This is a pop list according to my source, but with Leela Jones, Kate Bush, etc. on here, I'm not sure that's true. Anyway, the top 10:

1. Madonna: "Confessions on a Dance Floor," (Warner Brothers)

It's a safe bet Madonna would rather be issuing albums like the dour, serious "American Life" than gummy confections like this one, but after the fortuitous tanking of "Life," she's beat a retreat to the relative safety of the clubs. A seamless, sugary mix of electro-pop, disco and '80s kitsch, "Confessions" is her best album since "Ray of Light."

2. Fiona Apple: "Extraordinary Machine," (Sony)

If several tracks here seem as if they've wandered in from another album, it's because they did: "Machine," Apple's terrific comeback disc, is divided between rickety, Tin Pan Alley-style pop (courtesy of producer Jon Brion, who produced an early version of the disc) and the more straightforward, piano-based numbers of "Machine" Mach 2. These intricate, loaded compositions demonstrate that Apple has become one of pop's smartest and most authentically peculiar songwriters (and she's even funny! Sort of.).

3. Kate Bush: "Aerial," (Sony)

This double-disc set, Bush's first after a 12-year break, is a heartbreakingly lovely and reliably eccentric outing that floats between jazz, pastoral rock and Bush's oft-imitated style of breathy and impressionistic folk-pop. Simultaneously ethereal and solid, and quite sexy in its amiable, freshly scrubbed way, it's a fascinating meditation on death, celebrity, motherhood, nature and everything in between.

4. Stevie Wonder: "A Time To Love," (Motown)

Like Kate Bush, Wonder hasn't made an album in years (his last disc was released in 1995). "Time" takes on everything from funk to jazz to soul, with some bossa nova thrown in, too. There are restrained cameos from Paul McCartney and Prince, to name a few, but Wonder doesn't need the help; this is masterful, old school R&B with an emphasis on melody, and hardly an ounce of fat.

5. Mariah Carey: "The Emancipation of Mimi," (Island)

"Emancipation" was so nice that Carey released it twice, once last spring and again earlier this fall with added bonus tracks. "Emancipation," Carey's best and most energetic set of tracks at least since "Butterfly" and maybe ever, is an irresistible mix of soulful ballads, dance tracks and mild hip-hop executed with a minimum of scenery chewing. It's the sort of record she should have been making all along.

6. Carly Simon: "Moonlight Serenade," (Columbia)

Simon was making standards albums when current king Rod Stewart was barely out of his disco phase: Her latest, which marks a reunion with producer Richard Perry, responsible for some of Simon's '70s blockbusters, is a tuneful and suitably loungey offering drawing from her usual repertoire of classics from Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, et al. It's the sort of thing she can do with her eyes closed by now, but her voice has never sounded warmer or more assured.

7. Leela James: "A Change Is Gonna Come," (Warner Bros.)

James is the latest in a recent line of neglected female R&B singers that includes Angie Stone and Vivian Green. Her debut is a nifty fusion of soul, funk and gospel, all sung in a voice that falls somewhere between the throaty purr of Tina Turner and the velvety voice of Mavis Staples. The title track is a plummy and mostly faithful version of the Otis Redding classic, but happily James isn't afraid to play fast and loose with arrangements: The best song here is a cover of No Doubt's "Don't Speak," converted into a plush ballad.

8. Neil Diamond: "12 Songs," (American/Columbia)

After reintroducing Johnny Cash to his roots in the '90s, producer Rick Rubin works the same magic on Diamond, whose reputation had fallen into disrepair after decades of Vegas hamminess. Armed mostly with an acoustic guitar and a set of moving, wintry ballads, Diamond sounds better, and certainly more austere, than at any time in recent memory. Even better: There's a special edition with two additional tracks, one of them a Brian Wilson duet that can't be beat.

9. Michael Buble: "It's Time," (Reprise)

Fast becoming one of the great interpreters of his generation, Buble wraps his impressive voice around the requisite standards as well as relatively recent numbers by Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. While it's routine for male crooners to be compared with Sinatra, in Buble's case it's actually sort of true. Good news for the standard-phobic: An original Buble composition, "Home," suggests the singer might have a decent future as a songwriter.

10. Van Morrison: "Magic Time," (Geffen)

Morrison's recent albums have been frequently spotty and joyless affairs, but "Magic Time" is a marvel all the way through, a bristly, rollicking disc featuring forays into blues, jazz and funk as well as the singer's familiar Celtic soul. Many of the tracks here are covers (most notably, there's a near-perfect rendition of Fats Waller's "Lonely and Blue"), but Morrison's original material is equally impressive, and his voice, with its inimitable blend of cantankerousness and longing, has never sounded better.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

This should not be considered the TRIBUNE's "official" top ten list, as it is a "pop" list compiled by Allison Stewart for the Sunday Arts section, which contained numerous genre lists by a variety of TRIBUNE writers -- all as accompaniment to the main rock list compiled by the paper's primary music critic, Greg Kot. Here's his top 20 list:

1. Kanye West, LATE REGISTRATION
2. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
3. Sleater-Kinney, THE WOODS
4. Common, BE
5. The New Pornographers, TWIN CINEMA
6. Out Hud, LET US NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN
7. Amadou & Miriam, DIMANCHE A BAMAKO
8. Low, THE GREAT DESTROYER
9. M.I.A., ARULAR
10. Tom Brosseau, WHAT I MEAN TO SAY IS GOODBYE
11. Danger Doom, THE MOUSE AND THE MASK
12. Otis Taylor, BELOW THE FOLD
13. Bettye LaVette, I'VE GOT MY OWN HELL TO RAISE
14. Sons and Daughters, THE REPULSION BOX
15. Keren Ann, NOLITA
16. John Legend, GET LIFTED
17. High on Fire, BLESSED BLACK WINGS
18. The Perceptionists, BLACK DIALOGUE
19. Antony and the Johnsons, I AM A BIRD NOW
20. KIRAN AHLUWALIA

By the way, Kot and his CHICAGO SUN-TIMES counterpart Jim DeRogatis have a radio talk show called SOUND OPINIONS, which is now heard on Chicago Public Radio. DeRogatis' 2005 top 40 list can be found, along with Kot's, at the program's web site, http://www.soundopinions.com

contribute to the Pazz-N-Jop poll, thenthat's where thse would come into play in regards to Acclaimed Music.

Wow - I think this is the first place I've seen John Legend's great GET LIFTED mentioned.