More albums from this year I like

(i think of northern state's *dying in stereo* and t.a.t.u. and tim mcgraw and jason timberlake {all of which i like a lot} and i-forget-what-else-right-now as 2002 albums, too...)

or whatever the hell his name is

Uglyass Q. Dripdick, I think the real name is.

No, keep it there! "Literal release date does not matter"!!! Or something like that. You vote for stuff that made IMPACT this year.

(That's how a whole bunch of 2001 albums finished on the 2002 list! And how I voted for Drive-By Truckers myself last year, for instance.)

And since reissues are now part of the regular poll, and since those releases are nearly impossible to keep track of, you could probably get away with voting for Butt Trumpet or Rasputin's Stash or Vision Quest OST or whatever.

"Change! It doesn't matter who you are!"

And the Transplants should be shot repeatedly. With diamonds.

Tracks 1, 7, 8, 10, and 11. I think I like Daddy Freddy's voice best. Took me a while. Definitely don't listen in the car; that won't work. It didn't hit me until I played it in the background at the office.

And maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that the people most disappointed by the new Grandaddy album are people who severely overrated their previous album; I dunno, to me they seem just about exactly as good as each other. (Favorite songs on the new one, last time I listened: "I'm On Standby," "El Caminos in the West," "Saddest Vacant Lot in All the World," "Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake." It's better than the new Fruit Bats CD, and their previous one wasn't as good as the previous Fruit Bats CD, for whatever that's worth.) (Neither Grandaddy record is as good as the previous Sixth Great Lake reccord either; I get all three bands mixed up because they both make me think of Pavement covering *Workingman's Dead,* or something.)

But he's not singing about ANIMALS anymore!! I thought zoology was his whole point! (Musically, too, the new one just seems a lot duller to me than the previous one. Though a couple songs do jump out of it.)

And yeah, Pavement doing *Workingman's Dead* was indeed a compliment. (And though I haven't given it much thought, the hybrid might give Pavement-style music a warmth it lacked before. Just like the new Malkmus album, where he plays Wishbone Ash type stuff, seems to.)