maneater (9.0)
= Marit Larsen - Don’t Save Me (9.0)
3. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes (8.7)
4. Justin Timberlake - My Love (8.6)
= Bertine Zetlitz - Midnight (8.6)

Slim Devices have started to debate albums of the year on their talkboards. Bosonova808 takes advantage of the time difference: dEUS - Pocket Revolution (will be a 2006 album in the States but has been out for a few months in Europe) - good. Not quite as amazing as The Ideal Crash which still totally floats my boat, but Tom Barman remains seriously cool.

Suite 101 have picked the best Christian rock albums of the year:
1. Derek Webb - Mockingbird
2. Johnny Lang - Turn Around
3. Delirious? - Mission Bell
4. Leeland - Sound of Melodies
5. Phil Joel - The deliberatePeople album

The Sun's Bizarre column invited its readers to vote for their favourites. Madonna is so desperate for decentpress she even turned up to be presented with her prizes:
BEST MALE: Justin Timberlake
BEST FEMALE: Madonna
BEST NEWCOMER: Lily Allen
BEST BAND: Oasis
SINGLE OF THE YEAR: Take That - Patience
BEST LIVE ACT: Madonna
BEST COMEBACK: Take That
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not
CANER OF THE YEAR: Noel Gallagher
SHAGGER OF THE YEAR: Russell Brand
SACK THE STYLIST: Britney Spears
BEST FILM: Borat
BEST COMEDY: Little Britain
BEST ACTOR: Daniel Craig
BEST ACTRESS: Keira Knightley
BEST DJ: Chris Moyles

Sweeping The Nation has embarked on a slow-reveal of its top 30 2006 albums. Overall winner:
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain

Tony Sylvester of Southern Distribution picked top albums:
1. Kaada - Music For Movie Bikers
2. Daniel Higgs - Ancestral Songs
3. Entrance - Prayer Of Death
4. Current 93 - Black Ships Ate The Sky
5. Burial - Self Titled

Tapes N Tapes favourite album of the year, according to Filter:
Liars - Drum's Not Dead

Time Out New York's top albums:
1. Joanna Newsom - Ys
2. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
3. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
5. Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Tiny Mix Tapes suggests a tiny mix tape of the best tracks of 2006, including:
Ghostface Killah - The Champ
The Flaming Lips - The Sound of Failure
Boozoo Bajou featuring Oh No - Back Up
CSS - Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above

UK Music Bloggers poll organised by Sweeping The Nation:
1. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
2. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
3. Camera Obscura - Lets Get Out Of This Country
4. Cat Power - The Greatest
5. Joanna Newsom - Ys

We Are Scientists favourite single, according to 6Music:
We Are Scientists - Inaction

Paul Weller's favourite singles, according to 6Music:
Midlake - Young Bride and
Amy Winehouse - Rehab

John Wenzel, Denver Post staff writer, picked his CDs of the year:
1. Snowden - Anti-Anti
2. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
3. Built To Spill - You, In Reverse
4. Beck - The Information
5. The Black Angels - Passover

John Williamson reviews the year in the Glasgow Herald: The Young Knives' Voices of Animals and Men is at least [The Arctic Monkey's] equal, and the Long Blondes re-enforced Sheffield's claim to musical city of the year (Jarvis Cocker's solo album and Richard Hawley's belatedly acclaimed Cole's Corner also deserve mention) with their updated take on C86 pop. The rush to cash-in on the Arctic Monkeys (like Oasis and the Stone Roses before them) brought a number of atrocities in their wake, but at least the cause seemed modest in the receipt of their acclaim.

Chris Wilman of Entertainment Weekly's favourite albums of the year:
1. The Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
2. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
3. The Beatles - Love
4. Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse
5. Vince Gill - These Days

Wikipedia's (potentially) ever-changing attempt at a chronology of music in 2006: November 8 – Nelly Furtado makes a cameo in the Portuguese soap opera Floribella.

... and a Wikipedia chronology of UK music: Single sales bounced back in 2006 as legal downloads added nearly thirty million sales to the total for the year. Despite this, the 17,694 copies sold during it's week at number one gave Orson's "No Tomorrow" the distiction of being the lowest sales ever of a chart topper.

... and Wikipedia on Swiss music in 2006: Despite the consistency at the top of the chart thus far in 2006, the Swiss singles chart has seen a lot of popular acts pass through it. Normally in the first two months of the year the chart would be mostly quiet, but the top ten has been fairly active, with acts including US5, 50 Cent, Ch!pz and Mary J. Blige entering toward the higher end of the chart this year.

Amy Winehouse's favourite singles, according to 6Music:
The Zutons - Valerie

Yahoo Music reviews the year: Pete Doherty Kicks Reporter: Finally, this guy successfully kicked something

Yahoo Top Searches found Britney the overall most-searched for term on the web in 2006; Shakira's Hips Don't Lie was the most-searched for lyrics.

Yannorossi posted a top ten albums:
1. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
3. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
4. The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home
5. Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea

This post will be updated as more lists are published on and offline; last updated 08-01-07 at 2.00pm
The 2005 collection

According to this weekend's Sunday Mirror, Rough Trade are keen to throw their office doors open once more to Pete Doherty - providing he doesn't bring the rest of Babyshambles with him.

No Babyshambles? Pete without the blokes behind him would be like, say, roast turkey without custard or Magnus Magnusson without a sock puppet, surely?

