Yume Bitsu's
The Golden Vessyl of Sound

Not only did Yume Bitsu win in a landslide in the Reader Poll, trouncing closest competitors Sigur Ros and The Books, but it also won in the Writer Poll, edging out Comets on Fire, Windy and Carl, and Jack Rose. The Golden Vessyl of Sound also becomes the first album ever to win both the Reader and Writer Polls.

We were actually glad to see a lot of grass roots support in this year's voting. In what had been a close three-way race, it probably proved to be the final difference in Yume's victory in the Reader Poll, pulling them in front in the last ten days of voting in a fashion that would make Ferdinand Marcos and Manuel Noriega proud. Tanakh's Villa Claustrophobia also had a few sudden surges in popularity, placing them fourth overall. While being high profile and popular may be some indication on quality, so is the devotion of an artist's fanbase, so don't discount their place on THE LIST.

Thanks to everyone who voted. It was quite entertaining reading all of your comments on THE LIST... a fairly even split between people who got the joke and people who didn't. If you hoped our little parody of a long gone VH-1 TV show would be a comprehensive evaluation of the year in music, I'm sorry. Hopefully someone out there learned of a great, unheralded 2002 release that they otherwise wouldn't have. If that happened, THE LIST was a complete success, despite how much fun we had acting like idiots and juvenilles discussing the records, or how little fun some of you had reading it! Perhaps the saddest comments of all were the ones that said "You eliminated every decent record from this year."

The Writer Poll provides only a few surprises, as the items that got the most recognition were well discussed on THE LIST and included in the Reader Poll. It does provide the requisite more complete accounting of what the writers listened to in oh-two, if that interests you.

And that closes the door on 2002. Here's to 2003. If you have any comments about the site, please send us an email or stop by our message board. Look for our next issue on February 21st.