We pay homage to the very best records of 2002, as selected by the Editor. Read about the reigning creative heavyweights - Tom Waits, Wilco - and their vivacious young challengers - Damien Rice, Okkervil River, and more.

In Part One and Part Two of Blank's 2002 retrospective, Dan examines the year's highs and lows, month-by-month. It was a sad and silly year of Enduring Freedom, cock-ups, and moose attacks.

As memory-loss sets in, Ash's favourite films of 2002 fade into his favourite films of "last week", or just "the films I’ve seen in the last week, [with] the ratings [left] up to you."

All of the brightness and optimism of 2002 is encapsuled in the closing moments of a visit to The Lion King: writer Dan Beirne, actor Nathan Lane, and larynx scars.

Julian gazes upon the best books published in 2002, and decides he probably hasn't read enough of them. Instead, these are his best reading experiences of the year, publishing dates be damned.

The Best Links of 2002 is a collection of the very best stuff we saw - and linked to - on the Internet last year. There's everything from madcap Flash nonsense to sensible - and illuminating - articles. We're not the only site on the Web, you know.