Apparently, tied in with this rumour is another, that Pete and Kate - who have now been rumoured to have been getting married so often we think that Kate is, legally, Pete's wife through repetition - will be having a romantic Christmas wedding. Almost certainly. Unless they do one in Ireland, or the Caribbean, or at Valentine's Day, or on Halloween.

The Guardian celebrates thirty years of the Rough Trade shop by listing some of the best indie record shops. Probe isn't there; they were probably invited to take part but hung the phone up on the paper. And...

Culture Vulture invites ideas on who might have been missed off: Probe turns up, so does Jumbo.

Newsday meanwhile celebrates New York's Looney Tunes: "People should talk about the independent record stores that are thriving," Groeger said quietly, almost humbly. "There are some."

NPR hears about Tracey Ullman's new book on knitting. Yes, that Tracey Ullman: "It was the window of this yarn store," she says. "It was like, edible -- the colors and the textures of this wool -- and it was bamboo baskets and needles and it was so different from when I was a child -- all this awful acrylic post-war wool."

Guardian Money collects more tales of iPod woe: [S]ome retailers admit to a raw deal. One told the Guardian: "Apple will not consider giving refunds on faulty machines outside warranty. Other manufacturers take a different attitude and will reimburse the shop. "We only make 10% profit on an iPod. That means if one in 10 customers have a problem, we don't make money. That's probably why shops take a hard line with them."

The Wall Street Journal's Number Guy sorts out the randomness of iPods: "People tend to seek patterns and order where none exist -- perhaps even in a shuffled iPod playlist, where they might pay more attention when their favorite songs are playing, and thus assume that those songs are in heavier rotation."

Headphone Sex reviews Field Music and Fields - ignoring, incidently, the Field Trip: Although intrinsically linked to local peers Maximo Park & The Futureheads, Field Music are a little more reserved, a little more thoughtful, and a little more influenced by 60s psychedelic pop (and The Beach Boys in particular).

Chartreuse explains Paris Hilton as Madonna 2.0: Whenever she tries to promote herself, it falls flat. Books, records, movies, etc. don’t work for Paris. Because she’s actually a platform. Like Digg and YouTube. Paris Hilton has gotten so good at garnering attention for others people are now using the fact that she doesn’t visit as a marketing tool.

FourFour brings the much-needed Beyonce/Zombie crossover: A 1,500+ word essay on B'Day, however, would betray the album's brilliantly simplistic spirit. Instead, I'm offering a what-if scenario that combines a new favorite (that'd be Bey) with an old -- Lucio Fulci's opus of zombies and popped eyeballs, the 1981 trashterpiece, The Beyond.

Last Bookmarks
Bookmarks before last

Further to the Doherty story, Rough Trade are denying that Babyshambles have been dropped - rather that their contract has come to a "natural end".

It depends, of course, on how you wish to define being dropped if this means Babyshambles have been or not - but, just as "we've chosen not to renew your contract" smells like being fired, this seems like a dropping to us.

According to today's Sunday Mirror, Pete Doherty's blood assault on MTV was the last straw for Rough Trade.

Like Kate, they've had enough and they've dropped him.

Of course, had Down In Albion sold a few more copies, they might have thought a little harder about it.

The nominations for this year's Brit Awards have been announced, and the headline - "James Blunt leads the nominations" - really sums up how terrible it all is. Here we go, then:

British Male Solo Artist

* Antony and the Johnsons Rough Trade / Sanctuary
* Ian Brown Fiction / Universal
* James Blunt Atlantic / Warner Music
* Robbie Williams Chrysalis / EMI Music
* Will Young S / Sony BMG Music

Now, it was stretching a point when Antony scraped into the Mercury prize, but British Male? They're having a laugh. Ian Brown? He's doing better work than he's done since the first Roses album, but it's hardly stellar. But then a straight-faced vote for the chumpytrimuverate of Blunt, Williams and Young doesn't really scream about quality being that important. No Morrissey, though?


British Female Solo Artist

* Charlotte Church Sony BMG / Sony BMG Music
* Kate Bush EMI / EMI Music
* Katie Melua Dramatico / Dramatico
* KT Tunstall Relentless / EMI Music
* Natasha Bedingfield Phonogenic / Sony BMG Music

Poor Natasha must be as surprised as any of us to find herself in such illustrious company; although we don't care for her music we can at least see how Melua, the she-Cullum, has made it here, and KT Tunstall has shifted more albums than Madonna in the past twelve months. In a fair world, Kate Bush would have this one stitched up.

British Group

* Coldplay Parlophone / EMI Music
* Franz Ferdinand Domino Recordings / Domino Recordings
* Gorillaz Parlophone / EMI Music
* Hard-Fi Necessary / Atlantic / Warner Music
* Kaiser Chiefs B Unique / Polydor / Universal

To be fair to the Brits organisers, this is probably the strongest best band line-up for years - two or three bands who you wouldn't be ashamed to have on your shelves, a populist-but-not-too-bad option in Gorillaz, and Coldplay. It's just a pity they couldn't find space for at least a token nod to pop - surely Girls Aloud could have justified inclusion here?


