Christmas, with virtually nothing left to review, provided an opportunity to relax in my candlelit music room and listen to some of my favourite music. Without a computer screen blinking at me, and with my favourite photos keeping a peaceful and silent watch, I searched through my disorganised CD collection to find inspiration.

As I searched and found, I pondered on the reasons for picking out certain titles, and how they compared with the generality of music released over the last year. As our ‘best of’ list indicates, there have been some excellent releases, some of which did not appear on any other publication’s list. It concerned me that albums which made the very top of our list remain hidden from the eyes and ears of many music lovers. Selection, by its nature, is a subjective process but increasingly I’m finding that such lists are guided by hype and a ‘you scratch my back…’ mentality. As a result some of the selections defied belief and severely stretched credibility. And it’s the reason why music lovers have to ‘do the research’ in separating the mediocre from the excellent.

But this voyage of discovery can reap such wonderful rewards, as I learnt some years ago when I bought a copy of WHAT HI-FI. It included a selection of 50 all-time best albums selected for their substantial sonic and musical qualities. It caused me to re-evaluate music and finally convinced me to invest in decent audio equipment to bring out the best in my collection (that within a very short period of time included all the WHAT HI-FI 50 albums).

One of my first acquisitions from the magazine’s list was Jeff Buckley’s GRACE. I was astounded by what I heard and felt - no more, no less than hearing a sacred aria by Gigli or the soaring, taunting tones of Callas. GRACE became my favourite album of all time, and I’m still blown away each time I listen to it. But, even more interesting was my very young family’s reaction to it, and its subsequent influence on their future musical tastes.

Another selection from ‘that’ list was FRIDAY NIGHT IN SAN FRANSISCO with John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola and Paco DeLucia jousting with each other in a small acoustic club back in 1983. It remains the finest and most exciting live acoustic guitar record in history, and comes complete with the sound of an audience not quite believing what it is hearing, but yelling for more. McLaughlin led the East-West musical fusion movement with the group Shakti, but it was another such album that still mesmerises me today. Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt are guilty of creating the finest example of East-West fusion in the gloriously recorded bluesy, A MEETING BY THE RIVER. This superb collaboration by two great musicians was masterminded and executed by Water Lily Acoustics, and the record is a classic from every musical perspective. It was another very brief hi-fi magazine article that led me to Roger Waters’ AMUSED TO DEATH. It’s an album that moves like an earthquake in its depiction of war, revolution and the role of the broadcast media. Sonically, it’s extraordiary especially when the sound of dogs barking hits you from all sides of the listening room. It’s a rock narrative, and arguably the finest anti-war, pro-peace album ever recorded. The opening and closing commentary by a First Word War veteran recounting his failed efforts to save a badly injured friend still moves me to tears.

Over Christmas other personal favourites including Brad, Radiohead, Phil Campbell, Frames, Will Oldham, Ani DiFranco, Low/Dirty Three, Jane Siberry, Emmylou Harris, Shelby Lynne, Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar/Philip Glass and the scandalously undervalued Alex Parks debut, graced my CD player. I was in musical heaven for just a few quiet December days.

If I was to pick the most important part of Shakenstir, it would be the ‘Editor’s Choice‘ because it is the rock solid foundation on which the magazine is built. It represents music that has truly inspired us, and we hope will inspire you.

So here’s to musical excellence in 2004, and hopefully another quiet Christmas…

Ed.