Choosing 25 albums from the past year proved to be a difficult task. 2011 produced a whole whack load of great music and it was tough to come up with and order the list below. Other than the albums below, there were a bunch that I couldn’t fit in my top 25. Those albums include Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes, Adele 21, Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues and The War on Drugs Slave Ambient.

2011 proved to be another fantastic year for Canadian music. Leading the way was Drake with his second album Take Care. Other Canadians with good albums this year include City And Colour with Little Hell, Austra with her debut Feel It Break and Arkells with Michigan Left.

Hope you enjoy these albums as much as I did and as always if there was an album you really liked that I didn’t mention, please let me know!

Similar to 2010, this year has been a fantastic year for music. We saw debut albums from both Gallagher brothers, Cults, and Grouplove. We also heard some of awesome singles from M83, Lana Del Rey, and The Weeknd. Mixed in with these catchy singles and debuts were a bunch of solid albums. Some of those include Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light, Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life and Girls’ Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

As is the case with every year there is always this one song that gets to me that becomes my guilty pleasure. This year that award goes to Katy Perry. Her single ‘E.T.’ was so catchy and was played everywhere I turned that it got tattooed in my head. Also on my playlist are two tracks from Canadian rockers The Sheepdogs. Although their album ‘Learn & Burn’ was released in 2010, they really hit it big this year thanks to winning the Rolling Stone Magazine contest.

The 80 songs below is pretty much a soundtrack to my year. From songs that were released in January right up until December every song on here was played countless amounts of time. Hope you enjoy the list and let me know if there were any songs you really enjoyed that I should check out. Happy Holidays!

My list of best albums of 2010 was a lot harder to organize that I had previously thought. There was so much good music this year that I had originally wanted to do a top 10 or 15 but ended up with a list of my favourite 20 albums of 2010. Right from the start of 2010 to mid December great albums just kept being released. It started back in January with the release of Vampire Weekend’s second album Contra (#9 on my list). Following that release it was a non stop release of great records that will be on lists for many many years as all time albums. There were only two months where an album that was released is not on this list, those months are July and September. Other than those two months each of the 10 months produced an album that is on my list. I don’t about you but that’s got to be a good indication that this year was a good year for music.

Find out what was my top album of the year here.

Not only was 2010 a great year for music but it was also a great year for video games. This year we saw a bunch of new titles, sequels and accessories for each console. Microsoft and Sony finally launched their motion gaming this year with Kinect (XBOX) and Move (Playstation). Having tested out Kinect it’s a pretty solid gaming experience that will definitely change the way we play games. Think about it, no controller required! With Microsoft and Sony now in the same market as the Wii I kind of feel that Nintendo needs to come out with something new to compete with their new rivals.

So let’s get going on the games now. Although I haven’t played the following games I have only heard good things about them and figured that they should be somehow included in this blog. These games are Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War III, Halo Reach and Gran Turismo 5. Along with those titles there are the yearly releases that never disappoint, NHL 11, FIFA 11, MLB 10 The Show, Madden 11 and UFC Undisputed 2010.

Those were all fantastic games however the following 5 could not be beat. Here are my top 5 games of the year.

5. Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain introduced us to a new world of gaming. The user interaction in this PS3 exclusive is far more than any other title I can think of. Every action you perform during the game will ultimately have a different outcome and will change the course of the story throughout the game. If you enjoy games that have the presentation of a movie or TV show this game is for you.
Platform: Playstation 3

4. Call of Duty: Black Ops
Whether you’re a multiplayer type gamer or not this game will consume hours upon hours of great gameplay. Even if you power through the campaign mode there is still the multiplayer that will see you sit in front of that TV for hours! Call of Duty: Black Ops is a must for any gamer who loved the previous titles or is a fan of first-person shooters.
Platforms: Xbox 360 & Playstation 3

3. Red Dead Redemption
Whoever came up with the idea of taking GTA and setting the time to the 1900?s then giving it a name of Red Dead Redemption is a genius! Red Dead Redemption is full of fun and has an endless replay value. Along with the other games on this list the writing is fantastic. The storyline to Red Dead Redemption is almost one of a movie and kind of has the feeling like it is one. The graphics are surreal! Everything from the bushes to the skyline to the characters is almost movie like. For anyone who enjoys a good open world game this one’s for you.
Platforms: Xbox 360 & Playstation 3

