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If you don't know Civil Twilight, you certainly you know their playbook -- this South African arena-soft-rock trio reaches for U2-style grandiosity with every fiber of their gentle, arty beings. Their second album is a quiet riot of burbling electro-pop bathed in frontman Steven McKellar's lovely falsetto and lots of big-budget romanticism: "As much as I want to be found/ Please don't find me." The noisier parts nod to hipper indie bands like The Antlers, but delicate piano ballad "It's Over" is the real killer here: "Just one touch from you and I'm over." Travis fans, look out.

The esoteric but alluring collage of sounds on Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot earned them the No. 6 spot on our Best of 2002 poll. The songs traverse styles, from the bleak "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" to the perky "Heavy Metal Drummer," all the while retaining Wilco's signature pawnshop-guitar-run-through-a-dozen-effects-pedals sound.