MasterCard British Album

* Coldplay X & Y Parlophone / EMI Music
* Gorillaz Demon Days Parlophone / EMI Music
* James Blunt Back To Bedlam Atlantic / Warner Music
* Kaiser Chiefs Employment B Unique / Polydor / Universal
* Kate Bush Aerial EMI / EMI Music

The sludge starts again - the dull Blunt-Coldplay conspiracy; and while Kaiser Chiefs employment isn't a bad collection, it feels tired enough already to have its presence on the list seem to be on the side of sludge. Kate Bush if there's any justice, but will probably be given out as a balance to one of the greyer acts if they don't win elsewhere. Besides, everyone loves Coldplay, don't they?

British Single

Winner chosen by UK Commercial Radio listeners

Words there to chill the blood

* Coldplay Speed Of Sound Parlophone / EMI Music
* James Blunt You’re Beautiful Atlantic / Warner Music
* Shayne Ward That’s My Goal Syco Music / Sony BMG Music
* Sugababes Push The Button Island / Universal Music
* Tony Christie ft Peter Kay (Is This The Way To) Amarillo UMTV / Universal Music

Why ask commercial radio listeners? Why should the accolade be in the hand of the sort of people whose taste is so poor they listen to the UK's commercial radio stations? And what on earth is Amarillo doing on the 2005 awards list? The only new thing about it was Peter Kay in the bloody video.

British Breakthrough Act

Winner chosen by Radio 1 listeners

* Arctic Monkeys Domino Recordings / Domino Recordings
* James Blunt Atlantic / Warner Music
* Kaiser Chiefs B Unique / Polydor / Universal
* KT Tunstall Relentless / EMI Music
* Magic Numbers Heavenly / EMI Music


James Blunt again? Kaiser Chiefs surely would have to be judged the band who's most earned this nomination - although they might not have had the bursting breakthrough of the Monkeys (who used the internet, you know) for sheer effort of slogging they should win. But the Arctic Monkeys will take it. Because they can use the internets.

British Urban Act

Winner chosen by MTV:Base viewers

* Craig David Warner Brothers / Warner Music
* Dizzee Rascal XL Recordings / Beggars Group
* Kano 679 Recordings / Warner Music
* Lemar Sony Music / Sony BMG Music
* Ms Dynamite Polydor / Universal Music

Is it just us, or does this list sound less like a ringing endorsement of 2005 on the urban scene, more like a clips show of previous episodes. Dynamite? David? Lemar? Good lord. Kano has to win, surely, by being the only person on the shortlist to have demonstrated the existence of a pulse in 2005.

British Rock Act

Winner chosen by Kerrang! TV viewers

* Franz Ferdinand Domino Recordings / Domino Recordings
* Hard-Fi Necessary / Atlantic / Warner Music
* Kaiser Chiefs B Unique / Polydor / Universal
* Kasabian RCA / Sony BMG Music
* Oasis Big Brother / Sony BMG Music

See, and they reckoned they'd been passed over. Here's Oasis great moment, wanking for coins thrown by people who watch Kerrang TV. This one's anyone's guess, especially as all the shortlisted bands seem more like The Amp's thing than Kerrang's.

British Live Act

Nominees chosen by a panel of experts in association with The Live Music Forum. Winner chosen by Radio 2 listeners

* Coldplay Parlophone / EMI Music
* Kaiser Chiefs B Unique / Polydor / Universal
* Franz Ferdinand Domino Recordings / Domino Recordings
* KT Tunstall Relentless / EMI Music
* Oasis Big Brother / Sony BMG Music

"A panel of experts", eh? We wonder what their field of expertise is, as it's almost certainly not music. But the Radio 2 audience is a wide church, so it could be anyone's here. We would stress that anyone voting for Oasis will be outed and ridiculed.

Pop Act

Winner chosen by CD:UK viewers, readers of The Sun Bizarre column, and customers of O2 and Motorola

* James Blunt Atlantic / Warner Music
* Katie Melua Dramatico / Dramatico
* Kelly Clarkson RCA / Sony BMG Music
* Madonna Maverick / Warner Music
* Westlife S / BMG / Sony BMG Music

"Customers of o2 and Motorola"? Madonna a pop act? Westlife haven't been taken out and poisoned? And what the hell is Katie Melua doing here?

And, more to the point, James Blunt but no Girls Aloud; no Charlotte Church? Eh?

International Male Solo Artist

* Beck Interscope / Universal Music
* Bruce Springsteen Columbia / Sony BMG Music
* Jack Johnson Island / Universal Music
* John Legend Columbia / Sony BMG Music
* Kanye West Roc-A-Fella / Mercury / Universal Music

Jack who? John what? And is it us, or is Beck nominated for this every bloody year? Is that a Scientology thing? Do they control the International Male Solo panel or something? Kanye should waltz this. If he's nice to Tom Cruise for the next couple of weeks.

International Female Solo Artist

* Björk One Little Indian / One Little Indian
* Kelly Clarkson RCA / Sony BMG Music
* Madonna Maverick / Warner Music
* Mariah Carey Def Jam / Island / Universal Music
* Missy Elliot Atlantic / Warner Music

And as with Beck, so with Bjork. Every bloody year. We bet nobody at the BPI even knows if she released anything this year or not. We fully expect Madonna to "win" this if she turns up to sing a song.

International Group

* Arcade Fire Rough Trade / Sanctuary
* Black Eyed Peas A&M / Universal Music
* Green Day Reprise / Warner Music
* U2 Island / Universal Music
* White Stripes XL Recordings / Beggars Group

We have a small dream that Arcade Fire win this, and instead of showing their accpetance speech, the ITV camera stays fixed, permanently, on Bono's face, as he attempts to look pleased and magnanimous. We have a feeling, though, that Green Day might just edge this one.

