Merry Christmas! And have a Happy New Year while you're at it and all! It's become something of a tradition that I end the year doing something a little different for my readers, so this year I thought about reviewing stuff using Su Doku grids instead of words and paragraphs, but it didn't quite work out I'm afraid. Here's the round-up of the year, in a Billy Joel We Didn't Start The Fire stylee. See you in January...

THINGS I LIKED

RCA showing how a series of re-issues should be done, Mylo, Lemon Jelly's '64-'95 album, Queens of the Stone Age, the Bravery's An Honest Mistake, Stereophonics somehow conjuring up a decent album, Garbage doing likewise, Melanie C getting angry throughout Beautiful Intentions, Nine Inch Nails, Gorillaz going by the rule book in order for Feel Good Inc. to qualify for the chart (when I say "going by", I mean walking straight past it), Kaiser Chiefs, Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney still going and still enjoying themselves, Timo Maas's First Day, JJ72's She's Gone, Rachel Stevens's recently acquired habit of putting out good singles, Soulwax, Tony Christie briefly making it big again and having a damn good time while he was at it, Paul Weller's From The Floorboards Up, Mint Royale's Singin' In The Rain, McFly showing that some boy bands are capable of growing up, the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Depeche Mode proving me wrong and becoming great again, Robbie Williams's Tripping, t.A.T.u.'s criminally ignored Dangerous And Moving (how it's not made the albums Top 75 I'll never know), Kate Bush releasing stuff only when she feels like it, Arctic Monkeys, Madonna's Hung Up (a statement that NHS Direct's phone operators may have been familiar with earlier in the year) and Rex the Dog. The best single of the year for me, Lemon Jelly's The Shouty Track and the video's also brilliant to boot. I Predict A Riot and Do You Want To are also right up there, but The Shouty Track just shades it. Best album? Well, there was a hell of a lot of competition this year, and it's ended up a four-way tie between Lemon Jelly, Queens of the Stone Age, Depeche Mode and t.A.T.u. Good job I'm not handing out trophies, cutting one up into quarters would be a bit fiddly.

THINGS I DIDN'T

The mercifully brief return of Hanson, Britney Spears releasing Do Somethin' and providing the world with yet more silver dripmats, G4, (and I know you're expecting this one) Crazy Frog, Natalie Imbruglia's soul-sapping Counting Down The Days, Geri Halliwell trying to re-invent herself when in reality a CD of her banging the final nails in the coffin of her pop career would've sold better, Oasis, Audio Bullys - I can't help feeling they're capable of so much better, Steve Brookstein, Backstreet Boys returning, Pete Doherty making the news for anything except his music, Mariah Carey, Elton John's Electricity - just awful, the nasty habit of DJs and producers to rehash old songs and then credit Themselves vs The Original Artists (an almost cast iron guarantee that the new creation will be rubbish), Jeff Wayne's Eve Of The War remix - it's saddled with one of the very worst endings I've ever heard for a song, Coldplay - the current album does absolutely naff all for me, Ricky Martin's I Don't Care - and it sounded like it, Wes- oh you know who they are, Daniel Powter, Destiny's Child bowing out with a sugary lump of goo that could rot your teeth from a mile away and Sean Paul. So then, the very worst single of the year and let's be honest here, the frog's got this award sewn up. Instead, how about the song that made my heart sink whenever I heard it - the "Oh dear God, not AGAIN, it's so dreary" factor. It's James Blunt's You're Beautiful - sorry folks, I know everyone else liked it, but this and Bad Day just didn't interest me at all. And that just about wraps it up for 2005 and to be honest, I'd say the good stuff has outweighed the tat this year. I don't know if 2006 will be better, but there's only one way to find out.