Four volumes into its annual roundup of pop music writing, Da Capo appears uncertain how to top the terrifically varied 2001 and 2002 entries. Guest editor Matt Groening seems a slightly odd choice, and at just under 300 pages, his contribution to the series is neither long nor diverse enough to avoid feeling like something of a letdown. Still, Groening makes some fine choices, rescuing a number of terrific pieces from recycling-bin obscurity: Lynn Hirschberg reports on the manufacture of a (failed) teen-pop phenom; The Onion skewers indie rock insularity; and Gary Giddins offers a detailed year-by-year map of postwar jazz. I often found myself reading on despite a disinterest in the stories’ subjects—surely the hallmark of good journalism—for example, Terry McDermott’s blow-by-blow history (choose your own pun) of gangsta-rap pioneers N.W.A. Elvis Costello’s recent Vanity Fair snippet, matching each hour of the day with its ideal musical accompaniment, is the perfect bon-bon to bring this banquet—or, at least, really good buffet— to a close.