Album
Gorillaz. Lacks a standout single, but uniformly strong. It's been quite a poor year for albums, I think. Goldfrapp's album in second place

Single
Dontcha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me/Number One
First time I heard Dontcha on the radio, I thought it was a lost Motown classic. Well, at least until the rap started. It's about as close to a perfect pop song as we've had in recent years. The rap mars it a bit, though, and prevents it from getting the sole title. Also, the second single is generic shite, so I suspect they're going down as one shot wonders. Also also, it looks to me like there are 4 too many pussycats. There's the cute hot one who looks great in the videos and sings beautifully, and there's the other four doing what exactly? Trampolining? Since when has that been a desired commodity in pop?

The Goldfrapp single is pop genius too, and comes with the year's best video. Since the main function of singles these days is to get played on music TV, we have to start taking this into account.

Honourable mention(s) to Gwen Stefani, the first album in a very long time to spawn 4 quality singles.

Artist Of The Year
Arcade Fire. Me and Bowie's tastes have diverged a bit in recent years, and when he's championed the likes of Placebo and Grandaddy, my reaction has been "Not bad, but..." (whereas when he championed Holly and Emm, it was "Not bad butts!"). But on Arcade Fire, we are in basic agreement.

Best Tour
U2. Duh.

Slan libh,

Dara


"Ireland is a great country to go to if you think you're drinking too much. Because it turns out you're not even close"