The Annual

The Annual is a series of compilation albums currently published annually by London-based electronic dance music brand Ministry of Sound. Described as Ministry of Sound's "flagship" series, the popular albums feature house, big beat and trance tracks popular in nightclubs, especially those in the United Kingdom.

History

The Ministry of Sound had been releasing DJ mix albums since 1993, their third year of business as a nightclub, starting with the inaugural edition of the Session, mixed by Tony Humphries. As the label increasingly began to release other mix albums, The Annual was conceived to wrap up the year at the club, a retrospective of defining tracks that defined the nightclub that year. Boy George and Pete Tong, who had DJ'd at the club several times, were hired to compile and mix a disc for the album each. The album was a success, reaching number 13 on the UK Compilations Chart. The Annual II from the following year, however, was a major success, reaching number 1 on the chart. George and Tong mixed the first three albums, before Judge Jules replaced Tong for The Annual IV, and Tall Paul replaced George for the following Millennium Edition and The Annual 2000, before the series stopped using live DJs.

From 1995 to 1999, the individual releases of The Annual were denoted by Roman numerals, from The Annual to The Annual IV. In 1999, the series' titling was reorganized and all following albums were named by year, beginning with The Annual 1999 - Millennium Edition. Starting in 2001, the album was named for the year following the Autumn release date instead of the year of release, thus there is no album assigned to 2001 (aside from the Spring 2001 Annual).