I work in hotel, all gilt and flash.

Well, the CDR best of the year compilations are pretty much all in, apart from a few stragglers. Looks like Arcade Fire and Gorillaz were the top albums of the year, there were 5 different tracks picked from each one. Other favourites were The Fall, White Stripes (albeit the same track chosen 4 different times - My Doorbell), Arctic Monkeys, LCD Soundsystem, Chemical Brothers, Elbow, The Tears, amongst others.

In the sales I picked up the Children of Nuggets box set, a compilation of the (very) loosely defined 'second psychedelic era'. What this means is a bunch of songs from 1976 - 1994, featuring jangly guitar bands with paisley shirts and pointy shoes. Apart from that, I've been listening to Reckoning by REM (every single track of which could well belong on the Nuggets box set), Achtung Bono by Half Man Half Biscuit, and Quadrophenia by the Who.