International Album

* Arcade Fire Funeral Rough Trade / Sanctuary
* Green Day American Idiot Reprise / Warner Music
* Kanye West Late Registration Roc-A-Fella / Mercury / Universal Music
* Madonna Confessions On A Dancefloor Maverick / Warner Music
* U2 How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb Island / Universal Music

Of course, it's Arcade Fire. Naturally, they won't get it. This'll probably go to whichever of U2 and Green Day don't win the previous category.

International Breakthrough Act

* Arcade Fire Rough Trade / Sanctuary
* Daniel Powter Warner Brothers / Warner Music
* Jack Johnson Island / Universal Music
* John Legend Columbia / Sony BMG Music
* Pussycat Dolls A&M/ Universal Music

Nooooo! Daniel Powter is just James Blunt through the backdoor. Surely, surely, this one has to go Arcade Fire, although we have fears that the Brits people might give it to the Pissybat Dolls to get some push-up bras onstage.

Outstanding Contribution to music

* Paul Weller V2 / V2

Well, he finks it's deserved, and while he could have made a bigger contribution retiring at the same time Mick was sent back to the job centre, he has made some excellent records. Plus, he sold a shedload of Fred Perry shirts back in the day.

Nothing, nothing at all, for Babyshambles. We don;t imagine Pete will care.

As we reach Christmas weekend, it's like No Rock's year review supplement:

2005, in review:

Review of the year
Other people's 2005 picks
Music of the year
The year in death

2005 Posts, week-by-week:

02 January 2005
09 January 2005
16 January 2005
23 January 2005
30 January 2005
06 February 2005
13 February 2005
20 February 2005
27 February 2005
06 March 2005
13 March 2005
20 March 2005
27 March 2005
03 April 2005
10 April 2005
17 April 2005
24 April 2005
01 May 2005
08 May 2005
15 May 2005
22 May 2005
29 May 2005
05 June 2005
12 June 2005
19 June 2005
26 June 2005
03 July 2005
10 July 2005
17 July 2005
24 July 2005
31 July 2005
07 August 2005
14 August 2005
21 August 2005
28 August 2005
04 September 2005
11 September 2005
18 September 2005
25 September 2005
02 October 2005
09 October 2005
16 October 2005
23 October 2005
30 October 2005
06 November 2005
13 November 2005
20 November 2005
27 November 2005
04 December 2005
11 December 2005
18 December 2005
25 December 2005

2005's big events:
The Musical response to Hurricane Katrina
The UK General Election
Top 100 of all time
John Peel Day
Eurovision 50th Anniversary
Michael Jackson's trial
Britpop night
Reading Festival
Glastonbury
T in the Park
Live 8 - all the way through
V2005

2005's award ceremonies:
Rough Trade 100
UK Bloggers 40
CAMAs
AMAs
UMAs
Latin Grammys
MTV EMAs
Q
Mobos
Mercury
Kerrang
MTV
Ivors
Grammys
Brits
NME awards

A sample of best of picks from around the internet and across the magazine stands - you can find more lists referenced by Metacritic and DJ Martian's wonderful overview of best-ofs.

NPR's All Songs Considered:
Best album: Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise

Amazon.com:
Customer's Favourite: Coldplay - X&YEditor's Pick of 2005 albums: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
(Amazon.co.uk have an unordered list of albums, on which Stevens doesn't register

American Music Awards:
Favourite Rock Album: Green Day - American Idiot

BBC Collective best of 2005
BBC Collective users post their picks

Mark Beaumont - Sleepingwiththenme eye candy:
Best track: Hard-fi - Hard To Beat

Best Sellers in the UK:
Best selling single: Tony Christie - Is This The Way To Amarillo?
Best selling album: James Blunt - Back To Bedlam

Edith Bowman, Radio One:
Best track: Amerie - One Thing

Carrie Brownstein, Sleater-Kinney - according to CMJ:
Best album: Judee Sill - Dreams Come True

Tim Burgess, The Charlatans - according to Filter:
Best album: Black Mountain - Black Mountain

Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards:
Best Rock Album: Forever - Something to Dream Of

Rob Da Bank, Radio One:
Best track: Scotch Egg - Scotch Chicken

Chatanooga Pulse:
Local album of the year: Hey Penny - Use These Spoons
Top song: The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
Top album: Various Artists - One Kiss Can Lead To Another ("This 120 track girl group boxed set isn’t a “greatest hits” compilation from the ‘60s. It’s something far more interesting, digging up mostly obscure would-be hits for a parade of innocence emerging into experience.")

CMJ:
Best album: Animal Collective - Feels

Deerhoof - according to CMJ:
Best album: Wayne Shorter - Beyond The Sound Barrier

Stephen Deusner, Memphis Flyer:
Best album: Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

Andrew Earles, Memphis Flyer:
Best albums: Dinosaur Jr reissues

Leslie Feist, Feist - according to Filter:
Best album: Juana Molina - Segundo

Filter Magazine:
Best album: Sigur Ros - Takk

Four Tet - according to CMJ:
Best album: Quasimoto - The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

Alison Goldfrapp, according to Pitchfork
Best music: Motorhead - Ace of Spades (reissue)

Guardian Film & Music review of the year's big trend - internet fanbases.

