If you like your pop a little left of center and found the Postal Service to be too cute and syrupy, your fix is here.

The astute and eclectic programming makes for a better listen than other attempts that have been made to compile '80s alternative rock.

The album flows like sweet maple syrup from beginning to end, Kilgour's intimate croon caressing you like kind words from an old friend.

Though Snoop Dogg never slipped from the charts, Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Bo$$ smacks of a comeback, and it's a great one.

A stunning debut and one of the best records of 2002.

Aaliyah isn't just a statement of maturity and a stunning artistic leap forward, it is one of the strongest urban soul records of its time.

Needless to say, the time is right for the phrase "just another" to be banned from use when discussing him.

Elephant overflows with quality -- it's full of tight songwriting, sharp, witty lyrics, and judiciously used basses and tumbling keyboard melodies that enhance the band's powerful simplicity.

Not just his best album since Blood on the Tracks, but the loosest, funniest, warmest record he's made since The Basement Tapes.

Arthur is in a class of his own and Our Shadows Will Remain is a monstrous, memorable outing, his finest moment in a career that is thus far full of them.

The best tracks on this album stand up well against the likes of the Move and the Creation, or at the very least, the Green Pajamas and the Apples in Stereo.

An album that, for all of its flaws, is still easily one of the best rock records of 2002.

At its best, the album seems to accomplish everything lagging post-shoegazers like Spiritualized or Chapterhouse once promised. However, at its worst, the album sometimes slides into an almost overkill of sonic structures

Far more interesting than any of their other records, or their peers'.

But while De-Loused in the Comatorium may well remove the stigma from the prog and art rock forms it suggests, and is certainly a monument to unbridled creativity, it can also be seen as bombastic and indulgent.

Remarkably, these songs not only retain their emotional core even after they've been cleaned up, but they perhaps even gain more resonance in this setting.

Pawn is immediately grabbing, and instead of fading upon further plays, it reveals more with each listen, whether it's a lyrical turn of phrase or an unexpected twist in the arrangement.

A simple, straight-ahead match of excellent MC with great producers.

This time the group finds a better balance of the simple and the strange, making Loud Like Nature their most exciting album since Avant Hard.

Neko Case has crafted an album whose quiet drift only adds to its power; it's hard to say if hanging out with Nick Cave on tour had much of an influence on her, but this disc sounds a bit like Case's version of The Boatman's Call, a personal exploration of the heart and soul that proves sad and beautiful can often walk hand in hand.

We Are Science sees Dot Allison going beyond even the highs of One Dove and crafting an accessible, evocative masterpiece that consistently surprises and thrills.

Without a doubt the most moving, ambitious, and elegant album of her career thus far.

Red Dirt Road is not just one of Brooks & Dunn's most ambitious records, it's also one of their best.

To the duo's credit, Matmos avoids making A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure grisly or gross; Andrew Daniel and Martin Schmidt approach the album's concept with their usual playfulness and an appropriately clinical detachment, resulting in some clever and surprisingly diverse songs

This might not necessarily qualify as an archival record filled with unexpected revelations, but it is filled with wonderful music that deepens appreciation of Bowie's first great blast of creativity. Needless to say, any true fan needs it in their collection...

Constantly yields new musical surprises.

All the Gang Starr trademarks are in place, from Premier's perfect upchoruses to Guru's reedy voice cutting or instructing, and sounding better than ever.

Luckily her sixth full release has some true charm, with some fine blue-eyed soul and slickly produced rock. But the production tries too hard to align her with Sheryl Crow's growling sound.

Builds considerable muscle to the skeletal frailty of intricate guitar work while commendably maintaining all which was good of their debut.

The wild thing is that M!ssundaztood not only works, it works smashingly -- a bewildering amalgam of sounds and attitudes that shouldn't fit together, but defy all odds and do.

One of the best rap LPs of the year.

In a sense, this is Built to Spill's pop album: every song is direct and clean, without the long, cerebral jamming that characterized their earlier albums.

There really isn't another dance/rap act on the scene that combines snarky teenage style with seriously slammin' retro dance beats the way Fannypack does.

Her confidence blossomed this time around and vocally, she's never sounded so good.

