Christmas come early

‘Tis the season when the thoughts of anally retentive music-obsessed bloggers like myself begin to turn towards the task of compiling end-of-year lists.

This year is no different. As has become as traditional round these ‘ere parts as mince pies, mistletoe and drink-driving are amongst the general populace, I’ll be posting the SWSL Top 10 Albums Of The Year and Top 10 Gigs Of The Year shortly – I’m still undecided as to whether there’ll be a Top 20 Singles Of The Year this time around, though.

Before that happens though (and expect it a bit closer to Christmas), I thought I’d get in the charitable festive spirit by way of thanking you for reading. Allow me to explain further…

A few weeks back, Jonathan of that fine fount of online entertainment Crinklybee began posting the sleeve notes he made for an indiepop mixtape put together for a friend (the posts have also appeared on The Art Of Noise). I expressed an interest in getting hold of a copy, and Jonathan kindly did it all over again for my benefit.

In return, I put together a compilation of some of my favourite singles and album tracks of the year – as much as I could fit on a 60 minute cassette. None of that new-fangled CD or MP3 shit here, my friends – this was old school. The tracklisting ran as follows:

Side A

1. The Go! Team – ‘Ladyflash’
2. Eels – ‘Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)’
3. Franz Ferdinand – ‘I’m Your Villain’
4. Maximo Park – ‘Apply Some Pressure’
5. Idlewild – ‘I Understand It’
6. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – ‘Mama’
7. Queens Of The Stone Age – ‘I Never Came’
8. The Raveonettes with Ronnie Spector – ‘Ode To LA’

Side B

1. Bloc Party – ‘So Here We Are’
2. Sufjan Stevens – ‘Chicago’
3. The Arcade Fire – ‘Crown Of Love’
4. Sigur Ros – ‘Milano’
5. Low – ‘Death Of A Salesman’

So here’s the rub: if you’d like a copy and you don’t mind being patient and receiving a cassette (or, more to the point, you still have the means to play a cassette), then ask me nicely in an email to silentwordsspeakloudestAThotmail.com and I’ll see what I can do. Can’t say fairer than that, eh?