Chris Herrington, Memphis Flyer:
Best album: The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

I Love Music regulars post their lists

Indie MP3 readers' poll:
Best tracks: Crack Babies - Smoking At Gas Stations;
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot;
The Futureheads - Hounds Of Love
Best albums: Brakes - Give Blood;
The Envelopes - Demon;
Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll
Best bands: Bridge Gang;
The Envelopes

Indie for Dummies Poll of 100 bloggers:
Best album: Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise

Indieworkshop.com:
Best album: Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now

Ireland.com's The Ticket: "For me, this was the year of The Arcade Fire"
Picks of the year: The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Ali Farka, Toure & Toumani Diabate - In The Heart of the Moon
Common: Be
Konono No 1: Congotronics
Cane 141: Moonpool

Junkmedia: "It was a good year for music and Junkmedia":
Best album: Spoon - Gimmie Fiction

Latin Grammys:
Best record: Alejandro Sanz - Tu No Tienes Alma
Best album: Ivan Lins - Cantando Historias

Shirley Manson - Garbage, according to Filter:
Best album: MIA - Arular

Maria, from Total Rock's Sex To 9:
Best album: Scar Sympathy - Symetric In Design

Conor McNicholas, NME editor:
Best track: White Rose Moevement - Love Is A Number

Metacritic
Best-reviewed album: Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise

Ross Millard, Futureheads, according to Pitchfork
Best music: Field Music - Field Music

Alan Miller, Filter publisher:
Best album: Embrace - Out of Nothing

Scott Mills, Radio One:
Best track: 2Pac - Ghetto Gospel

Mr. Red Penguin:
Best album: Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

Krissi Murison - NME Radar editor:
Best track: Snow White - Bored

James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem, according to Pitchfork
Best music: Black Dice - Broken Ear Record

The Music Box:
Best album: Neil Young - Prairie Wind

Trevor Nelson, Radio One:
Best track: Robin Thicke - Wanna Love Ya

Annie Nightingale, Radio One:
Best track: Splitloop, Here On Business

NME: "Music - particularly British music - was magical again in 2005"
Best album: Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Best track: the Futureheads - Hounds of Love
Best book: Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up and Start Again
Best music dvd: Dig!

Observer Music Monthly: "A small handful of favourites emerged, but we were left with a list of well over 100 discs of almost bewildering variety. What did this mean? We think it's a reflection of how everyone's tastes have changed in this age of the iPod. There's more music being made than ever before (think of the explosion in cheap equipment and therefore creativity right across the globe), and we've finally become less fussy about what we listen to (it helps that were exposed to more, as TV background music, for instance; while online, it's easy to sample music for free)."
Best album: Anthony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
Reader's best album: Arcade Fire - Funeral
Best DVD: Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
Best music book: Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft

The Onion AV Club:
Least essential album: TATU - Moving and Dangerous

Ian Parton, The Go! Team, according to Pitchfork
Best music: Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die

Picadilly Records, Manchester - "We accept that it might not be similar to all the other thousands of 'identikit' charts that you're going to be reading in various publications up to the new year, but what would be the point of that? We've also noticed that a lot of those charts have the excellent Arcade Fire "Funeral" album very high (number one in many), and you're probably thinking where the hell is it in the 'Piccadilly chart'. Well the reason is because we were selling US import copies of it last year, and being the musical purists that we are(!) we felt it would be wrong to list it."
Best album: Magnolia Electric Co - What Comes After The Blues
Best seller: Gorillaz - Dirty Harry

Pitchfork
Best single: Anthony & The Johnsons - Hope There's Someone

Popmatters: "The weirdest moments of 2005 were when it felt like the second coming of 2004: weren't we just discussing critically acclaimed albums by Kanye West, Franz Ferdinand, and Animal Collective, like, 12 months ago?"
Best album: The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Best electronic album: Richie Hawtin - DE9 Transitions
Best jazz album: Theolonious Monk Quartet with John Coltraine - Live
Best country album: Laura Cantrell - Humming by the Flowered Vine

Queerty.com: "Billie Joe Armstrong gave kids everywhere one positive message: you can wear make-up and be tough at the same time. And we love him for that."

Radio One One Music Festive Fifty:
Number one: Jeggsy Dodd - Grumpy Old Men

RateYourMusic:
Top-rated album: Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise

Jason Reece, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - according to Filter:
Best album: AYWKUBTTOD - World's Apart

Tim Rice-Oxley, Keane, according to Glide:
Best album: MIA - Arular
Favourite live performance: Rufus Wainwright

Rolling Stone:
Best record: Kanye West - Late Registration

Rough Trade Record Shop sales & staff vote - "A truly great album and one that got more number one staff votes than any other in recent years" (Commentary from No Rock)
Best album: Brakes - Give Blood

Salon: "The past year has been a great one for legal downloads of music, as more and more artists and labels have realized that giving away some songs is free publicity and good business practice. As a general rule, major labels are still abstaining, as are the worlds of jazz and classical music, but there have been promising exceptions, and there will surely be more in 2006."
Best download: Coco Rosie: Beautiful Boyz

Ruyichi Sakamoto - according to CMJ:
Taylor Deupree & Kenneth Krischner - Post Piano 2

Blake Sennet, Rilo Kiley - according to Filter:
Best album: Feist - Let It Die

Paul Smith, Maximo Park, according to Pitchfork
Best music: Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love

