"We've played Burial and various Hyperdub releases more than any wispy fellow with an acoustic guitar," says Word Magazine.

Any chance you could reflect this interest in Dubstep in the actual content of the magazine? Some of my favourite albums of the year have been Dubstep, none of which have been featured in Word, and if there's ever been a Dubstep track on the CD then I've missed it. Plenty of acoustic guitars, though.

A decent collection of tracks, but all (bar one) familiar to me. Would rather have had new music, and a link to the Noughties Spotify playlists. But that might just be me. Looking forward to delving into the mag after work.

The fourth plinth Anthony Gormley project was a load of crud. I went past a few times and never saw anything remotely interesting let alone anything that could be called "Art". Most of the time it was some chippy type from Gloucester banging on about nose cancer or some such(inaudibly) while throwing sweets at confused Swedish tourist and a handful of their raggle taggle of supporters (fresh from Paddington all of whom wondering when they can slope off to Selfridges).

Most people who raved about this probably only saw the web feed which was filmed up close but seeing as this was about outdoor public art and not video installation that was pointless too. The whole thing was woeful.Love the idea of rolling changing theme for the plinth though.

Most of the rest of the choices are spot on except Banksy who's shit.

Just got the mag too and - get me - I'm in the Inbox bit.

Granted, I'm being a bit of a bitch about Ben Goldacre, but hey, I got published in my fave mag (this has not happened since I got something into an issue of Smash Hits when I was 12!).

Chuffed!

Lily Allen is the decade's prime pop star.

What is Word's hard-on with this girl?

through before coming to work. Never been a fan of end of year issues of music mags, but sure there will be something different than the usual lists/nostalgia. Must admit, not even finished last one yet

Confused by the 'warning' about the CD having different packaging this month. It looks the same to me.

Eh?

I've only had a quick glance at the contents but it looks great. On the CD you have 'The Ride' by Joan as Policewoman that's worth the cover price on it's own for those who haven't got it. Well done.

It's waited patiently all year to get a good end of year review and when it drops through the letter box it has been usurped by all manner of albums, films, artists etc who have already had their day in the sun earlier in the decade.
Obviously I base this comment on a cursory look through the mag and will retract if there is a special 2009 section hidden away.

... or are you posting out the issue earlier every month? Still November and I now have the January edition.

...and I'm a subscriber, for goodness sake. I flicked through every page this evening - usually a ritual in which I spot lots of things I'll have some degree of active interest in reading and a few that may reward a bit of effort (that said, I haven't yet brought myself to the point of giving half an hour of my life to the Flaming Lips thing in the last issue so I doubt I ever will, ditto their music).

But this issue, apart from Heppo's column and one or two other short bits near the front I found nothing - nothing! - that fitted the 'oh, I'm looking forward to reading that' bracket. :-(

I'm putting a lot of that down to the format - personally I hate end-of-year type stuff, let alone the even greater excuse for a load a twaddle that an end-of-decade brings (the same with those awful what-to-buy pre-summer and pre-Christmas book sections in newspapers). It's just a waste of space that seems, to the reader (to this reader, at least), to be a lazy option, bitty and self-indulgent, even if it probably requires as much work as a 'proper' issue.

But I can forgive one turkey out of 12.

Nothing personal lads - but I'm looking forward to the next issue already, I'm afraid.

Have I missed Elbow's release from a mention in the magazine or have The Word?. Not only was it my record of the decade but the Live at Abbey Road was my record of this year. About 12 months ago, there were very few songs on the album that weren't in the Massive's Festive 50. I wonder about the omission. As I am unable to hum a song from most of the decade's Top Ten am I out of touch?

Knowing nothing about the magazine industry, I was surprised to see that Word is put together by a mere five people.

I guess the Hepster just sits at the end of the office in a big chair and counts the money :-)

Some of us haven't got ours yet.

