Albums of the Year

Album of the Year 2010

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on December 31, 2010
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2010 seemed to be a somewhat slow year on the music scene, reflected in the fact that my album purchases were probably the lowest they have been this century; in fact quite a lot of the output seemed to have somewhat of a retrospective air about it, including the influences that inspired possibly half of this year’s selections and the final choice for Album of the Year 2010 .

Of course, recession years often mean that quality album output is somewhat sparse, because the music industry tends to put what investment it can into singles releases to ensure a quick return.  The promotional effort goes into creating singles-artist trends that are aimed to keep particularly popular songs at the top of the charts for many weeks.  However, even that failed in 2010, with just two tracks managing the maximum-stay for the year of just three weeks, and only two artists managing to have more than one individual number-one during the year. Continue Reading

Album of the Year 2009

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on December 31, 2009
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AOTY09

2009 was not a vintage year for new music; in fact for the most part it was a somewhat uninspiring end to what has been a most interesting decade of diversion and innovation.   Which is primarily the reason for the unusual lateness in reaching a final decision on my Album of the Year 2009 ; a delay, I am pleased to say, brought about by a sudden rush of better-quality material at the end of the year, the result of which is a somewhat more pleasing top three albums than appeared likely in October.

Most purchases are, nowadays, invoked after seeing or hearing a live performance.  Radio’s 1, 2 and 6 are featuring ever-more studio sets, and on TV there is expanding festival coverage, plus regular series like ‘Live at Abbey Road’ and good old Jools.   We managed to get to more gigs as well this year, although these were predominantly catching-up with old favourites that we hadn’t yet seen ‘in the flesh’, or simply wanted to see again. Continue Reading

Album of the Year 2008

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on December 31, 2008
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Well, it’s that time of year again for a review of the music scene and, for the 45th time, to select my Album of the Year 2008.  As far as purchases are concerned, this year has been a real mix of new talent, follow-up albums to good debuts, and the return of classic artists after a long break.

With the accessibility of so-much live music, whether actually attending venues, listening to the likes of Jo Wiley’s Radio One Sessions, catching festival highlights throughout the summer, or simply surfing the web, bands have to be able to really perform, because it is now so very easy to judge their relative abilities through these various channels. Continue Reading

Album of the Year 2007

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on December 31, 2007
Posted in: Albums of the Year.

There was a lot of new music from which to select my Album of the Year 2007 although, it has to be said, the overall standard was probably not as high as usual.  This is partially because follow-up albums from artists who have featured prominently in the last few years proved to be nowhere near their expected standard.

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Album of the Year 2006

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on December 31, 2006
Posted in: Albums of the Year.

Yet another transformation in publishing for my 44th annual wander through my musical experiences that started life as a hand-written list, morphed into a typed and photocopied newsletter and, in more recent years, a circulated email.  Because my Album of the Year 2006 is the first to be transmitted via the new-fangled medium of a Blog, assisted by the discovery of WordPress, a software package not dissimilar to use to the publishing software I have been using for the last fifteen years.

But the software wasn’t the only reason for the change, because these personal recollections have lost probably their most avid reader, the guy who not only widened the circulation of the printed version, but was also the primary reason for its change to an email when he moved to the ‘States some years ago – my long-time fellow music-enthusiast, Nigel Gray.  Unfortunately, Nigel tragically passed away in the middle of the year, way before his time, and that’s left a hole in a lot of peoples’ lives, not just mine.

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