Well it’s that ‘annual’ time of year when Ministry Of Sound releases their biggest-selling compilation The Annual. For 2009, we have the same DJ line-up as last year with Melbourne’s John Course giving us the “massive upfront hits” and Goodwill from Sydney taking us on a “nasty, left of centre underground journey”. I don’t see why an underground journey can’t be massive, or why upfront tunes can’t be nasty, but oh well. Onto the mix!

First up is John Course, opening with the massive hit from David Guetta Delirious. On my holiday overseas earlier this year we heard this track everywhere we went, as well as after we got back home. It really is massive and makes for a pretty good start. From there we get a quad hit of vocals, before ATFC provides a quick instrumental breather with Praise To The JBs. Even though listening to so many vocal tunes in a row can get a little boring, they each had a slightly different sound, which made it a little more interesting and easier to handle.

Even though I generally haven’t liked the commercial “electro house” stuff of the last couple of years there are some tracks on here which I enjoyed, like Lys Speechless, Tocadisco feat. Meral Al-Mer Streetgirls and No Halo Put Your Hands On. There are also some tracks that I wish would go away, such as the current massive hit Get Shaky from The Ian Carey Project and tracks I now wish I had never heard like What A Wonderful World. Bob Sinclair continues his downward spiral in my opinion but this time he tries to drag Axwell down with him. How selfish of him! There are also tracks I wish were never produced to start with, like a new remix of the _massive_classic Finally which starts off alright and then is just rubbish after the breakdown.

Finally isn’t the only old tune to get unnecessarily resurrected however, there are new versions of Infinity by Guru Josh Project courtesy of Mind Electric, Send The Message by Mattara gives the Yeke Yeke sample another run and the good old massive classic Blue Monday goes around for another go courtesy of Kurd Maverick and Vandalism. I don’t even think the intended market for this CD was born when this track originally came out!

The CD peaks for me about three quarters of the way through, with Trouble Trouble, Hi Friend and That’s Not My Name by The Potbelleez, Deadmau5 feat. MC Flipside and The Ting Tings, respectively. Overall it isn’t too bad, but not particularly outstanding either. A few less cheesy vocal tunes would be welcome but I guess that’s commercial music for you. There is a bit of variety in the music which is nice but for me personally there just weren’t enough consistency overall, despite a few massive moments.

Goodwill’s underground journey begins very left of centre a pumping Aston Shuffle remix of Dance Wiv Me by Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome. The nasty stuff continues with ARIA winners The Presets, making me go crazy when they talk talk talk talk talk like like like like like that that that that that that. With PNAU and Sneaky Sound System following up, the mix again starts off with a lot of vocal tunes but I like them more than the first CD so far.

It gets better once we move on from the vocals with Mason The Ridge (Tommy Trash Remix), the real underground hit Café del Mar and the totally nasty Sander van Doorn. Things are going great but we enter cheesy territory with the Laidback Luke remix of Gypsy by Steve Angello. The new and unimproved Lola’s Theme by The Shapeshifters is another setback. This is such a feel-good, uplifting house track that really doesn’t need any updating. After the pretty good build up it fails epically, I realise now why DJs mix out of it so quickly. While listening to it, I keep imagining Darth Vader holding The Shapeshifters in a Force-grip, growling “no amount of cowbell can save you now!”

Things get weirder with Mars from Fake Blood. I don’t know how underground it is, or nasty, but it is definitely left of centre. So far left in fact that it comes back around the other side and bumps into you from the right. I don’t know who decided that sampling animal bowel movements (or whatever the hell it is) was a great idea but maybe this is what all the clubs will be hammering in 2009. Despite a couple of tracks I didn’t like, compared to the first CD this disc has better tunes and a better overall feel for me. I could see myself enjoying a set like this every once and a while at a club somewhere. Even my mum gives it the stamp of approval; while Eric Prydz’s hit Pjanoo was on she wandered past: “What are you listening to? This isn’t doof doof! Hmm, this is nice, laidback and casual!”

With 44 tracks across the two CDs, mixing isn’t really going to be a focal point. There are some decent transitions, and some pretty forgettable ones. The end of CD two in particular seems to have been quite rushed, with the mixing almost forgotten and the final track, Paris Is Burning by Ladyhawke, sounding like it was almost tacked on at the last minute. Perhaps there could be a better balance between track selection and mixing in the future. If the mixing really gets to you and you think you can do better, there is a bonus. Ministry of Sound are releasing this Annual on a USB as well, with all the individual tracks unmixed and the DJ mixes included too. This is certainly a pretty cool step!

The other Annual that regularly gets a whirl in my collection is the 2002 edition, and even though this year’s edition doesn’t compare to it at all for my taste, it still does its job and despite what you personally think of the music choices, it still has a place in the CD shop. People who grab this could go on to discover something great and for the nasty underground people, maybe they need a dose of massive hits once in a while.