Annual 2005 - Various - Double CD
As another year of clubbing comes to an end and we look on to new years '05, Ministry of Sound document a snapshot of '04 with their latest annual instillation The Annual 2005. The MOS Annuals have become more pop-centric since 2000 and this album is no exception. Thankfully, they appear to have walked the right side of the tightrope between crowd-pleasers and radio wish-wash this time around.
Once again, this is a three disk box set release spanning 61 tracks. The cherry on top is that the third disk is a DVD showing some fantastic video clips. The first CD, the better of the two, includes some great tunes from the year gone by. Spankox's "To the Club" really represents and should have been the opening track. Another fantastic remix from Timo Maas, Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" is another highlight. The second disk tends to be a little watery and unfortunately includes the truly dire reworking of "Sweet Child of Mine". Kontakt's remix of "Sweet Dreams" has a little more soul to it. And Khia's decidedly cleaner version of "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)" is a great edition.
The same old gripes can still be had on this Annual. There are a few tunes that are plain annoying and the track placement hasn't been thought about carefully enough. Also, there are moments of mixing that are just downright poor. On the whole though this is a good addition to the collection. Yes, it's like listening to Dave Pearce on Radio 1 but if you know that before you buy then you shouldn't be disappointed. --Jarrod Rendle