I Feel Old: I always do when I see something like Radley's best albums of 2002 list. Actually, I'd bet that Glenn Reynolds is older than I (since I didn't fool away any time in law school), yet he's still much hipper than I. Golly, what did I love this year? Well, the Wilco stuff was good, Kinks-y fun, but a bit of a yawn after several cuts. Ryan Adams (any of it) has a trying-too-hard-to-do-Nashville-Skyline feel that I despise. (Am I the only one who thinks that Bob Dylan never passed up a chance at an easy, dumb rhyme?) The straight-up country of the Chip Taylor/Carrie Rodriguez outing was more satisfying than any of the recent alt-country stuff. But mostly I went back. For example, XTC's Skylarking is one of the most underplayed albums of all time. (Fish up a cut off that on any station and I bet it's "Dear God.") The Police's Regatta de Blanc, which features three Stewart Copeland originals, also spent a lot of time in my car, along with Steve Earle's not-so-latest, Transcendental Blues. And, through my son (and via a gift from my brother- and sister-in-law), I rediscovered Abbey Road, the Beatles' masterpiece. (Yeah, spare me the Revolver lectures. Great album, but Road is flawlessly written, performed, and produced.)