Sister Ray Record Shop, London:
Best album: Arcade Fire - Funeral

The Sun Bizarre Reader's poll:
Best male: Will Young
Best female: Madonna
Best band: Coldplay
Best rock: Oasis
Best album: X&Y - Coldplay
Best single: James Blunt - You’re Beautiful
Best DJ: Chris Moyles
Bizarre asbo: Pete Doherty
Sack the stylist: Britney Spears

Sweeping The Nation: "The first tabloid reports that Pete and Kate were an item were printed on 18th January and it's felt like a particularly overreaching post-watershed Channel 4 drama ever since, completely obscuring the Babyshambles album from view and ensuring Jon Culshaw is probably working on the impression right now."
Best album: Arcade Fire - Funeral
Best single: Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

Take Your Medicine UK Blogger's Poll (Commentary from No Rock)
Hottest UK act: Girls Aloud
Take Your Medicine's choice
Best track: The Bridge Gang - London Sky Tonight
Best band: The Go! Team

Tankboy from Donewaiting:
Best album: LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem

The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday:
Best track: Arcade Fire - Cold Wind

Anthony Thornton, NME reviews editor:
Best track: Rufus Wainwright - The Art Teacher

Time Out London edition:
Reader's choice album: Coldplay - X&Y
Writer's choice album: Arcade Fire - Funeral

The Anti-Hit List from the Toronto Star:
Best music: Diplo - Favela Strikes Back

Torontoist:
Best singles: Damian Marley - Welcome To Jamrock

UFCK:
Best album: The National - Alligator

Uncut magazine:
Best music DVD: Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
Best album: Arcade Fire - Funeral
Best reissue:

Urban Music Awards
Best album: Jamelia - Thank You

Ricky Wilson, Kaiser Chiefs - according to Filter:
Best album: Belle & Sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds

Roddy Woomble, Idlewild - according to Filter:
Best album: Sons And Daughters - The Repulsion Box

Yuri Wuensch, Edmonton Sun columnist:
Best electronic album: Diplo - FabricLive24

We'll update this as more polls and lists roll in

Decided by a combination of sales and staff votes (the exact mix isn't explained, but we imagine that means they took the sales chart and fudged it about until it was something they could be proud of, Rough Trade Shops offer their Top 100 albums of the year. Here's the treetop:

1 The Brakes - Give Blood
2 Black Mountain - Black Mountain
3 Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
4 MIA - Arular
5 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
6 Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
7 King Creosote - KC Rules OK
8 The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever
9 Richard Swift - The Novelist/Walking Without Effort
10 Gonzalez - Jose Veneer

We're a little surprised to see MIA there - presumably held aloft on critical acclaim rather than actual sales, although if someone from the label pimps some of the tracks out to advert makers they might start to make some of their cash back. Gonzalez, of course, has been used to push Sony's colour televisions, as if to prove the point.

Lower down the chart you find the records where the hipsters start to fade to the mainstream - Gorillaz at 26; Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have It So Much Better at 36; Bright Eye's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning a surprisingly low 39.
[Thanks to Aaron S for the link]

There comes a point where you have to ask if a magazine is in the publishing business, or if it's in the record industry. Q isn't the first magazine to pull a two different CDs with the same issue stunt, and the two 'best of 2005' CDs are pretty fine items - well worth buying two copies of Q for. But you do find yourself wondering how this sort of circulation boosting idea is viewed at the ABC - surely a large number of Qs will be discarded unopened once the second CD has been pulled from its gummy sticker?

Meanwhile, there are five variants of FHM this month, all substantially the same inside, but each with a different Girls Aloud lady on the cover. The most ardent GA-fan FHM reader will thus be forced to buy ten copies of the magazine this month - one of each to keep clean, and one of each to enjoy without worrying about the risk of spillage.

Kate Bush wanted to make it clear she wasn't some strange reclusive hermit, locking herself away from public view. She chose to do this by granting a solitary interview to Mojo, which is hardly disproving the allegations. Indeed, it seems that everything we've come to believe about Kate is apocyphal: 'There was a story that some EMI execs had come down to see you and you'd said something like: "Here's what I've been working on," and then produced some cakes from your oven. True? "No! I don't know where that came from. I thought that was quite funny actually. It presents me as this homely creature, which is all right, isn't it?"' Next week, we'll discover Kevin Sheilds has actually got a job working at a B&Q and does, actually, cut his fingernails.

What is interesting, though, is Kate's viewpoint of what the real world is like: "Friends of mine in the [music] business don't know how dishwashers work." Everyone's baseline, we guess, is slightly different.

The Times took a trip to Liverpool to see how preparations for the Capital of Culture are going, and met up with Jayne Casey. We've a lot of respect for Jayne, and are impressed with the work she's done to try and recreate a kind of music zone for the artists who've been forced out of the area they used to be found in. But it's ultimately depressing - the actual, real vibrant musical culture which used to thrive in the city centre, the sort of thing that was supposedly at the heart of the COC bid has been effectively run out of its own neighbourhoods to form a ghetto while their old haunts are turned into the "Rope Walks Partnership Area", and converted into poncey flats, overpriced and overdesigned bars and boutique hotels to cater for the people attracted by the artistic bohemian buzz that's just been relocated. Reading the interview we Casey, in which she enthuses over the idea of a former industrial area some distance from the city centre being converted into a safe area where unconventional businesses are allowed to thrive in order to service the entertainment needs of the tourists we kept thinking "where have we heard this before?"

