I'm not *all* that keen on top ten lists, because you always have to leave a lot of great stuff off the list. Last year I fudged it by doing some halfbaked list of lists thing, this year I've gone back to the more usual format, and so I've decided to go at it from the completely subjective angle, according on each album's impact on me. (Is there any other way?)

Even then, I've ended up fudging it out to twelve, because I counted sixth and tenth twice. Oops. I posted a draft version on VM a few days ago, but here it is again, buffed up to cause more arguments. (I really do enjoy deleting comments from indignant George fans.)

1. Augie March - Strange Bird
I felt that Sunset Studies was perhaps a little monochromatic and slow, but this one certainly hit the spot, ranging the gamut from rollicking raveups, to quietly simmering ballads, but all done with a curious otherworldiness. I will stand by my claim that "This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers" is the song of the year, and if the Hottest 100 voters don't agree I'll eat my hat.

2. Midnight Oil - Capricornia
What a way to go out. Raw and yet refined, as is their want - the energy of Species Deceases with the inventiveness of Red Sails In The Sunset. I was convinced that they would take out top spot until Augie March showed up.

3. Múm - Finally We Are No One
Yes, its a tad twee, but this album coalesces the best parts of Yesterday Was Dramatic... - the crunchy beats combined with real instruments and all that into a more cohesive mix, and keeps it going for the whole album. Highlights for me are "Now There's That Fear Again" and "The Land Between Solar Systems".

4. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Better than Music Has The Right To Children - Spooky in parts, evocative in others, and still with that obsession with numbers. There are parts where it does seem as if BoC are trying to reprogram you to do something like destroy Tokyo. Leslie Neilsen popping up doesn't hurt either.

5. ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
The best American rock album of 2002 - Neither post-rock or nu-rock, pseud yet guttural, rowdy yet strongly melodic. Sure, there's a bit of that Daydream Nation vibe, but again, they've got their own thing going on. Nice segues too. There were few better songs than "Relative Ways" all year.

6. You Am I - Deliverance
Clearly their best album since Hourly Daily, takes a few risks, such as on "'Til The Clouds Roll Away", along with a few safe bets, such as "Words For Sadness" which couldn't anyone else but You Am I. Frustrated Tim is gone, though there are always the old records again if you want to hear them.

6. Sonic Youth - Murray Street
Picks up slowly, but "Karen Revisited" and "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style", even "Plastic Sun" nail it. And in "Sympathy for the Strawberry", we finally get to hear Sonic Youth channel Faust (the band), and it all works.

7. Yann Tiersen - Amelie soundtrack
The movie killed me, and the music had a fair bit to do with it.

8. Waikiki - I'm Already Home
Not the most intense album around, but with some lovely songs, and yes, it reminds me a bit of the Clouds in parts, and Juanita's voice, hmm. Plus some Pro Tools operator hasn't sucked all the soul out of the record, as happened with George's Polyserena.

9. Ninetynine - The Process
And for something completely different, though there's some great pop in here as well, and elsewhere bounces between the low-key and the over the top. Very unrock, and nevertheless it rocks. Highlights: The harmonies at the end of "December", Cameron's cat-scaring delivery of "Baluchistan".

Equal 10th. Wilco Yankee Wilco Foxtrot
Not the greatest record in the history of the world, though perhaps the first country & krautrock album. Some well written songs with interesting stuff going on in the background. "Reservations" is the sealer.

Equal 10th. The Breeders Title TK
Vulnerable but not naïve, they've been through a lot in the interim, the Breeders' return is a good'un. Even if you think Steve Albini botched the GY!BE album, he certainly did the trick here, stripping back each song to the minimum required to support it, with an aesthetic akin to electro.