100% Fun
Artist: Matthew Sweet
Community Score: 9.16

Clocking in at 45 minutes, Matthew Sweet's third record of guitar-dominated, hook-laden power pop runs through its 12 songs at a classic speed, piling up songs that lovingly conform to the three-minute pop tradition. Richard Lloyd's gnarled guitars save Sweet's melodies and harmonies from being saccharine or sappy. Behind Sweet's bright hooks... Read More

Theme Park
Artist: BMX Bandits

After the relatively straightforward Gettin' Dirty, 1996's Theme Park moves right back into the all-over-the-place ethos of the earlier BMX Bandits records, with a slightly higher recording budget. Frustratingly, the album also features a return to the self-indulgent experimentation of albums like 1990's C-86 and More, with the smartly written... Read More

Strange Country
Artist: Billy Strange

Recorded in the 1960s (the liner notes do not specify the exact date), this was a sessionman supersession of sorts, also featuring Joe Maphis on banjo, Tommy Tedesco on second guitar, Jimmy Bond on bass, and Earl Palmer on drums. Strange offers fluid, crisp instrumental interpretations of a mixed bag of folk and pop tunes, including not only... Read More

Greatest Hits
Artist: Robyn Hitchcock
Community Score: 10.00

Disappointingly, the 1980s failed to recognize the genius of Robyn Hitchcock. As a member of the Soft Boys until they broke up in 1981, Hitchcock went on to write some extremely witty, off-the-wall, and peculiarly clever music. With a sound reminiscent of Lloyd Cole and even Elvis Costello at times, Hitchcock's jangly Brit-pop is made up of... Read More

Shoe Box EP
Artist: Barenaked Ladies

Do they have the worst band name since Haircut One Hundred? Yes. Are they one of the finest pop groups in the world? Almost certainly. Their debut album was a tuneful, slapstick adolescent romp and their second was a remarkably mature folk-rock outing filled with as many irresistible hooks as a good Beach Boys album. This four-song EP previews a... Read More

Ten Years After
Artist: Tommy Keene

The first full-length album since 1989's Based on Happy Times, Ten Years After comes closer to capturing the raw energy of a Tommy Keene live show than any of his previous studio recordings. Kicking off with a hard guitar assault in "Going Out Again," the intensity and emotion is sustained throughout the rest of this superb 12-song collection.... Read More

Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It
Artist: Teenage Fanclub

The band took to a living room to record some off-the-cuff acoustic versions of songs from each of their albums -- "Don't Look Back," "Everything Flows, " "Starsign, " and "120 Mins." It works, but the between-song noodling is annoying and makes it difficult for radio DJs and home tapers to segue. ~ Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide Read More

Happy Nowhere
Artist: Dog's Eye View
Community Score: 8.00
Driving into the Sun
Artist: Tommy Keene
Singles
Artist: The Smiths
Community Score: 7.86

The Best of the Smiths collections didn't work because they didn't have a sense of history and distorted the underlying sense of urgency that helped make the Smiths important. Singles simply collects all of the singles from one of the greatest singles bands since the Beatles. It's essential and influential guitar pop, presented in a way that... Read More

Running on Ice
Artist: Vertical Horizon
Community Score: 9.50

Fans of Vertical Horizon's breakthrough album Everything You Want may want to add Running on Ice to their collection. First released in 1995, their debut was distributed by Rhythmic Records (home of Jacopierce) for a reason. The album is a folk-based collection of songs with none that resemble the hard rock, electric guitar sounds that made them... Read More