CD review.

IT'S been a funny old year for the music industry. Once upon a time, record labels ruled with an iron fist, but now, thanks to the internet, along withmedia-savvy bands showing brilliant initiative, their vice-like grip is loosening.

Thankfully, music itself hasn't suffered and there were some real triumphs. Not all artists were so successful, however, so let's look back over the year to see what was hot, and what wasn't.

KLAXONS

CONTROVERSIAL as the decision may have been, there's no denying Klaxons had a great year. The "new rave" trio released their debut album, Myths Of The Near Future, in January and duly won the Mercury Music Prize six months later.

Golden Skans is undoubtedly one of the year's best singles. Nice one, lads.

SPICE GIRLS 

YES, they reformed, sold loads of concert tickets and did a Tesco advert, but their single Headlines was truly shocking.

Not even the fact it was the Children In Need song could lift it higher than No.

16 in the charts.

Their Greatest Hits doesn't stand up, either, revealing the Spices to be well past their sell-by date.

RADIOHEAD

THE Oxford quintet had gone quiet since the George Bush-baiting Hail To The Thief was released in 2003, then, in October, with just a week's notice, they announced that In Rainbows would be released the following week. In an unprecedented move, fans were invited to pay what they wanted to download the album. The album is possibly their best since OK Computer.

ARCTIC MONKEYS

THEIR debut albumwas, until Leona Lewis arrived on the scene, the fastestselling debut in UK chart history, so following it up was no small task. The Sheffield foursome delivered a more complete, sophisticated record in Favourite Worst Nightmare, winning another legion of fans and making a mockery of those who thought they were one-trick ponies.

50 CENT

WHEN "Fiddy" realised his album, Curtis, was going to be released on the same day as Kanye West's Graduation, he apparently quipped that if West sold more copies than he did, he'd quit music. Graduation sold almost a1m during its first week on sale, while Curtis managed less than 700,000. So why hasn't he quit yet? We're still waiting.

LEONA LEWIS

SINCE her landslide X Factor win, Leona has been a busy bee. Bleeding Love was one of the biggestselling singles of the year, and debut album Spirit sold 160,000 copies during its first week of release. To date, sales stand at around 1.1m copies in the UK alone.

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