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 Best of Dramarama: 18 Big Ones
Artist: Dramarama

Despite all of their good reviews, Dramarama was never able to break into the mainstream. Nevertheless, they left behind a number of terrific rock & roll albums, which found a dedicated cult following. For anyone interested in joining that cult, Best of Dramarama: 18 Big Ones provides an excellent primer, featuring 16 of the group's best songs... 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

Limbo
Artist: Throwing Muses
Community Score: 7.60

On the one hand, KRISTIN HERSH and mates are guilty of running in place: It's difficult to distinguish between the production and style of this LP with 1995's University. Indeed, one of Limbo's strongest efforts, "Ruthie's Knocking," sounds like a re-write of "Shimmer." Moreover, nothing grabs as much as the spine-tingling "Bright Yellow Gun"... Read More

Lemon Parade
Artist: Tonic
Community Score: 7.67

"Open up your eyes, don't let your mind tell the story now," reverberates the chorus of Tonic's feverish radio hit single. For this group, it meant bringing a message of openheartedness and vitality to its listening fan base. Certainly, Tonic's sounds can be linked to many of the heavy-hitting alternative rock groups during their heyday in the... Read More

Magic Box
Artist: Bel Canto
Community Score: 6.00

It's a sign of the times and relative fame that the opening track, "The Magic Box I," immediately calls to mind Tori Amos, where some years previous it would have just sounded like Bel Canto through and through. While Drecker and Johansen have never achieved the thorough fame of Amos or many other well-known names, the duo still stick to their... 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

Happy Nowhere
Artist: Dog's Eye View
Community Score: 8.00
Unclogged
Artist: X

Perhaps referring to the staid forum known as contemporary "unplugged music," or their own aging arteries, Unclogged successfully reprises X's finest work in an electro-acoustic live set. No worse for the wear, John Doe and Exene Cervenka are in perfect voice, while Tony Gilkyson and D.J. Bonebrake play the songs they played a million times with... Read More

The Devil May Care
Artist: The Psyclone Rangers

Though The Psyclone Rangers' debut was a one-pop-culture-reference-per-second explosion of 1960s garage rock funneled through the '70s and '80s, the follow-up The Devil May Care follows a more direct line to the ears. The band instead offers lyrics centered more upon feeling than culture. Again, the music is post-punk garage band raucousness as... Read More

Some Might Say - EP
Artist: Oasis
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