Please can I plead with the Word publishers to ensure that the track names which get loaded when ripping to Itunes are ready on the CMDB database (or whatever it is called) at the time when subscribers get their copies and not a week later.

All I get is track1, track 2 when I load them onto my ipod. Surely its simply a timing issue to get the details to itunes quicker than now !

Anyone else notice Andrew's interesting stance as regards the 9/11 conspiracy theories?

I was ever so pleased to see World Without Tears as on of your albums of the decade.
I think for a while she was seen by some people as an artist to tout as one of your favourites; the moment passed and it seems now she's almost forgotten. (I don't think she made Uncut's top 150).
But not in our house where she's as big a favourite as she was when she released Sweet Old World. Its heartening to see that the habitués of Word Towers still has a bit of time for her too.

... that I am off work this week due to a minor op, and the past two Word of Mouth CDs have been exceptionally great ways of soundtracking a convalescence.

Also good on you for consistently singling out The Aliens for praise. I have deeply loved both their albums and sometimes feel like a voice in the wilderness regarding them.

...the Aliens track. I popped the CD on in the car and it fair leapt out of speakers. From never-heard-of-them to quite-a-fan-of within a few bars.

Enjoyed the Best / Worst of the Noughties. Excellent as ever.

this one's a keeper, not only because my letter is in there.

Should it have arrived in Godalming around now or should I just be more patient? :)

Perplexed at some of the comments above...
Isn't that what we buy magazines for so Word doing it is what I'd expect, enjoy and appreciate because their range of writers have better, different, new, funnier insights into these types of formats ?

And with the longer pieces I loved Mark Ellen on Attenbrough, Hepworth on socialnets, Andrew Collins on the decade and Eamonn Forde's Harry Hill piece....

My only quibble. Loved all the decade stuff. but missed all the lists, overviews, best of 2009 stuff for which presumably there wasn't room :(

Have just seen that you've included The Howling by The Phantom Band on the best of the decade CD and on that basis alone I shall now be renewing my subscription. The worrying thing is I'm not joking!

has now appeared on the cover of 3 of the last 4 January editions of The Word.

COINCIDENCE?

A decade runs from 1 to 10 not 0 to 9.

Expected better from The Word.

Cheers all!

I was one of the saddoes whose teeth used to grate went 2000 was accepted as the first year of the new millennium, when clearly a small amount of maths would indicate that it was the last year of the old one.

Tricky isn't it. If you go back to the year 0, then the first decade did indeed end 31 Dec 10. So either it changed somewhere along the line to be the year ending 9, or 'decade' is, by common usage, always the 0 to the 9.

You can make a pretty good conceptual argument for saying the 60s did indeed end in 1970 - break up of the Beatles, last Simon & Garfunkel album, death of Hendrix, Joplin etc.

But then it's so clearly the start of the 70s - first Black Sabbath album, Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, Elton John's eponymous breakthrough album, Deep Purple In Rock.

Anyway, as discussed on the Meridian 1970 thread, a great year.

Don't you get excited when the mileometer on your car rolls from a 9999 number onto a 0000 number? I know I do!

So the Year Zero was when exactly?

2000 to 2009 is a ten year period, but not the first decade of this century.

Cheers again!

I love summaries me.

If we have to have summaried articles on the state of popular culture (even if I'm not sure that we necessarily do) over a certain period then who or what better to do so than The Word?

I just got my copy today and I'm pretty much fully engaged with it. Re-visiting old albums, looking with great intrigue at the best books list (This Thing of Darkness - how had I missed that?), and disagreeing vehemenly with the Best of the Noughties list. 'Come Dine With Me!? DFO.

For me it's shaping up to be the most enjoyable issue for a few months because it's considered appraisment on a grand scale. And I wasn't particularly disappointed in any of the previous ones.

Finally, who could gripe at any issue of The Word which includes two seismically wonderful puns in the reviews section; Carrion Screaming and Pre-Fabs Lout. I ask you?

Fawning ends.