Quite a year, quite a year. Loud rock returned, Ozzy ruled, Joni quit (again), Nelly boiled over, Justin & Brit split, Eminem acted, R. Kelly got caught, Beck boo-hoo'd, Michael protested, Avril arrived, Dylan confounded, Kurt kontinued and, at the very last second, Joe Strummer passed. Here is a list of discs that made a big dent on my mind.

Best pop albums of 2002

1) Luna, Romantica (Jetset). How can they be so glib yet so convincing? It's hard to put a finger on it. But I do recall being utterly smitten with the way that their conversational feel and casual forward motion made Romantica so irresistible during the swelter of this past summer. Whether Dean Wareham's singing about "a trillion stars" or "falling asleep on the train" or eating "salt and pepper squid," he brings a certain kind of contemporary New York experience out into the light so others can see just how sweet the city can be.

2) Orchestra Baobab, Specialist In All Styles (Nonesuch). When you can't tell where the reggae starts and the highlife ends, when you can't tell the superstar guests from the journeymen band members, when you can't imagine a feistier rhythm or catchier chants -- that's when you're hearing music in full flourish. Regardless of their Dakar base, pan-Latin styles inform their every move. And their spirit is one specialty many other bands could use.

3) Robin Holcomb, The Big Time (Nonesuch). This middle-ager's piano-based future folk comes with degrees in jazz and modern classical. Using atmospheric arrangements that occasionally hark to '60s rock motifs, Holcomb allows her tunes to probe her psyche. The intimacy that results is just as ominous as it is comforting. You can picture her knitting one moment, and using the needle as a shiv the next. She's never without questions.

4) Ed Harcourt, Here Be Monsters (Capitol). Mood music that had a pop skeleton to fall back on every time the drift tried to dominate. Whispers shouldn't necessarily indicate silence, and explosions needn't create turmoil; art boy Harcourt has found a way to invert a few things, and using Todd Rundgren and Brian Wilson as his inspirations, he's made some truly terrific tunes.

5) Doves, The Last Broadcast (Capitol). Grandeur has its place, especially when chiming guitars and mammoth beats find ways for the pomp to present itself without preciousness. Over the last three years, this three-man team of Brits moved their sound from dance 'n' dub space pop to the kind of epic anthem rock whose persuasiveness is partly due to their nods to odd heroes such as Ennio Morricone and Lalo Schiffrin.

6) Ash, Free All Angels (Kinetic). Wandering around Spain in sandals, digging the sunrise as much as the sunset, these Irishmen sound like hippies . . . until the punk kicks in. When it does, it kicks hard, letting you know their pet sounds have a rough 'n' tumble edge that puts the pleasure of mega-choruses and super-refrains at the top of the agenda. Perhaps you've heard it before, in the Replacements' "Favorite Thing" or the Fastbacks' "My Letters." Music to fall both in and out of love by.

7) Kasey Chambers, Barricades & Brick Walls (Warner Bros.). It starts with a nasty-ass white blues a la Crazy Horse, and weaves its way through lots of places Jewel fans should be interested in discovering. Aussie songstress Chambers does this nonchalant bob `n' weave - soft guitar strumming here, feisty fiddle scraping there - with an authority that few expected from her. Some of that command is written into the tunes, which is good because performers need all the help they get. But a lot of it stems from the artist herself, who digs minor chords as much as she does major emotions.

8) Paul Oakenfold, Bunkka (Maverick). The "World's Greatest DJ" didn't neglect his estimable mix 'n' match skills for the dance floor when making his debut disc of song songs. His space disco can sound erotic, menacing, or ambient, depending on who's doing the crooning at the moment and what temperament Oakenfold pushes in his sampling mélange. Whether it's Perry Farrell ("Time of Your Life"), Shifty Shellshock ("Starry-Eyed Surprise"), or Nelly Furtado (duetting with Tricky on "Harder They Come"), there's a great sense of fantasy in the whole catchy thing.

9) Missy Elliott, Under Construction (Elektra). Stumping for the past, as in the hip-hop glory days of the late '70s and early '80s, ain't exactly a conservative move -- especially when you have a mind like Timbaland's on your side. Of course, Missy's flow can be as unusual and imaginative as Tim's beats, whether she's rhyming futuristic about the art of the sexual grind, or throwing shout-outs to her somewhat neglected forebears. And her much-vaunted weight-loss has her contemplating the wild thing more than ever before. Nasty, nasty.

