So here we are at the end of another year. I've fulfilled all of my last writing obligations to Blogcritics for 2007 — the year-end list is done, the final new album releases column for the year is in the can, and I've picked my choice for album of the year (which for our regular readers here is probably the worst kept secret of the BC editors' picks you'll see here next week — but that's my own damn fault).

Unfortunately, I'm also stuck at home this weekend convalescing with the mega-bitch of a cold I managed to catch earlier this week. Few things in this life approach the suckitude of getting sick two days before the annual dog and pony show that is the Christmas get-together with the family.

So I'm homebound because I have no choice. I have to be "well" in 48 hours.

The obvious solution to this dilemma of course would be to write about something. But since I'm all caught up for the year and everything, that leaves me no choice but that last resort you turn to only when all other avenues have been exhausted. I am referring of course to that final refuge for critics of both the blog and professional varieties alike:

Time to dig through "the pile."

For the uninitiated, "the pile" is both the friend and the scourge of music writers everywhere, just as I imagine it is for those who write about books, movies, or anything else where a professional opinion is sought. You see, one of the coolest things about writing is all of the free stuff you get. Basically the way the deal works is labels, publicists, and such send you free stuff in the hopes that you will write about it — and preferably write something positive.

The upside is of course, that you get this free stuff. The downside is that it is inevitable that some of it — for whatever reason — is going to fall through the cracks. The biggest reason for this would be the surprising amount of said free stuff that comes completely unsolicited.

If I want to write something about the new album from Springsteen or Arcade Fire for example, most often I have to ask somebody for it (and even more often than that I just end up buying it). On the other hand, if an indie label with a hot new band or artist wants to get their CD reviewed, they will often just send a copy, accompanied by a press bio (and these days a link to a website with downloadable music), sight unseen.

If you get a lot of this stuff, there is simply no way humanly possible that all of it is going to get written about — as nice a guy, who is willing to help out most developing (read: struggling) artists, as I like to think of myself as being.