Then it came to us: it's exactly the same plan as Liverpool City Council came up with for hookers - their prostitution zone of tolerance.

The Guardian meets up with Will Young, and decides that he's actually "credible" enough to be thought of as the new Robbie Williams. And no, we don't think they were being sarcastic, either.

Madonna has a new record out, and that means two things - first, the Kabbalah Centre management will be putting in a call to get some brochures from luxury car dealers in expectation of a nice little payday, and second, Maddy has been hitting the interview round. USA Today chose to sum up her current position as "Madonna at a crossroads" - what, there's a possibility she might find a new direction, then?

But a more accurate headline "Madonna fudges about on Kabbalah" would probably have been less tempting. It was this interview where she claimed that she'd spent eight years studying a faith and had never come across anything about the man whose teaching the faith was based on; she then started to fume about "religious thinking":

"But I've never heard that it's blasphemous for anyone to mention the names of catalysts. That's just a religious organization claiming ownership of something. 'This is our information; you're not Jewish and you can't know about it,' or, 'You're female and you can't know about it.' That's religious thinking ."I like to draw a line between religion and spirituality. For me, the idea of God, or the idea of spirit, has nothing to do with religion. Religion is about separating people, and I don't think that was ever the Creator's intention. That's just people's need to belong to a group and feel good about themselves."

So... what is the Kabbalah Centre, then? With its flogging of little pieces of string that (apparently falsely) are supposed to have been wrapped around the tomb of the Matriarch; pieces of string you're supposed to tie around someone else's wrists. Isn't that a little bit like a thing you're joining? And if there's a power structure of command there - and there is - then it's a religion, too, Madonna. Otherwise there wouldn't be a pricelist for its wares.

Madonna continues: "Just about every war that's ever been started has been started in the name of God. It's, 'I belong to this group; my group's better than your group, so if you're not in this group, we're going to kill you.' For me, religious thinking is synonymous with tribalism. You're not thinking for yourself; you're doing things because that's what somebody else did, orit's how your family taught you to behave and think."

Just about every war has been started in the name of God - really? The Crusades you can have; but other than that virtually every war has either been fought in order to extend territory and gain access to what that territory had to offer, or to further a political ideology, or both. Even supposed religious conflicts only ever used the faith angle as a way of selling the war to the public - most European conflict in the last millennium used religion as a fashionista would. Or do you really think Ian Paisley would really go "oh, that's alright then" to a united Ireland if Eire suddenly became Protestant?

But poor Madonna suffers for her cult... sorry, religion, sorry, pay-per-pray spirituality. She wailed just how much she suffers to the New York Daily News (you'll notice she's sticking to the softer end of the interview circuit, of course): "It would be less controversial if I joined the Nazi Party."

Um... no, no it wouldn't, you silly, silly woman. We can see what you're trying to say - "ooh, all I'm doing is trying to do is bring a little spiritual joy into people's lives and I'm treated like a pariah" - but that's rubbish. You might want to try joining the nazi party and see how villified you become if you don't believe us. But apparently, our constant calling of Madonna for promoting a religion which attempts to part believers from their cash for magical items and pointless expensive conventions isn't because we think its despicable for a public figure to promote a dubious cult. Oh, no, it's because we're afraid:

"'What do you mean you pray to God and wear sexy clothes? We don't understand this.' It frightens people. So they try to denigrate it or trivialize it so that it makes more sense. "I find it very strange that it's so disturbing to people," she continues. "It's not hurting anybody."

The people who are sold bottle of water, being told it's a cure for illness, at four quid a pop might disagree. The people who are told that charitable giving outside the cult "doesn't count" might disagree. The people who slave for the Kabbalah centre and get paid just $35 a month for their work might disagree. The woman who told her Kabbalah teacher that she'd dreamed about her dead grandfather, only to be told this was a sign to give twenty grand to the Kabbalah Centre might disagree. The parents separated from the kids, they might disagree.

It's not like joining the Nazis, Madonna - it's like becoming a spokesperson for racketeers.

Probably doesn't really help that Madonna reaches for Tom Cruise in her plea to be cut some breaks: 'On that level, she relates to Tom Cruise, who has taken endless flak for being a Scientologist. "If it makes Tom Cruise happy, I don't care if he prays to turtles," Madonna says. "And I don't think anybody else should.' Indeed, nobody should care about who Tom Cruise prays to - but if his "church" decides to underwrite its activites by parading him, and Travolta, and that woman who used to be in a sitcom, and the other woman who was in a sitcom before to promote their activities, then it becomes fair game. Basically, Madonna, if you wrote your cheques and wore your strings and didn't talk approvingly about Kabbalah in public, then it would be your right to continue to practice in complete anonymity. But you promote this bunch constantly, you publish books under your name based on their "teachings" - damn right people are going to call you on your associations with such dubious people. You become a cheerleader, you have to stay on the pitch whatever happens to your team.

'The accusation that her participation in kabbala makes her part of a cult irks her even more. "We're all in a cult," Madonna says. "In this cult we're not encouraged to ask questions. And if we do ask questions, we aren't going to get a straight answer. The world's in the cult of celebrity. That's the irony of it."'

