Each year I assemble my own personal “mixtape” (in fact CDs now) — a selection of the songs and albums that accompanied me, moved me, or stayed with me more than anything else.

This Annual Report is not a chart, not a best-of list, and not a critic’s verdict.

It is a reflection: a musical diary woven together with the political, cultural, and emotional currents of its time.

Every chapter pairs the music of that year with the events that shaped it, creating a series of snapshots that trace how sound and circumstance resonate with one another.

These aren’t just tracks.

They are markers, milestones, memories.

Together they form the soundtrack of the years as I lived them.