The hit parade

It may be mid January, and everyone else has long since seen 2006 disappearing in the rear view mirror, but it would be remiss of me not to make mention of some of the end-of-year lists to be found elsewhere simply because my own was so tardy. So...

Special mention must go to the one-man blogging phenomenon that is Simon, whose output on Sweeping The Nation throughout December was little short of extraordinary. Amongst all the goodness, there was a review of 2006 as well as single and album of the year lists (with each of the Top 30 albums given its own post throughout the month). Simon also compiled a poll of UK Blogger Albums Of 2006, to which I and many others contributed.

Meanwhile, Swiss Toni came up with an end-of-year project of his own, enlisting the help of his readers and guest editors to compile a list of the Earworms Of The Year 2006. Not unsurprisingly, none of my Top Five made it into the Top Twenty-Five: Los Campesinos!' 'You Me Dancing!', The Icarus Line's 'Getting Bright At Night', Cat Power's 'The Greatest', The Long Blondes' 'Weekend Without Makeup' and LCD Soundsystem's 'Losing My Edge'.

And now for the best of the rest (in alphabetic order):

Are The Stars Out Tonight?: Records Of The Year / Gigs Of The Year

Casino Avenue: End-of-year Playlist

Danger! High Postage: Albums Of The Year

Expecting To Fly: Albums Of The Year 2006

funfunfun: Favourite Albums Of The Year (15-11 / 10-6 / 5-1)

Me And My CDs: The Best Of 2006 (also available in the form of a podcast)

Parallax View: Albums Of The Year 2006

Silence Is A Rhythm Too: Top 20 Albums Of The Year

And just to round things off, Nick Southall of Stylus presents his Top Ten Albums Released Since Stylus Began That I Did Not Realise Were Great Until It Was Too Late To Vote For Them In End-Of-Year Polls, which includes Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse, Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People and Electrelane's The Power Out amongst others.

And so what of 2007? There's plenty of crystal-ball-gazing on Sweeping The Nation and funfunfun, while Kenny has linked to this article from the Times, one of many in which industry bigwigs predict who will shoot to prominence over the next twelve months.

But ultimately all you really need to know is that The Arcade Fire's new album Neon Bible is out on 5th March and you can hear snippets of the new material here.