Christmas has gone. New Year has passed by. The novelty of the holidays has swept past on its merry way, leaving us contorting in the wake of already-broken resolutions, badly-chosen presents and way too much festive food. What are we left to do but analyse our past?
Luckily for you, Scene Point Blank has done all the hard work. Forget thinking! With our handy rundown of the best records you may or may not have heard over the past 12 months, you won't have to contemplate the music you may have missed - simply go out and buy it on our wise reccomendation.
Of course, it wouldn't be a SPB year-end list without our customary graph and chart display, so without further ado:
This graph is really encouraging, particularly compared to last year's, which had no Independent releases in our nominations. This year, the largest chunk of the record label pie was made up of indie releases, which cannot be unrelated to the efforts of bands like Radiohead, Saul Williams, Stars and Bomb The Music Industry! to thwart the typical release model.
This graph shows the increasing number of Jesu nominations in SPB's top 30, year-on-year. The more mathematically astute amongst you will have noticed that this pattern is in fact the Fibonacci Sequence. We can infer from this that if the pattern continues, the future number of Jesu releases dominating the SPB chart will increase like so:
As you can see, by 2024, Justin Broadrick will be required to release 6765 records, or roughly 18 per day. While certain SPB staffers seem to believe the man is indeed immortal, this task may be beyond even Jesu.
This graph shows Jason's reviews for SPB this year, categorised by genre. Well done Jason - an increase from last year!
This graph shows the proliferation of bands with animals in their names. 2007 sees a 200% increase in the record number of bands with animals in their name, showing a fauna-based domination of SPB's top 30.
Anyway, enough statistics - onto the list!