2002 | Year End Favorites

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head (Capitol)

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch)

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (Matador)

Bright Eyes - LIFTED or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (Saddle Creek)

Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (Kill Rock Stars)

Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed the Fish? (Artist Direct)

Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me (Anti/Fat Possum)

Spoon - Kill the Moonlight (Merge)

Clinic - Walking With Thee (Domino)

Steve Earle - Jerusalem (E-Squared)

Primal Scream - Evil Heat (Columbia/UK)

Gemma Hayes - Night on My Side (Source/UK)

Ryan Adams - Demolition (Lost Highway)

The Coral - The Coral (Deltasonic/UK)

Sigur Ros - ( ) (Fat Cat/PIAS)

Liars - They Threw Us All In A Trench and Stuck A Monument On Top (Blast First/Mute)

Electric Soft Parade - Holes In the Wall (db/UK)

Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly (Rhymesayers)

Sparta - Wiretap Scars (Dreamworks)

Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses (ATO)

2001 | Year End Favorites

Strokes - Is This It (RCA)

Travis - The Invisible Band (Epic)

Tortoise – Standards (Thrill Jockey)

White Stripes - White Blood Cells (Sympathy For The Recording Industry)

Ryan Adams – Gold (Lost Highway)

Les Savy Fav - Go Forth (French Kiss)

Tindersticks - Can Our Love... (Beggars Banquet)

Pernice Brothers - The World Won't End (Ashmont)

Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album (Barsuk)

Zero 7 - Simple Things (Ultimate Dilema)

Bjork – Vespertine (Elektra)

Pete Yorn – Musicforthemorningafter (Columbia)

Dismemberment Plan – Change (Desoto)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C. (Virgin)

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part (Reprise)

Lucinda Williams – Essence (Lost Highway)

Califone – Roomsound (Perishable)

Rufus Wainright – Poses (Dreamworks)

Dashboard Confessional - Places You Have Come To Fear Most (Vagrant)

Four Tet – Pause (Domino)

2000 | Year End Favorites

Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (Bloodshot)

Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (Matador)

Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump (V2)

Thievery Corporation - Mirror Conspiracy (Eighteenth Street Lounge)

Sunny Day Real Estate - The Rising Tide (BMG)

PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (Island)

Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)

Sigur Ros - NY Batteri/Agaetis Byrjun (Fat Cat)

Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (Sony)

Susana Baca - Eco De Sombras            (Luaka Bop)

Neko Case & Her Boyfriends - Furnace Room Lullaby (Bloodshot)

Beachwood Sparks - Beachwood Sparks (Sub Pop)

Cat Power - The Covers Record (Matador)

Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (Barsuk)

Radiohead - Kid A (Capitol)

Laika - Good Looking Blues (Beggars Banquet)

AtomBombPocketKnife - Alpha Sounds (Southern)

Chicago Underground Duo – Synthesia (Thrill Jockey)

aix Em Klemm - aix Em Klemm (Kranky)

The Tied and Tickled Trio - EA1 EA2 (Drag City)

1999 | Year End Favorites

Wilco - Summer Teeth (Reprise)

Mogwai - Come on Die Young (Matador)

Built to Spill - Keep it Like a Secret (Warner Bros.)

Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros.)

Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage (volume 1) (Fly Daddy)

Tom Waits - Mule Variations (Epitaph)

Ben Harper - Burn To Shine (Virgin)

Smog - Knock Knock (Drag City)

Superchunk - Come Pick Me Up (Merge)

Labradford - E Luxo So (Kranky)

Folk Implosion - One Part Lullaby (Interscope)

Low - Secret Name (Kranky)

Bonnie Prince Billy - I SeeA Darkness (Drag City)

Tram - Heavy Black Frame (Jet Set)

Cocteau Twins - BBC Sessions (Bella Union)

Various Artists: Warp10+3 Remixes (Warp)

Death Cab for Cutie - something about airplanes (Elsinor/Barsuk)

Bardo Pond - Set and Setting (Matador)

Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight (Rocket Girl)

Appliance – Manual (Mute)

1998 | Year End Favorites

Mogwai - Any and All Releases (Chemikal Underground)

Godspeed You Black Emperor - F#A# Infinity (Constellation/Kranky)

Neutral Milk Hotel – In an Aeroplane Over The Sea (Merge)

Bob Dylan - Live 1966 (Columbia)

Lounge Lizards - Queen of All Ears (Strange & Beautiful Music)

AMP – Stenorette (Kranky)

Richard Buckner - Since (MCA)

Bedhead - Transaction De Novo (Trance Syndicate)

Marc Ribot - Y Los Cubanos Postizos (Atlantic)

The Beta Band - The Three EP's (Regal)

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – ACME (Matador)

Elliot Smith – XO (Dreamworks)

Darla Records - Bliss Out Series (Darla)

Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves (DGC)

Tortoise – TNT (Thrill Jockey)

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue (Elektra)

PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? (Island)

Seam - The Pace is Glacial (Touch and Go)

R.E.M. – UP (Warner Brothers)

Don Caballero - What Burns Never Returns (Touch and Go)

BEST LIVE PERFORMANCES

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS @ METRO (CHICAGO)

RADIOHEAD / SPIRITUALIZED @ ROSEMONT THEATER (CHICAGO)

SONIC YOUTH @ RIVIERA (CHICAGO)

JEFF TWEEDY SOLO PERFORMANCES @ LOUNGE AX (CHICAGO)

1997 | Year End Favorites

Radiohead - OK Computer (Capitol)

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating... (Matador)

Bettie Serveert - Dust Bunnies (Matador)

Tindersticks – Curtains (London)

Bardo Pond – Lapsed (Matador)

Helium - The Magic City (Matador)

Laika - Sounds of the Satellites (Too Pure)

Stereolab - Dots and Loops (Elektra)

Sonora Pine – II (Quarterstick)

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (Dedicated)

Velvet Underground - Fully Loaded (Atlantic)

Flying Saucer Attack - New Lands (Drag City)

Portishead – Portishead (London)

Labradford - Mi Media Naranja (Kranky)

The Sea and Cake - Two Gentlemen (Thrill Jockey)

Will Oldham – Joya (Drag City)

Elliot Smith - Either/Or (Kill Rock Stars)

T Model Ford - Pee Wee Get My Gun (Fat Possum)

Galaxie 500 - Copenhagen (Ryko)

The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good (Jade Tree)

1996 | Year End Favorites

Wilco - Being There

Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die

DJ Shadow - Entroducing...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads

Beck - Odelay

Tricky - Pre-Millenium Tension

Afghan Whigs - Black Love

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Red House Painters - Songs For A Blue Guitar

Jonathan Fire Eater - Tremble Under Boom Lights

His Name Is Alive - Stars on E.S.P.

Los Lobos - Colossal Head

The Jesus Lizard - Shot

The Cardigans - Life

Silkworm - Firewater

Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Pearl Jam - No Code

Luscious Jackson - Fever In / Fever Out

Guided By Voices - Under The Bushes Under The Stars

The Fall - Light Users Syndrome