Dancing Under Water
Artist: Freakwater

Dancing Under Water, Freakwater's first long-player, is insurgent country music for people who believe that the film Deliverance says more about the true nature of rural folks than it does about the fears and prejudices of city dwellers. The songs, just under half of which are original, fixate on the folk traditions of murder ballads and "dead... 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

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

Arise, Therefore
Artist: Palace Music

Once again, Will Oldham emerges out of the murky, Midwestern haze with another helping of lovely, low-key musings on his fourth full-length album, Arise, Therefore, this time recorded under the name Palace Music (previously Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, or just plain Palace). Much quieter than Viva Last Blues and less-Appalachian in its folk... Read More

Mood Elevator
Artist: Jack Logan

Jack Logan's true debut album (1994's Bulk was a two-disc set of demos recorded over the course of a decade), 1996's Mood Elevator finds the swimming pool motor repairman/part-time comic book artist backed by a full band, the aptly-named Liquor Cabinet, led by long-time co-conspirator Kelly Keneipp. All of the songs this time are co-written,... Read More

Down by the Old Mainstream
Artist: Golden Smog
Community Score: 3.00

Like most supergroup projects, Golden Smog's Down By the Mainstream is a loose, relaxed affair that sounds like it was a lot of fun to record. Unlike most supergroups, the members of Golden Smog improve on their regular bands. Comprised of a number of alternative country-rock stars -- including Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, the Jayhawks' Gary Louris, and... Read More

The Brooklyn Side
Artist: The Bottle Rockets
Community Score: 4.00

While the Bottle Rockets' brand of Skynyrd-esque raunch & roll is considerably more good-timey than most of the band's roots rock brethren, their incisive, provocative songwriting skills set them squarely among the genre's elite. The Brooklyn Side, produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, is fairly bursting with dead-on character studies exploring the... Read More

Happy Nowhere
Artist: Dog's Eye View
Community Score: 8.00
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
Artist: Sparklehorse
Community Score: 8.90

Sparklehorse's 1996 full-length debut, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, has even more sad, beautiful, weird moments of spacy, rural folk-rock than it does letters in its name. Primarily the project of singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark Linkous, Sparklehorse's sound embraces impossibly frail, cobwebby ballads like the album opener "Homecoming... Read More

It's Heavy in Here
Artist: Eric Matthews

One of the finest debut albums of the 1990s, It's Heavy in Here brings forth to the public a new artist fully grown, refined, and with an undeniable attitude of exploration. Indeed, a heady combination, but Eric Matthews delivers in grand style with 14 gems that sparkle like rare tiaras. Mixing elements of classical, pop, jazz, and a bit of... Read More

5ive Style
Artist: 5ive Style
Community Score: 8.00

A lot of diluted, post-Parliament funk has emerged with America's seemingly recovered infatuation with this genre. Drawing heavily for fan bases on frat boys and sweet hippies, musicianship has taken a back seat to marketability and popularity. Enter 5ive Style, a four-member band consisting of Tortoise member John Herndon, Bill Dolan, LeRoy... Read More

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

The Mountain EP
Artist: The Palace Brothers

Like the previous An Arrow Through the Bitch, The Mountain EP compiles a pair of Palace singles for U.K. audiences. The title cut was the first and only Palace single to also appear on a proper album, in this case the brilliant Viva Last Blues -- strangely, it's perhaps the weakest song on the LP, and consequently the least-effective single... Read More