10) Los Lobos, Good Morning Aztlan (Hollywood). America's a place that often delivers thorns in spots that could just as easily serve up blossoms, and as they smile, pound, sting, and shiver on this great comeback disc, these blue-collar artistes remind us of the ways we disappoint ourselves. But politics doesn't drive these culturally insightful songs. Throughout the riff-tunes, borderbilly, and soulful psychedelia that the respected 50-somethings have quietly mastered over the past 20 years, it's the animation of the performances that shakes you silly. Few of 2002's records can boast the kind of big heart and rhythmic lift-off found here.

10a) Youssou N'Dour, Nothing's In Vain (Coono Du Reer) (Nonesuch). There's less production glitz that usual on this somewhat acoustic, somewhat folksy move. But the unbounded momentum and pop sense that has marked all of the terrific Senegalese singer's previous work is front and center. As N'Dour's Super Etoile band plies the music's intricacies, they stress the melodic as well as rhythmic. "I feel like a bird today/I'm gonna show you/I'm gonna move you," sings the leader on this keenly natural outing. You couldn't turn your head if you wanted.

Best jazz albums of 2002

1) Jason Moran, Modernistic (Blue Note). The esteemed pianist makes the constant changes of this solo date seem like a flight of fancy -- merely a string of ideas that he's messing around with. But it's a ruse. A lot of formal structure is needed to put weight behind whimsy. Updating Earl Hines, deconstructing hip-hop treasures, and getting romantic on "Body and Soul," Moran reminds that his mastery of the rudiments can take him to spots of offhanded profundity.

2) Branford Marsalis, Footsteps of Our Fathers (Marsalis Music). Some listeners were dubious of the bandleader's choice of interpreting such prominent jazz jewels as Trane's "A Love Supreme" and Newk's "Freedom Now Suite." But those who honed in on his quartet's devastating interplay found that a piece of music is what you make it. This disc is nothing but sparks, sparks, sparks, explosion. The connection between the saxophonist and drummer Jeff Watts is disturbing.

3) Keith Jarrett, Always Let Me Go: Live in Tokyo (ECM). The pianist's music is all about grace these days, but it's the level of cogent abstraction that really makes you turn your head on this double disc. It's his group, with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock, and all three members feed each other musical ideas that steadily morph, steadily resonate, and steadily engage.

4) Wayne Shorter, Footprints Live (Verve). This document of Shorter's last tour is novel because it was there he returned to tenor sax, the horn on which he made his greatest statements. He reaffirms his signature trait of mystery by trading wonderfully elliptical melody lines with pianist Danilo Perez. Frags are torn from the larger fabric and sewn together with insight and daring. The motor of drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist John Pattitucci keeps it all humming.

5) Andrew Hill, A Beautiful Day (Palmetto). It's a live date that does a good job of showing how composing and soloing can be evenly divided. The veteran pianist's primary gift is in the former field, and the tunes he brought to Birdland are so fertile, the players in this large ensemble are able to take them in remarkably personal directions without altering any of the master's designs.

6) Jenny Scheinman, The Rabbi's Lover (Tzadik). Some records are simply laid out correctly, and the self-titled convincer by violinist Scheinman's string and brass ensemble isn't just a parade of strong solos, but a dreamscape of compelling tunes, sounds, and emotions. The radical Jewish culture reflected by its Tzadik affiliation is in full effect. But be prepared for romance, sorrow and -- for a few moments at least -- the kind of modern experimentation that wears its heart on its sleeve and keeps a tune on its lips.

7) Charlie Christian, Genius of the Electric Guitar (Columbia/Legacy). There can never be too much grace in the world. These 98 tracks document the imagination of the seminal jazz guitarist as heard through the filter of Benny Goodman's ensembles from 1939-41. It's about joy and intellect, about thinking of highly personalized ways to say something that everyone will understand. Can't get out of bed? "AC-DC Current" is for you.

8) Sephardic Tinge, Our Beautiful Garden Is Open (Tzadik). I'm a sucker for discs that flaunt their philosophy in the title (Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come), and though the New York trio probably stumbled on the moniker when waltzing by a chic East Village eatery, it speaks volumes about their outcat originality. Pianist Anthony Coleman, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Michael Sarin show their agile side as they roll through freedom swing, deep reflection, and approachable dissonance -- not to mention some wild-ass rhumba motifs. A great example of modern jazz's current scope.

