ure, we try to get it right the first time. But every year, some singles slip through the cracks one way or another. In the spirit of making things right (and in preparation for the forthcoming Best Singles of 2003 list), the Stylus Staff provide you with a retrospective of some of the best 2002 singles we neglected to mention the first time around.

DNTEL - (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan

How you feel about this prophetic glitch-pop meetup between Jimmy Tamborello’s nominal Dntel and Death Cab indie-crooner Ben Gibbard has a whole lot to do with whether or not you cottoned to their unholy alliance a year later, as 2003’s favorite snail mail boy band, the Postal Service. Lyrically, this cut is much more slippery and suggestive than the gleefully transparent bulk of Give Up, while its near-industrial intro and monolithic static track don’t provide much of a sonic template for the breezier, more buoyant full-length, making "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" less of an appetizer and more of a splendidly incongruous tease. Which doesn’t mean it’s better than Give Up, of course, because after all, there’s no Jenny Lewis.

[Josh Love]

Primal Scream – Autobahn 66

I’m pretty sure there are vocals on this song somewhere, but I always tune them out. To me it’s just that mechanistic, relentless drumbeat, with ghosts floating over the top; an endless cycle of forward motion, going nowhere. It’s great music for typing, for any repetitive activity. It’s best, of course, for driving. Put this on repeat, buy a car that never breaks down or needs gas, find an endless road, and go forever.

[Ian Mathers]

Lucky Pierre - Angels on your Body

This 7” by Aidan Moffat’s (Arab Strap vocalist) instrumental project, Lucky Pierre, waltzed into the world to reasonable indifference, but I keep coming back to this, and the LP, Hypnogogia, again and again. A deliciously coy sample of strings flirts around the song like one of those shy damsels in a Merchant Ivory production behind a shifting buzzing bass, mock disco percussion and a tiny cherubic horn part. This juxtaposition makes it too jarring to file it under Eno-style "discreet" music and tune-wise it’s too engaging to be a dreary wannabe DJ Shadow collage.

[Scott McKeating]

Beenie Man feat. Lady Saw and Sean Paul – Bossman

It's odd that a track with such a great Neptunes beat would go overlooked, especially with a cameo by dancehall's reigning superstar. Beautiful strummed guitars, a buzzing bass, and a stomping beat – they all take a back seat to the melody, in which two notes climb an octave once… twice… thrice! Beenie Man's gruff ragga stylings add to the colorful chaos. About a thousand times better than that Elephant Man song.

[Gavin Mueller]

Kylie Minogue – Love at First Sight

Not having heard "Can’t Get You Out of My Head" until November 2002, I barely knew of "Love At First Sight"'s existence around the time of Stylus’s singles list last year. That said, when I found out it did, I immediately downloaded it. But because (ridiculously, only because) it lacked those sublime "ba-ba-ba"s that made "CGYOMH" so alluring, I dismissed it as "good," but not "great." Luckily, I heard it on the radio about a month later. I had been listening to Discovery quite a bit then, and the keyboards absolutely knocked me over in their immaculate Daft Punk-style delight. The catchy chorus and the soaring strings helped, but in the same way "CGYOMH"'s "ba-ba-ba"s grabbed me, it was that keyboard sound that made me write rank it one of 2002’s best moments in pop music.

[Kareem Estefan]

Ms. Jade - Ching Ching

It's pretty clear upon a few listens that Ms. Jade's "Ching Ching" is not one of Timbaland's strongest beats. Ms. Jade herself isn't much to really speak of either; her vocal presence isn't commanding enough to stand out, and her verses are merely passable. On first glance, "Ching Ching" might sound like a generic track. However, what sets this song apart from any random rap single is the perfectly addictive hook. In the end, all that needs to be said is "ba da ba ba ching ching ching, ba da ba ba ba ching ching".

