Willing to Wait
Artist: Melissa Ferrick

Eluding the sophomore jinx with a vengeance, Melissa Ferrick certainly appeased patient fans and critics with her fabulous second effort, Willing to Wait. Ferrick reveals an awful lot of insights into her own psyche through her craft. She battles her inner demons with a pen and a guitar, creating incredibly delicate and intimate poetry through... Read More

Faith in Space
Artist: Lida Husik

As always with Lida Husik, the title of this album seems accompanied by a slight tongue-in-cheek wink to her electronic-obsessed peers, but it also happens to be entirely appropriate. The main difference between Faith In Space and many of the artists who make their music on machines is three-fold: one, Husik plays various instruments on each... Read More

Truth Walks in Sleepy Shadows
Artist: S.F. Seals

The second and final album by S.F. Seals is really a Barbara Manning solo album in all but name. Although the group started as a collaboration between Manning and drummer/vocalist Melanie Clarin, Clarin is reduced to a supporting role here, with no solo songwriting credits of her own and only one lead vocal, on the brooding Manning composition... Read More

Old Gold: 1989-1991
Artist: The Cows

Serving as both an excellent introduction to the Cows' freaked-out, discordant universe and as a reissue of older, out-of-print album tracks and singles, Old Gold captures this quartet's arc of development from a sloppy, discordant Butthole Surfer-esque punk band to legendary noise rock merchants. Culling tracks from 1989's massively off-kilter... Read More

Untitled
Artist: Cynthia Dall

Though the album cover bears no name or title, this collection of songs is actually the work of Cynthia Dall, best known for her collaboration with labelmate Smog. Smog's Bill Callahan appears on Untitled, contributing guitar and vocals; however, aside from similarly stripped-down production values, that's the only similarity between Smog's... Read More

Martin + Me
Artist: J Mascis

Martin + Me, the first solo album from Dinosaur Jr. leader J Mascis, was recorded on his acoustic tour in the fall of 1995. Mascis ran through a number of Dinosaur songs, as well as a handful of covers (the Smiths' "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side," the Wipers' "On the Run," Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Every Mother's Son," Carly Simon's... Read More

Gotta Get over Greta
Artist: The Nields

Acoustic folk music meets pop/punk/country in a strong and daring shoot out. Listen to the dominating rhythm section and the fuzzed guitar of the opening cut, "I Need a Doctor," you know you are listening to an acoustic band making a strong, rocking statement. They even have Kevin Moloney (Sinead O'Connor and U2) as producer. However, the... Read More

Woman's Gotta Have It
Artist: Cornershop
Community Score: 8.00

Tjinder Singh's Cornershop has created the perfect hybrid of Western indie rock and swirling Eastern traditional music: Hindi-pop. It's not like what the Beatles did with sitars nor is it classifiable as worldbeat: Cornershop is unique. "Jullandar Shere" opens and closes the album on an Eastern note but with a hip-hop twist. It's an adventure in... Read More

Look What the Rookie Did
Artist: Zumpano
Community Score: 7.00

The title says it all. This debut effort from Vancouver's Zumpano is an astounding piece of infectious, guitar-driven pop. The group's original material is outstanding, but the lone cover proves to be one of the album's highlights -- a compelling version of Jimmy Webb's "Rosecrans Boulevard" (previously recorded by the Fifth Dimension and Johnny... Read More

Electric Music for the Kool People
Artist: Beck

Beck is not only one of the most original artists to emerge in the 1990s -- he's also one of the most unpredictable, clever, and risk-taking. Whether the eccentric singer/composer is favoring folk-rock or incorporating hip-hop, Beck has made it clear that he isn't afraid to experiment and defy musical boundaries. Boasting excellent sound... Read More