9) Various Artists, Verve Remixed (Verve). Stressing deconstruction and dance beats for the most part, a bevy of electronica producers redress classics from the esteemed Verve catalog. The results aren't earthshaking -- basically the disc is what you initially imagine it to be. But they are addictive. Each of the cuts has its own eerie personality. A straying lover is scolded by MJ Cole's take on Carmen McRea's "How Long Has This Been Going On." And Rae & Christian make you feel part of a police line-up in Dinah Washington's "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby." Perhaps the most appropriate catch phrase of these mildly heretic tracks is Billie Holiday's "don't explain."

10) Tie: Matthew Shipp, Nu-Bop (Thirsty Ear), and DJ Spooky, Optometry (Thirsty Ear). New York pianist Shipp has spent the last two years playing curator: he oversees the imaginative Blue Series for the Thirsty Ear label. Invitee Spooky samples his host's quartet playing live, mixes the samples in with his own real time improvising, improvises on that, adds other artists and other instruments, bends those into moments that segue into the larger soundscapes, improvises on that, turns the whole thing back on itself, improvises on that. Thick, beguiling, dreamy, rude. Nu-Bop finds Shipp's trio augmented by synth programmer FLAM, and the result is a jazz/hip-hop collision that works often enough to raise a lot of interesting questions about texture, swing, and unk-fay.

TRACKS OF MY TEARS (AND LAUGHTER)
It's a digital world we live in these days. MP3s get passed back and forth among friends. Jukebox song lists are made for the daily commute and thrown on the iPod (or a similar digi device). Single tracks -- once called album cuts -- took on a prominence than they haven't had in a long time. There was a catch phrase of quality in my circle this year, with many pals asking "Is that song 'Pod-worthy'?" Here's a string of those that are. Load 'em up and go for a loooonnng walk. Fountains of Wayne, "Better Days" * Peter Wolf, "Nothing But the Wheel" * Linda Thompson, "On the Banks of the Clyde" * Van Morrison, "Choppin' Wood" * Tweet, "Oops (Oh My)" * The Donnas, "It's On the Rocks" * Super Furry Animals, "Drawing Rings Around the World" * They Might Be Giants, "Speck of Dust" * Drive By Truckers, "Ronnie & Neil" * Dave Douglas, "Poses" * The Streets, "Let's Push Things Forward" * Bonnie Raitt, "Gnawin' On It" * Beth Orton, "Thinking About Tomorrow" * Bruce Springsteen, "Lonesome Day" and "Countin' On a Miracle" * Nelly, "Hot In Herre" * Jurassic 5, "A Day At the Races" * Pink, "Don't Let Me Get Me" * Elvis Costello, "Spooky Girlfriend" * The White Stripes, "Hotel Yorba" * Duncan Sheik, "On Her Mind" * Eminem, "Without Me" * Delbert McClinton, "Jungle Room" * Mark Eitzel, "Snowbird" * Mekons, "The Olde Trip to Jerusalem" * Norah Jones, "Cold, Cold Heart" * Saint Etienne, "Language Lab" * Solomon Burke, "None Of Us Are Free" * Suzanne Baca, "Si Me Quitaran Totalmente Todo" * TLC, "Girl Talk" * Weezer, "Keep Fishin' " * Justin Timberlake, "Senorita" * Me'Shell Ndegeocello + Yerba Buena! featuring Ron Blake, "Gentlemen" * Sonic Youth, "Rain On Tin" * Steve Earle, "The Kind" * N.E.R.D., "Lapdance" * Queens of the Stone Age, "A Song For the Dead."

REISSUES
1) Johnny Paycheck, The Soul and the Edge (Columbia/Legacy).

2) Thelonious Monk, Monk's Dream (Columbia/Legacy).

3) Pavement, Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe (Matador).

4) John Coltrane, A Love Supreme (Verve).

5) The Band, The Last Waltz (Rhino).

6) Dan Hicks, It Happened One Bite (Rhino Handmade).

7) Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove (Priority/Capitol).

8) Rodney Crowell, Ain't Livin' Long Like This (Audium).

9) Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honky Blues (Acadia).

10) The Replacements, Let It Be (Restless).

Issue Date: December 27, 2002 - January 2, 2003