Their brightest, most accessible album to date... the band is absolutely brimming with confidence and vitality.

Easily the most satisfying Songs: Ohia album since Axxess & Ace.

The sound is huge and intimate all at once; the songs have hooks and staying power.

Is less a bold statement of principle as it is a blossoming into maturity.

Hard Candy is the sound of a band at a creative and poetic summit.

Kish Kash may be the best dance record of 2003, but it's the least imaginative LP the duo have ever released.

With an unlikely rock blend of classicism and narrative, British Sea Power has composed a brilliant album that's nearly perfect. It's not exactly pop, but it might as well be.

Hypnotic Underworld is a new high-water mark from one of rock's most interesting bands.

With Return of Saturn, No Doubt have made a terrific, layered record that exceeds any expectations set by Tragic Kingdom.

A perfect commingling of the spirits of dub reggae and mid-'70s soul and groove jazz.... NdegeOcello's finest moment on record thus far.

Gracious and redemptive, it is a rapt, quiescent masterwork.

The ability to make a genuine album -- and not just a collage of songs -- from a wide interest in musical styles is truly what makes this album such a delightful and great surprise.

Life on Other Planets is a smashing return to form, an album giddy with the sheer pleasure of making music.

If there were any doubters about Lamb being the brightest, most talented singer/producer combo in electronica, What Sound is all the argument needed to the contrary.

As good a record as any he's made, possibly his best.

Despite Lucky's glossy, easily digestible tendencies, it still burns bright with the usual Etheridge fervor.

If Cobblestone Runway's surfaces may initially puzzle a few fans, the heart, soul and hard-won wisdom of these performances confirm that he's finally mastered the recording studio, and it ranks with his best-realized work to date.

While there are come similarities to their previous efforts Bedside Drama and The Gay Parade, Coquelicot is more ambitious in its concept, arrangements, lyrics, and even artwork.

Beet, Maize & Corn is a dramatic reinvention of the High Llamas.

This soundtrack is a powerful tribute not only to the time-honored but commercially ignored genres of bluegrass and mountain music but also to Burnett's remarkable skills as a producer.

An album that shares a spacy sadness with Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider and Radiohead's OK Computer. Though it's a little more self-conscious and not quite as accomplished as either of those albums, it is Grandaddy's most impressive work yet and one of 2000's first worthwhile releases.

Sparse, noir-tinged melancholia... If David Lynch should ever film a TV series in England, here are the soundtrack composers.

The band is making the finest music in the history of its collective.

Pretty, brittle, subtle, full of surprises, and disarming in its ability to set moods, Life Is Full of Possibilities is a masterpiece that places Dntel near the top of the heap of electronic artists working in 2001.

These days music fans will be hard-pressed to find an album so satisfying.

Stephin Merritt's most ambitious as well as fully realized work to date, a three-disc epic of classically chiseled pop songs that explore both the promise and pitfalls of modern romance through the jaundiced eye of an irredeemable misanthrope.

By shedding the smirking artifice that served Casanova so well, and hiring producer Nigel Godrich, the Divine Comedy may be treading dangerously close to the sounds of countrymen Radiohead, but the Divine Comedy are smart enough to give listeners just enough lyrical bit to throw them off the scent.

Panda Park is uplifting, mesmerizing, glittery, and unapologetically psychedelic while sounding rooted in both '70s prog and skewed latter-day punk rock.

This is a remarkable album; it sets a new water mark for Frisell's sense of adventure and taste, and displays his perception of beauty in a pronounced, uncompromising, yet wholly accessible way.

With Fan Dance, Sam Phillips has made an album that proves modesty is one the rarest and most welcome virtues in pop music today.

Wanna Buy a Monkey? shows off Nakamura's ear for a great track as well as his deft turntablist skills.

While the appealing rawness of their early material is occasionally missed here, the strides forward that the group makes on this album more than make up for it.

While the Rapture and to a lesser extent Radio 4 made off with all the headlines, !!! was making the best music of all the retro-punk-disco dancers.

It's the first album of hers that's a sheer pleasure to hear.

Showcases a band testing themselves by going down an untravelled road while still maintaining their identity.

