There is a lot of great music around. Not enough on the radio, though, I feel. I spent some Christmas money at the weekend and bought a plethora of excellent c.d.s: Ann Wilson's debut solo album which is rootsier than Heart and feels wonderfully cohesive despite all the "special" guests; Hayseed Dixie's No Covers, a surprisingly serious album of self-penned material; the debut from the Swedish rock band Work Of Art which has huge melodies and an Isolation-era Toto feel and the debut from ChimpanA, a wonderful, esoteric Welsh prog-rock band, featuring members of Magenta and The Storys.

All of the above are highly recommended but a word of warning about the Plain White T's. I picked up their c.d. on the strength of Delilah and found the rest to be pretty ordinary.

I've never got Amy Winehouse (or even heard of Mika) but I quite like Amy MacDonald!

I'm usually more hip replacement than hip but I've got to admit these are exciting times, although, conversly, I found 2007 to be a pretty dreary year for folk music.