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

From 1995-1999, 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). After the Clubbers Guide To .... 2001 (Mixed By Tall Paul) Ministry of Sound decided not to use big name DJs but to use lesser-known DJs that mix digitally, and not credit who the mixer is on the front cover. This has since been denied once, where CJ Mackintosh, Jazzy M and Marc Hughes mixed Fifteen Years in 2006, and several times since then such as on Live & Remastered (though the mixes on this box set were mixed in the 1990s). The Sessions series still continues to be mixed by a DJ.