As usual with my Top Ten lists, this one is ridiculously tentative, changeable, and apt to be outdated rapidly. (In fact, it already is: since I put it together, I've acquired two of the "missing" CDs listed herein, both impressive: The Negro Problem's Welcome Black and Spoon's Kill the Moonlight.) And as is also usual, I'm incapable of counting. (The groupings represent rough ties for position.) Consonant Consonant Interpol Turn On the Bright Lights; Pedro the Lion Control Elvis Costello When I Was Cruel; Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; Mary Lorson & Saint Low Tricks for Dawn Guided by Voices Universal Truths & Cycles; Seaworthy The Ride; Mary Timony The Golden Dove; David Bowie Heathen Brendan Benson Lapalco; John Vanderslice Life and Death of an American Four-Tracker; The Soft Boys Nextdoorland; Statuesque Live from Lake Vostok; The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Polara Jetpack Blues; Sixteen Horsepower Folklore. A few relatively underheralded titles that are worth hearing although not as good as the above: Maki Tears on the Blastshield; Koester The High Highs, the Low Lows; Elf Power Creatures. Some fine EPs (ranked separately): Wire Read & Burn 01 and Read & Burn 02 (so far, I prefer 01); The Wrens/Five Mod Four split EP; The Soft Boys Side Three; Marmoset Mishawaka. A bunch of commonly cited (well, among people I know anyway) titles I don't yet own: Spoon Kill the Moonlight*; The Negro Problem Welcome Black*; Beck Sea Change; The Mekons OOOH!; Low Trust. * but see above... Some not so commonly cited titles I don't own yet but want to: Liars They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top**; Franklin Bruno A Cat May Look at a Queen; The Black Watch Jiggery-Pokery. ** winner, best album title, 2002 Welcome reissues: Elvis Costello, Psychedelic Furs, Violent Femmes, Go-Betweens Relative disappointments (i.e., I still like them, but they're not as good as I'd hoped): Stew The Naked Dutch Painter; Aimee Mann Lost in Space; Pere Ubu St. Arkansas; Preoccupied Pipers The Crispy Taste of Hell; Tommy Keene The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down Expected disappointment: Breeders Title TK 2003 releases I'm most looking forward to: The Wrens Meadowlands (scheduled for May 2003 on Absolutely Kosher); The Caribbean History's First Know-It-All (scheduled for February 2003 on Endearing); Scott Miller & Aimee Mann Don't Hate Us Too Bad (on Superego)*; Anton Barbeau w/Bevis Frond (?) * title, label, and 2003 release date speculative, i.e., entirely my imagination...but it is being recorded, so I'm optimistic MIA...: The Rock*a*Teens, Macha