Here's my take on Music 2004. I wrote it in late December for the Village Voice, which annually polls me and 1,399 other rock critics. Since then, I've mellowed toward the U2 and, had I heard it earlier, I would have substituted Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter's Oh My Girl (Barsuk) for the Madeleine Peyroux. Otherwise, what I wrote stands, slightly amended (see the U2 comment toward the end). I've Amazoned what I think are the key recordings in my piece. PazznJop (which the voice will publish Feb. 9) is a great exercise; God love Robert Christgau.

As an aging Jewish rock critic with what seems to be a genetic affinity for soul music, I've become increasingly alienated from commercial radio. It's not just the commercials, it's the homogeneity. The beats may rock me but the message doesn't - when there is one, it's all about consumerism and narcissism. I've also grown accustomed to absorbing my music rather than pursuing it, not a good thing. I'm eager to hear what's fresh, and used to happen upon it on the radio and through promotional CDs. Both have dried up in the past few years. If not for a friend's car stereo, I wouldn't have heard Rilo Kiley, The Mountain Goats, the Libertines, bands I've caught a taste of but haven't heard enough. Makes me think I should read more about music, hear/see more and buy it like the consumer I think I write for. Trouble is you feel burned when you buy albums like I did Christmas Eve just to hear the whole things and they turn out to be stiffs. Maybe another route is the XM Radio in my car: lots of variety, Tom Petty as a DJ, good selections, fresh and/or obscure material, like a record store used to be. Yet another is iPod; I'm the only one in my family who doesn't have one and I'm going to try it this year. Between XM and Apple, it feels like the '60s, when you went into your record store listening booth, slapped on a platter, slipped under headphones and sampled. I hope the good old days of music come back in 2005 with new material. I know it's out there. This year, no album jumped out at me like Outkast's double did a year ago. But one tune did: American Idiot, first heard on XM. It's the Son of Clash I've been waiting for since the '80s. Can't wait to see what four more years of King Dubya will produce; count on some dynamite protest music, spoken in many tongues.