How I Do It

I don't know about other critics, but when it comes to figuring out my year end lists, I go the old-fashioned route. No, I don't have every CD or single listed on my computer in some sort of program. When I buy or get a promo CD, or when I hear a good single (or album track), I write it down on a good old white piece of paper. As the year goes on, I whittle the list down to only the ones that really stood out. I've heard a lot of good stuff this year, but only a few great ones.
Until I started voting in critic polls, I used to wonder how some voters kept track of all their records. And even more important, how they remembered them at the end of the year. For me, it's simple subtraction, and better, a simple piece of paper, with a lot of blue ink on it.