A few years ago, inspired by a post by Khoi Vinh, I started keeping track of my favourite new music - stand out tracks I came across throughout the year, by both new artists and known. The first year was retrospective, but since then it's been an ongoing project. At first it was just for fun - a chance to make a playlist with a range of genres - but now I enjoy looking back to see when I first listened to an artist, and watch as my music tastes change.

It would be nice if Last.fm could do something like this automatically; sadly it doesn't currently provide an easy way to single out music you've found (or gone back to) over a given period. What it is good for, though, is pulling out the past 12 months of listening history. So, before I launch into a personalised mixtape, here's what Last.fm thinks I enjoyed most last year. The list is a bit odd - I've tried to include my ten most played tracks too, bear with me.

The Top Artists and Tracks of 2011

1. Emancipator  — 1242
   • First Snow (1)
   • Soon It Will Be Cold Enough To Build Fires (3)
   • Nevergreen (7)
2. Ludovico Einaudi — 863
3. The National — 818
   • Wake Up Your Saints (10)
4. Beirut — 652
   • Santa Fe (8)
5. Bon Iver — 591
   • Perth (9)
6. Bonobo — 551
7. Iron & Wine — 535
   • Jezebel (5)
8. Andrew Bird — 534
9. Nujabes — 528
   • Reflection Eternal (4)
10. Tycho — 509
    • PBS (2)
11. Radiohead — 452
12. Ólafur Arnalds — 436
    • Erla's Waltz (6)

Of these Einaudi, Bonobo, Andrew Bird, and Radiohead stand out: clearly I listened to them a lot, but no single track was compelling enough to listen to repeatedly. Unlike Emancipator who I apparently fell in love with. To give you an idea of how much I listened to Emancipator, here's a snapshot of the first few months of 2011 rendered by LastGraph —

For just under a month I listened almost solely to Emancipator. This isn't uncommon for me: after being introduced to a new artist I like I'll listen to them at the expense of all other music. The rest of the graph (not shown) highlighted other external influences I'd forgotten about - there are two lulls in my listening when a) I was on holiday, and b) when my laptop got stolen. You can also spot surges where new albums were released (Bon Iver, The National, Fleet Foxes, Beirut). Enough of that though, here's the playlist.

The 2011 Mixtape

1. Radiohead —  Supercollider
2. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins —  John Taylor's Month Away
3. Evenings —  Still Young
4. Bon Iver —  Minnesota, WI
5. Souleye —  Predestined Fate
6. Sam Amidon —  How Come That Blood
7. King Seven —  Hidden
8. Fleet Foxes —  Helplessness Blues
9. Iron & Wine —  Jezebel
10. Nujabes —  Reflection Eternal
11. Explosions in the Sky —  Postcards from 1952
12. Beirut —  Santa Fe
13. Tycho —  PBS
14. Ólafur Arnalds —  Erla's Waltz
15. Emancipator —  First Snow