Critics critique art, not sales receipts. That's why the best-selling CDs don't automatically make the Top 10 list. Fortunately, in 2004 several of them did.

1. BIG & RICH, "HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR" (WB)
Start with the time-honored country music touchstones of God, simple living and drinking to excess. Add world-class production values and open-minded musical experiments. Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich took their debut CD a dozen steps farther by challenging country fans to cross the genre's final barriers and accept a cameo on several songs by a black country rapper. What's truly groundbreaking about "Horse of a Different Color," however, is that the duo was signed to and backed by a major Music Row label, the non-mainstream single "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" got heavy mainstream radio play, and the CD was among the world's most popular country albums. Welcome, "hick-hop," to the big time.

2. LORETTA LYNN, "VAN LEAR ROSE" (INTERSCOPE)
For the first time in her legendary career, 69-year-old Loretta Lynn wrote every song on one of her albums. Her 29-year-old producer, garage rocker Jack White, paralleled Lynn's homespun wit with minimal production or effects-laden guitars and gave the country album an understated, underground vibe that directs the focus to Lynn's voice and stories. "Van Lear Rose" may be her best album ever.

3. DOLLY PARTON, "LIVE AND WELL" (SUGAR HILL)
After being dumped by mainstream radio for being too old, Dolly Parton was free to explore country music outside the cookie cutter. Recorded in front of a participatory crowd in her Dollywood Theater, "Live and Well" catches Parton reviving and explaining the origins of some of her biggest hits and covering non-country artists from Neil Young to Led Zeppelin. Yes, you read that right. Parton's "Stairway to Heaven" is priceless.

4. KEITH URBAN, "BE HERE" (CAPITOL)
Proving that 2002's "Golden Road" wasn't a fluke, country's newest superstar Keith Urban shot back in 2004 with "Be Here," an album that proved just how clever, interesting and well-performed mainstream country music can be. The hit "Days Go By" is as good as the album cuts, including a fun cover of the best aw-shucks, down-home, tin-twangy country song that Bernie Taupin and Elton John ever wrote, "Country Comfort."

5. ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION, "LONELY RUNS BOTH WAYS" (ROUNDER)
No country artist communicates a sense of bittersweet intimacy better than former teen fiddle prodigy Alison Krauss. All grown up and drifting from her bluegrass roots, Krauss surrounds herself with some of Nashville's best, including Jerry Douglas and Dan Tyminski. On "Lonely Runs Both Ways" she writes a bit, roams from contemporary acoustic to traditional folk to good ol' 'grass, explores the more somber sounding viola, and sings in a pillow-talk coo like a heartbroken angel.

6. MARTY STUART & HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES, "COUNTRY MUSIC" (COLUMBIA)
As if to emphasize the value of surrounding yourself with outstanding talent, former Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash sideman Marty Stuart absolutely nailed the first album he released in four years. "Country Music" has it all: inspired playing, smart production, wonderful songs, celebrity cameos and a deep appreciation of country music's expansive roots.

7. SUGARLAND, "TWICE THE SPEED OF LIFE" (MERCURY)
Music Row got it right this time when it signed the trio Sugarland to its first recording contract. The songwriting is mainstream-accessible and thought-provoking, and singer Jennifer Nettles has a rich, powerful and distinctive voice. Call it free-range country -- It's what happens when the music isn't fenced in.

8. ALAN JACKSON, "WHAT I DO" (ARISTA)
Alan Jackson will be remembered as one of the truly great country songwriters. On "What I Do," he didn't do as much of what he does best, relying on outside songwriting more than he has in the recent past. Nevertheless, the singer of simple songs does it with dignity, grace, a distinctive voice and just enough of a willful, independent streak to make it one of the best country albums of 2004.

9. CLINT BLACK, "SPEND MY TIME" (EQUITY)
Thank you, Clint Black, for bypassing the Nashville establishment and co-founding a new record label that gives music artists more freedom and control of their albums and careers. It's purely a bonus that Equity Records' first release is one of the best country albums of the year, overflowing with interesting songs written or co-written by Black and spotlighting what's best about country music.

10. TIFT MERRITT, "TAMBOURINE" (LOST HIGHWAY)
On the conventional side of the alt-country tracks, Tift Merritt's second solo album since leaving Two Dollar Pistols and The Carbines stretches from introspective singer-songwriter ballads to raging electric guitar work to brassy horns. Just barely beyond the reach of country's mainstream, Merritt is exactly where she should be, making music that deserves a wider audience.