Welcome to my world, where the motto is: It's the melody, stupid! Consequently, Power Pop, Brit-Pop & soulful R&B reign supreme. Here are 10 rock & r&b discs from 2002 - 5 new releases, 5 reissues/greatest hits discs - that top my list in 2002.

Reigning Sound - Time Bomb High School
Garage rock meets the best of the Memphis Stax/Volt catalog in a rollicking rave up. My favorite disc of the year.
Doves - The Last Broadcast
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
The Yin and Yang (or Yeah! and Yearn) of Brit-pop this year. Doves find love uplifting, Coldplay find love lost or unrequited. Play Coldplay's "In My Place" back-to-back with Doves' "Pounding," and you've got the two sides of this coin. (See here for my earlier Coldplay review)
Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up on Me
The last remaining great R&B singer (at least, the only one that's still recording & doesn't currently have a Memphis ministry). Burke digs deep and soars high with some help from Tom Waits, Van Morrison, and Brian Wilson (among others).
Badly Drawn Boy - About A Boy Soundtrack
I'm a sucker for Paul McCartney & Brian Wilson, and on BDB's soundtrack to the Nick Hornby-penned movie, we find Badly Drawn Boy moving forward from "Hour of Bewilderbeast" to craft an album full of pop nuggets that references these two great pop icons.

For the casual fan: if you own the following five 2002 albums, you'll never need to buy another disc by these venerable artists again.
The Holmes Brothers - Righteous! The Essential Collection (see here for my earlier Blogcritics review)
Elvis Presley - Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits
Rolling Stones - 40 Licks
David Bowie - Best of Bowie
The Who - The Ultimate Collection

Finally, one non-rock album: if you like high-octane salsa music, check out Maraca's Tremenda Rumba!, which doesn't fit this list's criteria, but is another must-have from 2002.