Candlebox
Artist: Candlebox
Community Score: 8.41

Candlebox rode the alternative bandwagon to the top of the charts with their self-titled debut album. Taking the heaviest moments of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and adding both the confinements of a pop song and the attitude of album rock, Candlebox managed to sell over two million copies of their first album. Nothing on Candlebox is... Read More

Staying Loose (A Compilation)
Artist: H.P. Zinker

Vienna songwriter, guitarist, and singer Hans Platzgumer fronted the H.P. Zinker outfit for several years, establishing a connection with several key American artists and actually creating something of a following for himself in the process. This is more than one can say for quite a few other European rock artists, especially ones from Vienna. A... Read More

Jump Salty Ep
Artist: Pinhead Gunpowder
Community Score: 8.73

For all those who don't have a record player or have a hard time collecting all the vinyl Pinhead Gunpowder released before the Carry the Banner EP, this is perfect. Jump Salty is comprised of the "Fahiza" and "Trundle and Spring" singles along with various hard to find tracks that were released on four scattered compilation albums. Even if this... Read More

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

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

Fluorescent
Artist: Steve Wynn

No longer does Wynn allow his various bands to crash and burn or his producers to drown out his fire. With some subtle shifts in instrumentation, Wynn takes on Dylan's Nashville Skyline voice (a tone that suits him) and turns out pop and folk ("That's Why I Wear Black") and even Victoria Williams on "Layer by Layer." ~ Denise Sullivan, All Music... Read More

Jeremy - UK
Artist: Pearl Jam
File Under: Easy Listening
Artist: Sugar
Community Score: 3.50

Given Bob Mould's reputation for searing electric rock & roll, it may be easy to think that the title of File Under: Easy Listening is ironic, and it is to a certain extent. But beneath the loud guitars lie the friendliest, most relaxed pop songs Mould had ever written. "Your Favorite Thing" and "Can't Help You Anymore" are two of Mould's most... Read More

Smash
Artist: The Offspring
Community Score: 8.18

The Offspring's second album for Epitaph did the impossible: it landed in the Top Five, unheard of for independent records. The Offspring crossed over due to the raucous, Eastern-tinged single "Come Out and Play," which stopped and started just like Nirvana, only without the Seattle trio's recklessness. The record stayed in the charts because... Read More

Post Historic Monsters
Artist: Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine

For the band's fourth album in as many years, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine takes a darker and more fed-up tone than before. Where albums like 1992: The Love Album or 101 Damnations had been more overtly tongue in cheek, there's a new kind of directness and even a little bitterness on display on Post Historic Monsters. The acoustic folk of... Read More

Too High to Die
Artist: Meat Puppets
Community Score: 7.23

Although the Meat Puppets' previous album, 1991's Forbidden Places, was one of the Arizona trio's finest, the band wasn't completely happy with the album's sound, courtesy of longtime Dwight Yoakam producer Pete Anderson. So on their second album for London Records, 1994's Too High To Die, the trio hooked up with Butthole Surfer Paul Leary to... 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

The Best of the Call
Artist: The Call
Community Score: 10.00

The Best of the Call compiles all of the hits and best-known songs from the group's career, adding a couple of solo tracks from their leader, Michael Been, as well as two new tracks by the band, which feature contributions from Bruce Cockburn and Jim Keltner. It's a near-definitive collection, and for the casual fan, it contains all the Call... Read More