Let It Be
Artist: The Replacements
Community Score: 9.14

The Replacements half-heartedly tried to expand their reach on Hootenanny, and they followed through on that album's promise on Let It Be. Kicking off with the country-rock shuffle of "I Will Dare," the record explodes into a series of pseudo-hardcore ravers before hitting Paul Westerberg's piano-driven rumination, "Androgynous," one of four... Read More

Exit the Dragon
Artist: Urge Overkill
Community Score: 9.10

Sonically falling somewhere between Supersonic Storybook and Stull, Exit the Dragon is a dark, lean album, the flipside of Saturation's glossy celebration of '70s rock & roll excess, and easily Urge Overkill's most haunting collection of songs. It kicks off with "Jaywalking," a terse, powerful rocker lamenting "all the evil in this world," which... Read More

Unplugged + More
Artist: David Byrne

This revamping of a previous bootleg (eight additional songs), called David Byrne Unplugged, has remarkably good sound quality due to a direct recording from the sound board and a mild-mannered audience at the small venue in which it was recorded. It does an excellent job of demonstrating the intimacy that he generates in a small, live setting.... Read More

Generation: The Best of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
Artist: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

A fine introduction to Red Lorry Yellow Lorry for the curious in the States, Cleopatra's Generation: The Best Of selects 13 of the Leeds group's finest moments prior to their signing with RCA for 1988's Nothing Wrong. It shares nine songs in common with 1986's Smashed Hits singles compilation, stretching out the time period covered by its... Read More

The Rest of the Best
Artist: The Pogues

The Rest of the Best is a solid sampling of the Pogues' output up to 1994, even when one considers that the collection in a way amounts to the second best-of, since The Best of the Pogues was released less than a year before this collection. Though the album suffers from a sequencing problem, with three of its strongest songs out of the way... Read More

Amplified Heart
Artist: Everything But the Girl
Community Score: 8.25

Despite its title, Amplified Heart is one of Everything but the Girl's more acoustic works. A simple instrumentation of guitars and keyboards, augmented here and there by British folk-rock veterans like Richard Thompson, Danny Thompson, and Dave Mattacks, serves to set up a series of songs of romantic disillusionment. Declaring "my life is just... Read More

The Very Crystal Speed Machine
Artist: Thee Hypnotics
Community Score: 10.00

Thee Hypnotics have always sounded heavily influenced by The Stooges, and this album is no exception. But here, the band strikes a heavier '70s classic rock stance, which is perhaps due in part to The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson heading the production duties. What we get is the fevered guitar play of Ray Hanson with splashy guitar, organ, drum,... Read More

Kerosene Hat
Artist: Cracker
Community Score: 6.75

With their second album Cracker have lost the smarmy self-righteousness that plagued their otherwise fine debut, replacing it with a surprisingly solid, rocking core. Kerosene Hat is David Lowery's least affected album yet -- its humor is no stranger than "Dead Flowers" by the Stones or "Fat Man in a Bathtub" by Little Feat, two groups that... Read More

14 Songs
Artist: Paul Westerberg
Community Score: 9.00

Paul Westerberg's second solo LP (we all know the Replacements' final All Shook Down was really not a band LP) is a damn sight better than his first, with a batch of really nice tunes and some renewed enthusiasm (it's not as much of a downer); still, it's hard to resist the belief that he's capable of more than this. The fault is two-fold: One,... Read More

Saturation
Artist: Urge Overkill
Community Score: 5.17

When they hit the major labels, Urge Overkill followed through on their promise with the blistering Saturation. It's stadium rock by clever post-punkers who are smart enough to not let their carefully crafted image interfere with the music. Every one of the 12 songs is a killer, from the outlandish menace of "Stalker" to the moving ballad "Back... Read More

Stull EP
Artist: Urge Overkill

It's not the full-throttle rock masterpiece that Supersonic Storybook suggested, but the Stull EP is almost as remarkable. Opening with a straight cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" (which fits Urge Overkill's image perfectly), the EP is an atmospheric guitar workout. While "Stitches" is a salute to their punk roots, the most... Read More

The Supersonic Storybook
Artist: Urge Overkill

With the addition of drummer Blackie Onassis, Urge Overkill shapes up into a killer rock & roll combo. It also doesn't hurt that the songs are the finest they have written to date. Although the production is a little flat, there's no denying the force of the best tracks. "The Candidate" boasts a huge, stadium-size riff, "The Kids Are Insane" is... Read More

All Shook Down
Artist: The Replacements
Community Score: 8.33
Oyster
Artist: Heather Nova
Community Score: 8.90

In some ways, Heather Nova is more talented than many of her female singer/songwriter contemporaries. She has an appealing voice, strong lyrics, and memorable melodies -- that is, when she delivers. Unfortunately, many of her albums are uneven, with Nova delivering the goods as often as she misses the mark. The best moments on her second album,... Read More