Ladies and gentlemen, pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass of sherry and take a mince pie out of the tin. Actually, this could take some time, you might want to get a sleeping bag and put on some thermals.
Yes, here it is, the traditional CMU review of the music year, the complete guide to everything that happened of note in music in the last twelve months, condensed for your convenience so that it takes less than twelve months to read. Well, a little less. No, not really. Sit back, start at the top, and we'll be done in no time. And at the end of it all you'll have an encyclopaedic knowledge of music in 2008.
So. Where to begin? I know, with the CMU Track Of The Year vote.
The votes are in and the CMU Daily readers have spoken. Yes, following two stages of voting by CMU's 15,000 strong readership, which, of course, includes all the people that matter in the UK music business and music media, we can reveal this year's CMU Track Of The Year.
And the honour goes to none other than MGMT, one of 2008's biggest new music success stories, who top our poll with their inspiring anthem 'Time To Pretend'. And hurrah to that.
Once the final count had been done we put in a call to the A&R Manager who signed them, Maureen Kenny of SonyBMG's Columbia Records in New York, and she told us: "Time To Pretend is a special song and the reason I signed the band. It seems to have turned into an anthem this summer. I never dreamed it would go this far, but I'm really pleased".
MGMT came top from a shortlist of ten identified in stage one of our poll. For those wondering, here is the top ten in order of overall votes.
1. MGMT - Time To Pretend
2. Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
3. Elbow - One Day Like This
4. Alphabeat - Fascination
5. Glasvegas - Geraldine
6. Foals - Cassius
7. Santogold - LES Artistes
8. Hot Chip - Read For The Floor
9. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
10. Sam Sparro - Black & Gold
Particular mention is due to the hotly tipped Florence & The Machine who comes in second place despite her song 'Dog Days Are Over' only being released on 30 Nov. Already destined to win the 2009 Critics Choice Brit for most hotly anticipated new artist, I think its fair to say next year could be as big for Florence as this one was for MGMT.
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CMU REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2008: THE MUSIC INDUSTRY