For the seventh year, I've compiled a selection of favorite songs from the past year and sequenced them into an album - something that can fit on an 80-minute CD, with no artists repeated from previous years and a limit of one song per artist.

This year's edition features 20 tracks and is notably heavier and louder than any of the past six. Read nothing more into that than the possibility that my hearing is likely deteriorating now that I'm north of 40. (And don't infer anything from the inclusion of two Swedish bands and another from Denmark, or my apparent weakness for the second songs of albums.)

Beyond the surface aggression, I'm imposing on my 2012 album an air of finality, both aesthetically and thematically. Whether it's the violence promised and delivered by the Hives or the natural calamity of Alexandre Desplat or the seasonal metaphor of Max Richter or the self-loathing regret of Cloud Nothings or the ominous instrumental clouds of Goat, this sounds a bit like the world is ending. I'm pretty sure the planet as we know it will be here on December 22, but here's a soundtrack for December 21 just in case some interpretations of the Mayan calendar prove correct.

The Hives, "My Time Is Coming." There's always been a threatening edge to the punkish garage rock of the Hives, but it's always been obliterated by cheekiness, matching outfits, and a bright bluster that made it impossible to take anything at all seriously. Here, the title and chorus are far from earnest, but both the music and vocals carry something darker - not of getting one's due but of seizing out of desperation and deprivation ("You see I grew up in a hole / Squeezing diamonds out of coal"). The reverb-heavy guitar and the quiet opening before detonation represent minor aesthetic developments for the Swedes, but the biggest change is how they tap into a rage that for once feels authentic.

It should have been only a sampling - a taste of love, lust, delusions of grandeur, and jocular deception - but the Quad City Symphony on December 1 delivered a fast-paced, funny, and fully satisfying performance of Act III of Guiseppe Verdi's opera Falstaff.

Last season, the Quad City Symphony's Der Rosenkavalier excerpt was plagued by balance problems between the singers and orchestra and by dramatic incoherence - with neither a translation of the German libretto nor an explanation of the plot.

This year, Music Director and Conductor Mark Russell Smith got it right logistically, educationally, and musically. Smith moved the instrumentalists upstage, opening up a large area in front of the orchestra that put the principal singers closer to the audience. The cast members had more room to move and act, sharpening the differences between their characters.

Even though the 30-plus members of Jon Hurty's Quad City Choral Arts sat behind the orchestra, far from the dramatic action, the location made their sound appropriately ethereal when they took on the roles of sprites, nymphs, spirits, and ghostly apparitions.

The changes of staging also improved the balance between the singers and the orchestra. From its upstage position, the orchestra was easily heard yet never overwhelmed the singers.

Our area's roster of holiday-themed concerts, which began with November 17's annual Holiday Pops at the i wireless Center, will continue at the Moline venue with November 30's 12 Gifts of Christmas, a New Anthem presentation emceed by Lisa Whelchel of The Facts of Life fame and showcasing performances by, among others, contemporary Christian artists and Grammy Award winners Steven Curtis Chapman and Laura Story.

Those are impressive headliners. But when it comes to gifts of a musical nature, 12 is really low-balling it; the Quad Cities and its neighboring burgs will actually be hosting more than two dozen holiday concerts between November 30 and December 22, among them even more engagements featuring nationally beloved singers and musicians.

Her first CD, Kashish - Attraction, earned her a Best Global Album nomination at the 2002 Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys. Her second, 2003's Beyond Boundaries, received the Juno for Best World Music Album of the Year. Her latest, 2011's Aam Zameen - Common Ground, made her a two-time Juno winner in that category.

Consequently, the estimable world musician and frequent touring artist Kiran Ahluwalia must be feeling relatively secure about career longevity, yes?

"No," says the Indo-Canadian singer/songwriter, with a laugh, during a recent phone interview. "Oh, God, no.

"I mean," she continues, "I released my fifth CD last year, and I've been doing this full-time for 12 years now, and I definitely feel like I have enough gigs lined up for the next two years. But there really isn't any security in my portion of the industry. So you kind of have to have short-term plans - a year down the road, two years maximum. Because after that, who knows what's going to happen?"