2005 the year I really got into legal downloading at eMusic, (if you try it out you get 50 free downloads, if you give them this email, gordon_elcock@yahoo.co.uk I get a few free ones too!!), the year I discovered how to fill up an iPod Nano in an afternoon, that the essence of managing 4MB is to rotate your listening, that hiphop/rap could still be good, sometimes great, that prog never really went away, that 6Music is probably the best radio station to listen to at times for music and that some end of year lists are a great way to suddenly discover new music, especially if eMusic has it! Actually my Nano has been a joy, it goes everywhere with me, I listen to it in the car, in bed, whenever I'm on my own, (not often). Making the latest Coil number 1 is a bit of a cop out, I've had it less than a week but it's probably what I've waited to hear all year. Husky Rescue I discovered when they did a 6Mix, right after Stuart Maconie's excellent FreakZone show on 6Music and I had to buy the cd. Four months later it turned up on eMusic! Low came out in January, nice to see one or two lists haven't forgotten them, Busdriver makes hiphop fun, Amadou & Mariam I ordered in from France before it became available and then a relatively big seller here, the Manu Chao production and connection the initial draw, Pure Reason Revolution were recommended by a friend, who I ignored, then I missed them on 6Music but when I heard them had to buy everything they'd released so far, eBay had to be utilised, that's a first, it's a mini album, next year brings the first full length one and that'll be the test. My favourite album in the Mercury was Seth Lakeman, though The Magic Numbers came a close second, if they removed the little bit of filler from that album it'd've been higher up, The Mars Volta are bonkers, and John Cale slipped in at the end, not as good as Hobosapiens but better than much else.

A subscription to eMusic has paid dividends at the end of the year though on at least two occasions I've gone to cancel it. The Thievery Corporation I discovered looking for bands that sound like Cinematic Orchestra,  Brian Eno returned with a vocal album shock, Annie makes wonderful pop music with a tinge of sadness, Balkan Beat Box is mental, Jose Gonzalez in the space of ten minutes of seeing that Sony ad I'd found him and downloaded the album, it came out this week here, Danger Doom, more fun hiphop and I can play it in the car without frightening the horses, Black Mountain, £15 in Virgin or $14.99 for 90 downloads and worth every , Death From Above 1979 was one in an end of year list somewhere that intrigued me, glad it did, Pernice Brothers also, (and The National, Mi and L'au, Ohmega Watts, Vive Voce, Levy, Minotaur Shock, not all the same list mind :o)), Maspyke is there on the basis of one track to date but I keep going back to that track over and over. I recommend everything there that's listed as bubbling under too, particularly Betty Levette, (fantastic soul voice and album should be in the top ten really).

Disappointments of the year, well the Kate Bush album to be honest, especially after the single which I thought was wonderful, the huge interest in that very minor talent Pete Doherty, (sorry Mick I can't see it), Babyshambles are so well named, the fact that we still have Pop Idol, X Factor types shows, discovering grime isn't something you get on a cooker but a new music form, (tongue in cheek alert here, I don't read the right magazines or listen to the right radio shows!),  that eMusic still has stuff I can't download in the UK and that major record companies, (well, global media providers really),  are quite willing to utilise illegal download patterns to ascertain who to market new acts to but then quite happily sue illegal downloaders whilst trying to force up the costs of legal downloading and still promoting product instead of music. They still aren't learning the lesson that the internet is like radio was 20, 30, 40 years ago, it's where people first hear new music, first hear about new acts a lot of the time and can try it out too. National and especially, local radio stopped doing that a while back, happy to produce a bland homogonised mess appealing to the widest possible audience for advertisers and pleasing and more importantly offending no one. Except me, I take great exception to what they peddle, so should you.