I didn't get a chance to hear many of the much-lauded releases of this past year - as I result I'm feeling rather tentative about the following list. Not that I dislike anything on it - it just strikes me as rather predictable, full of obvious selections...and rather under-listened-to.

Furthermore, it strikes me as singularly ridiculous whenever anyone makes pronouncements like "1997 was a bad year for music." Why? There's something like 20,000 titles released each year - no one could possibly hear them all. And yet, unless you have, how do you know that among the unheard titles are ten records that would completely blow you out of the water? You don't, that's how.

**THE TOP TEN**

1. Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
2. Superchunk Indoor Living
3. Michael Penn Resigned
4. Guided by Voices Mag Earwhig!
5. Björk Homogenic
6. Stereolab Dots and Loops
7. Pavement Brighten the Corners
8. Future Bible Heroes Memories of Love
9. The Apples in stereo Tone Soul Evolution
10. Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Released domestically this year, elsewhere last, that might have made the list (I count them as '96): Julian Cope Interpreter, Laika Sounds of the Satellites

Most Peculiar Musical Item Foisted on Me by Someone Else: whatever Beach Boys album it is that features "Johnny Carson."

Most Peculiar Musical Item, Self-Foisted: Komar & Melamid w/Dave Soldier: The People's Choice Music

My wish for 1998: The last trendy cigar burns up the last beanie baby while the Spice Girls are trapped in the flames, and it's possible to walk five feet without some dead ex-princess being shoved in your face.

Hot New Musical Trend: Electro-Klezmer