A work of beautiful, desolate fragility.

The bottom line here is that Kozelek's aesthetic with Sun Kil Moon may not be radically different than his RHP project, but it is moving, graceful, and consciously beautiful.

Underscoring the songwriting skill he's been working at since age eight and over the course of 11 songs, he plays acoustic, folk-rock, alternative, power pop, and straight-ahead rock; his lyrics are consistently heart-sung but they aren't lite (he's got weight and bite too).

Shows a serious artist crafting his medium.

The depth of his production sense and the breadth of his stylistic palette prove just as astonishing the second time out.

It is simply the bravest, most emotionally wrenching record she's ever issued.

You Are Free may take awhile longer than expected to unfold, but once it does, its excellence is undeniable.

It's difficult to imagine how Badly Drawn Boy could've improved on The Hour of Bewilderbeast any better than this astonishing work.

Despite all attempts to sabotage his songwriting and production with innumerable experimental tidbits, songs within a song, and (seemingly) tossed-off arrangements, Damon Gough has to face the fact that He wrote and produced over a dozen excellent songs of baroque folk-pop for his album debut, and the many gems can't help but shine through all the self-indulgence.

With rugged guitar riffs and solos and Finn's half-sung, scratchy voice, the Hold Steady mostly succeed, easily recalling the classic rock of early Bruce Springsteen or the sincerity of latter-day Hüsker Dü.

The main complaint voiced by critics of Godspeed's music is that their works just repeat the same pattern: start out sparse and slow, build-build-build, crescendo. While there are certainly crescendos, there is no such predictable pattern repeated among the works on Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven -- it's loaded with dynamics, unexpected sections, strong emotions and beauty.

As serious as things get on Penance Soiree (and the choppy "Spit On" gets pretty serious), there's the happily nagging notion that Icarus Line just want to entertain, and that they're damn good at it.

Their familiarity with vintage instruments and addictive laid-back swagger help them avoid the pretension that sometimes follows the Beta Band.

A fantastic debut album that only gets richer and better with more listens, Gallowsbird's Bark is more fully formed and daring than most second or third albums from many bands.

Ultimately, No! is one of the group's most creative albums in years, and undoubtedly one of 2002's best children's releases, because it says yes to fun and individuality.

Listeners who came of age during the alt-rock revolution and were disappointed, even outraged, at Liz Phair's Matrix makeover in 2003 should find In Exile Deo is exactly what they were looking for.

Phrenology is the hardest-hitting Roots album to date, partly because it's their most successful attempt to re-create their concert punch in the studio.

Happiness in Magazines feels like Coxon's first true solo album -- it's the first to present a complex, robust portrait of him as an artist, and the first that holds its own next to what he accomplished in Blur.

Refreshingly simple and cleverly stupid, I Get Wet makes indoctrination fun again.

It, admittedly, may be a bit too much for someone who isn't quite a big devotee of the band, but it's a veritable godsend for those who've been waiting for this for years.

A set of electronica that's nearly as challenging as Autechre's relentlessly academic beat manipulation but just as funky and instantly gratifying as a Fatboy Slim flag-waver.

Far more than someone like Beth Orton -- who seems positively conventional in comparison -- she's creating a new paradigm for singer/songwriters, with electronics an integral part of her sound, rather than an afterthought.

His tracks are vibrant and imaginative, calling on fuzzed-out guitar solos and summer-day vocals that recall a raft of solid shoegazers.

Plenty of fuzzed, struttin', propulsive guitar work on this disc to assault your ears.

23rd Street Lullaby is a wise, grown-up record, yet it is guided by an untamed, wily heart.

It could be the most innocent, charming and believable record of 2003.

Being both ear shattering and spine tingling at once, this is Fugazi at their "musical" best.

By not just defying but denying the expectations about what their music should be like, the Liars have created one of the most fascinating, confrontational albums of the 2000s.

To call Bachelor No. 2 a masterpiece may be overstating the matter somewhat, since an album this intimate and unassuming (but not unconfident) doesn't call attention to itself the way self-styled masterpieces do. However, it isn't hyperbole to call it the finest record Mann has made to date.