[Dane Schultz]

Capitol K - Pillow

I do not believe that a piece of music exists that you can not get sick of. After exhausting (at least to some extent) The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” Blur’s “Girls and Boys” and (nooooooo!) New Order’s “Temptation,” my theory seems to be relatively substantiated. However, if such a piece of music still exists for me, it is probably Capitol K’s “Pillow,” the sadly unheralded musical highlight of last year. Everyone raves about DNTEL’s “(This is) The Dream of Evan and Chan” (which is still pretty fabulous), but if we’re talking about the seamless integration of emo-pop and IDM, “Pillow” is decidedly the go-to single, sounding something like (wait till you hear this!) Belle and Sebastian covering Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker” – impossibly sweet and catchy but still sensual, utterly twisted and unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. This song ruined its parent album Island Row for me – serves Capitol K right for placing one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard so early in its running order. I just want to go back and play it over again.

[Andrew Unterberger]

Mary J Blige – No More Drama

A lone late night piano opens and closes this impassioned LP title track fashioned from a heartbeat bass drum, low bass sounds, melodic synthesizer squelches, bells and choirs. As the song progresses, Blige becomes more and more animated towards a purging emotional peak, taking little solace in the realisation that life’s problems result as much from one’s own choices as with others' actions. Thankfully stopping short of Mariah-esque histrionics, the gospel choir and handclaps build behind her as she steps out and away from the track belting out her pain and frustration. Unlike the majority of today’s R&B, this song reveals a damaged emotional core; the cry of utterly someone sick with the bullshit life can throw at us.

[Scott McKeating]

Fabolous – This is My Party

Fabolous may deserve the title of luckiest man in rap (from practically nowhere he gets top-of-the-line producers, guests, and promotion), but such a reputation underestimates his rhymes, which are on point here. A giddy Timbaland beat propels Fabolous through the night's festivities as well as the morning after – "same clothes as yesterday, same hoes as yesterday, lighting clips of the same 'dro as yesterday." This is hip hop I can relate to.

[Gavin Mueller]

Erick Sermon ft. Redman - React

"React" had the misfortune to be released as a single near the very end of 2002, which doesn't suit it at all. Had it been released early this summer, it could have sat nicely alongside the club banger by Punjabi MC and Jay-Z. The beat here is nice, almost swaying along with the "heat in my lap keeps me walkin' awkward" line. And there are handclaps! But what really makes the whole thing stand out is not just the Bollywood sample, but Sermon and Redman's interaction with it. Throughout it, they respond to it, "Whatever she said then I'm that" as if she's the one girl that both of them want. It definitely deserves all the love it can get.

[Dane Schultz]

Beth Orton - Concrete Sky

After a pair of blissfully enganging, if slightly affected, electro-informed indie-folk releases, Daybreaker was clearly Beth Orton’s classicist move, her attempt to smooth over all of the awkwardness and singular eccentricities of her music and construct an album worthy of the AAA-approved canon. As expected, most of it came off as rather faceless and half-hearted, but for this mood-driven bit of expert adult contemporary pop. That might not sound like much of a recommendation for a former Chemical Brothers medium who’s been graced with remix treatment from Four Tet, but damn if it doesn’t trump Sarah McLachlan at her own game, and that should count for something, right? Not to mention the fact that it features an understated (!) performance from Ryan Adams, who also co-wrote this would-be crossover.

[Josh Love]

DJ Shadow – You Can't Go Home Again

I’m one of the ten or so people out there who liked The Private Press better than …Endtroducing. I still don’t get what everyone was complaining about – The Private Press was fucking fantastic, perhaps lacking the shocking innovation of …Endtroducing but more than making up for it in, well, fun. The Private Press is an extremely fun album, and “You Can’t Go Home Again” is a blast. You can even dance to it – when did you think you’d be able to say that about the latest single from the master of slow-‘n’-low? Rolling Stone described it as “New Order playing ska,” and they’re not too far off. The flamenco guitar from Simon and Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pasa,” a guitar playing the keyboard riff from Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night,” and a great “Loaded”-esque vocal sample at the beginning all add to the party. If he gets as good as this, DJ Shadow should have loosened up ages ago – the clock on the wall doesn’t always have to read a quarter past midnight.

[Andrew Unterberger]