I've Got a Little List Okay, obviously, given the fifty quadzillion reviews on this site, and the as-many-more recordings I namecheck herein, I'm a pop-geek of the highest water. And so, of course, I offer here a series of "Top Ten" lists going back to when I started ADS late in 1996. (Note also: "ten" is a serious understatement of how many titles are typically listed per year - more like 25 - 30.) But I have some reservations about the project. As much music as I get to hear, there's loads more I never do: I do this reviewing thing strictly as a hobby, and in terms of priorities it ranks well behind my two real jobs and many other things in my life. That means, for one thing, that when I look back at older top tens, I notice curious omissions, records from that year that I now listen to all the time. Conversely, albums I was high about back then in some cases lose their lustre or just get less attention than my initial enthusiasm might suggest they deserve. Along with the reservations, I have a confession: despite my pop-geek bona fides, I'm not naturally inclined to list-making, ranking of the greatest bass solos ever, etc. Just never been that into it. The real reason I started doing this was simply wishing to put in my two pfennigs' worth among the other music fans on the Loud Family mailing list, my main online home. (The list itself has, like any good list, evolved into something far more than a forum for discussion of a particular musician: weeks will pass during which no one will post anything about the nominal subject of the list.) So by way of introduction to the lists themselves, I'd like to note a couple of things. I automatically excluded live albums, EPs, compilations, and the like from consideration. I exclude EPs and compilations because each, in different ways, stacks the odds in favor of better songs (it's easier to put together four great songs than twelve, right?). I exclude live albums for similar reasons - and also because generally, I don't like 'em anyway. I haven't edited the lists from their original appearance (except for typos, grammatical errors, etc.), no matter how embarrassing some selections might strike me as being today... 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Here, by the way, is the Bart Simpson Memorial Underachievers' CD List (last updated January 2001): titles that I originally listed that I'd no longer list, and/or that I really should listen to more frequently (unsurprisingly, most are from the lower reaches of their respective year's listings). None of them are bad - but they don't seem to be as good as all that, either: Aden Black Cow, Archers of Loaf All the Nations Airports, Frank Black & the Catholics Pistolero, Cibo Matto Viva! La Woman, The Fall The Light User Syndrome, Neil Finn Try Whistling This, Bill Fox Transit Byzantium, Mitchell Froom Dopamine, Future Bible Heroes Memories of Love, Joe Henry Fuse, Kristin Hersh Sky Motel, His Name Is Alive Ft. Lake, Jawbox [s/t], Labradford E Luxo So, Laika Sounds of the Satellites, Los Lobos Colossal Head, lovesliescrushing Xuvetyn, Moonshake Dirty & Divine, The Nields Gotta Get Over Greta, Liz Phair Whitechocolatespaceegg, Polvo Exploded View, Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Tobin Sprout Let's Welcome the Circus People, Sunset Valley Boyscout Superheroes, Swirlies They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons, Richard Thompson Mock Tudor, Those Bastard Souls Debt & Departure, Jules Verdone Diary of a Liar...and more to come...