2. Alan Wake
Everything about this game is great, the graphics, gameplay, length and most importantly the story. The writing in this game is so well done that it makes it feel like you are watching an episode of your favourite TV show. From start to finish this game delivered and for any gamer who likes a dark and scary game this is for you!
Platform: Xbox 360

1. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
The part 2 of Assassin’s Creed II introduced us to a bunch of new things. The most important was the recruitment of new members to the brotherhood. Once you’ve recruited an assassin you can assign them tasks which will help them gain experience. Throughout the game your group of assassins can be called upon at any time during an attack, doing this will help you get through the game. This game franchise has been a personal favourite of mine and is a must have if you’ve played any of the previous two.
Platforms: Xbox 360 & Playstation 3

2010 was filled with great music. It all started when Vampire Weekend released Contra back in January. From then on it was a non stop parade of awesome music. We heard new stuff from Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, The National, Kanye West & more. We were introduced to a bunch of new and exciting artists like Mumford & Sons, Plan B, The Drums, Tinie Tempah & Zeus. Besides Arcade Fire a lot of good Canadian music was released this year. Drake released his highly anticipated album Thank Me Later, The New Pornographers released Together and indie starlets Zeus released Say Us.

Click here to view the full playlist and also find out which song was my guilty pleasure of the year!

Continuing my Year In Review posts, I am following up my 2009 Playlist with my Top Albums of 09. I will admit that this list was a little easier to come up with than my playlist but was still difficult to decide what order certain albums get slotted into to.

2009 was a great year for music and it showed with the quality of the albums that were released this past year. I based this list on albums that I could not stop listening to because of the greatness of the whole album. Don’t get me wrong, there were albums that were released that I listened to a lot but kind of fizzed out after a few listens. Some of those included Tegan And Sara’s Sainthood, Band of Skulls’ Baby Darling Doll Face Honey & Thirty Seconds To Mars’ This Is War.

I limited myself to choosing only ten albums for this is but it could have easily been a list between 15-20. Some albums that would have made the list if it were longer & will give honorable mentions to include Pearl Jam Backspacer, Them Crooked Vultures Them Crooked Vultures, Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You, Mastodon Crack The Skye, Metric Fantasies, Bat For Lashes Two Suns & Arctic Monkeys Humbug.

Now that I’ve listed my honorable mentions here is my list of top albums of 09:

10. White Lies – White Lies
9. The Antlers – Hospice
8. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
7. Dead Weather – Horehound
6. The Big Pink – A Brief History Of Love
5. Glasvegas – Glasvegas*
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
3. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Julian Casablancas – Phrazes For The Young
1. The XX – XX

* Was released in 2009 in North America

With another year coming to an end it closes what was a good year in music. A number of artists hit it big in 2009 including Kings Of Leon (finally after three successful albums in the UK), Lady Gaga & Taylor Swift. 2009 also saw a bunch of indie artists rise to the foreground of the indie music scene. The UK’s La Roux, The XX & The Big Pink are just a few of the more successful bands that cracked the new artist category in 2009 (and I’m sure there are a bunch more!)

Pop music had another good year with help from huge names that are getting bigger as each month passes. They include Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Rihanna & many more. I’m not going to lie there were a few of those songs that really hooked me in and were very addictive!

Below is a playlist of tracks that I’ve enjoyed in 2009:

Guilty Pleasure of 2009: Ke$ha – Tik Tok [listen]

25. Drake – Best I Ever Had [listen]
24. Lily Allen – The Fear [listen]
23. La Roux – In For The Kill [listen]
22. The Raveonettes – Suicide [listen]
21. Every Time I Die – The Sweet Life [listen]
20. Metric – Gold Guns And Girls [listen]
19. Them Crooked Vultures – Mind Eraser, No Chaser [listen]
18. Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone [listen]
17. Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother [listen]
16. Pearl Jam – Just Breathe [listen]
15. Weezer – (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To [listen]
14. White Lies – Farewell To The Fairground [listen]
13. Band Of Skulls – I Know What I Am [listen]
12. Kid Cudi – Soundtrack 2 My Life [listen]
11. Jay-Z f. Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind [listen]
10. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance [listen]
9.  A Day To Remember – If It Means A Lot To You [listen]
8. Girls – Lust For Life [listen]
7. Bat For Lashes – Daniel [listen]
6. Phoenix – 1901 [listen]
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll [listen]
4. The Big Pink – Dominos [listen]
3. Julian Casablancas – 11th Dimension [listen]
2. Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody [listen]
1. The XX – VCR [listen]