Aah... clever... do you see what she did there? Except, of course, the world isn't in a cult of celebrity at all - if you decide you're not going to watch any more programmes with Jordan in, you don't get dragged into a backroom and asked questions about 'why' for ten hours. Nobody makes you break contact with your family if you want to watch a programme where Ewan McGregor goes off on a motorbike. Robbie Williams, for all his faults, doesn't expect you to give him all your money. Not all of it. And if Madonna thinks we're not prepared to ask questions of our celebrities, who is it who's giving her all this grief and treating her like she's joined the Nazi party?

Talking of signing up to a money-making machine, Jack White is in NME admitting he's going to take cash from the Coca-Cola company - but, hey, it's not a bad thing because he's written a special song for them and wrote it really quickly, and the commercial is "interesting" and 'I'm getting a message across in a way that I'd never normally have the means to accomplish". The message being, of course, that he doesn't really mind about Coke's grubby fingers being found over the deaths of trades unionists in Colombia, contaminating the water supply in Kerala, or taking 75,000 litres of water every day from the people of Tamil Nadu, or the pressure put on schools in Colorado Springs to increase sales of Coke beverages to kids and trying to force headteachers to allow the stuff to be guzzled during lessons. Because he's getting a big cheque. White tries to draw a parallel between his paid work for the Coca-Cola Organisation, and the Beatles' playing All You Need Is Love on the first worldwide satelitte broadcast. We were going to run a 'can you spot the difference' competition on this one, but it's so simple even the cat got the answer.

In a for-and-against, Daniel Martin suggests that White's increasingly desperate attempts to try and make this sound not like someone bending their arse to corporate greed shows that even White knows this one stinks; Eddie Smack, however, thinks that it's a great idea because it does allow White to get to an audience who otherwise woudn't hear his music. Smack doesn't explain, though, who this audience would be, and why Coke would pay top money to secure an artist only to use the advert in front of an audience who doesn't know who he is. Does Smack watch Beyonce doing her stuff in a Pepsi advert and really think that she's there for her singing rather than her profile?

This week, the NME has got Elton John and Pete Doherty on the cover. Or, actually, it's Matt Lucas and David Walliams, you see. A while back, Vic Reeves got his first NME cover before any of his TV programmes had ever aired, which made the paper feel quite rushing edge; putting commedians on after they've already been on the front of Radio Times feels slightly less ahead of the curve. In interview, Davod describes Sharon as like "a sexy older auntie", which might be funnier if it wasn't in the context of rubbing her feet during one of Elton John's white tie charity balls. Even David Badiel never sunk that low.

The Strokes are coming! The Strokes are coming! Apparently, there's a secret Euro tour in the offing. Of course, playing live one of the few things a band can do these days without it being available online before they're ready.

Peter Robinson takes on Sarah Dallin out of Bananarama - play nice, now. She says she'd be terribly worried if she was Pete Doherty's mum, and reveals she once ended up sharing a hotel room with Dave Lee Roth - "he kept going to the bathroom every fifteen minutes and talked for hours."

Radar trumpets with delight at the Spinto Band - they claim to have a pet dragon: so they might sound like Pavement, but they think like the Zutons.

Lightning Bolt, we're told, are the last great Underground Band (although an underground band these days just implies they don't have a MySpace page.)

"I have the musical tastes of a thirteen year old girl from San Diego" says Dev from test Icicles. Ah, but if only you had her wardrobe too...

The archive moment is May 22nd, 1995 - "Pulp gatecrash the charts".

A glossy poster pull-out section commemorates the NME Rock n Roll Riot tour - most of the posters show the Kaiser Chiefs, oddly enough.

reviews
live
comanechi - camden barfly - "leading the raging pack of gutter-rock twosomes"
white stripes - paris zenith - "every song is greeted like an encore"

albums
the paddingtons - first comes first - "even within its 33 minutes there's a certain amount of predictable punk retreads", 7
mars volta - scab dates - "Buck Rogers guitars", 7
nirvana - silver - "seek out the Greatest Hits instead", 3

tracks
totw - the automatic - recover - "a deceptively funky, fat low-end"
the rakes - 22 grand job - "jerky re-release"
regina spektor - carbon monoxide - "would be fatal in large doses"

and finally, we're indebted to Zeinab M for pointing out the description of Pete Doherty's bedroom from what the Guardian described as a "rare" interview:

"After 40 minutes or so, we are told that Doherty has tidied up and is ready to receive us. God knows what his room looked like before, because it's in a pretty shocking state now. Drug paraphernalia and CDs are scattered across the bed, and there are rows of blackened, broken miniature bottles of alcohol from which he has been smoking, a trunk full of junk, a motorcycle by the bed, and the words "ROUGH TRADE" daubed on the wall in fresh, dripping blood."

"Imagine," writes Zeinab, "that on Through The Keyhole."

The other interesting thing about the interview was the sudden discovery that there's more than one mini-Pete running about:

"Is it true that he and Moss are hoping to have children together? "I've got two," he says. Two, I say, baffled - I knew that he had one. He repeats that he has two children, and that he sees one of them. "Poor little fucker. My sister sees him all the time, so there's affection as a family for him. I don't really want to go into that because it's not fair on the kids or the mother. It's enough for me to say I love them and would do anything for them."

"would do anything for them" seems to be ensuring that their aunt pops round to see one of them from time to time, although even "ensuring" might be overstating it. Apparently even his press handler was surprised by the second kid, which makes you wonder quite how a kid who he'd do anything for could be such a well-kept secret. The more you hear about Doherty, the less he seems like indie music's great skinny hope; more like British pop's Jackson family all rolled into one.