That Listless Feeling

It's the first week of December and for me, that always means being stuck in end of year list hell. I'm trying to put together annual best-ofs for three different sites/mags -  RA, Boomkat and Hot Press -  but I am nearly always disappointed with the lists I submit, mainly because, due to space constraints, I have been forced to exclude records that deserved the props. The same problem presents itself yet again with the three 'best ofs' I'm compiling this week: too many good records and not enough space. Due to these constraints, the temptation exists to focus on one release from a specific stylistic sub-cluster -  eg, a Berghain or Clone record. It could also be argued that given space restrictions, this approach could provide a balanced (but ultimately limited) snapshot of a year's worth of releases -  a little bit of everything. Of course, it is preferable to just put together a longer list, to dedicate the space and time to all of the music that deserves it. For that reason, I'll be putting together longer best ofs on this site over the next week or so. I can't say for sure how long each single/albums list will be -  I'm not going to bother with stuff like remixes, live acts, etc - but given the amount of great music released this year, it will probably be quite extensive.

Comments

[Daragh]

Good stuff. As usual I've missed loads this year and lists like this help me catch up.

[tom/pipecock]

last year i didnt make a list for ISM, i just wrote about labels' and producers' outputs collected together mashed in with records that also belonged together in other ways:

http://infinitestatemachine.com/2007/12/31/2007-year-in-review/

i did contribute some top tens to RA to make sure some of the shit i like got represented......