Jagged Little Pill
Artist: Alanis Morissette
Community Score: 7.57

It's remarkable that Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill struck a sympathetic chord with millions of listeners, because it's so doggedly, determinedly insular. This, after all, plays like an emotional purging, prompted by a bitter relationship -- and, according to all the lyrical hints, that's likely a record executive who took advantage of a... Read More

Los de Abajo
Artist: Los de Abajo
Community Score: 2.00

Los de Abajo are a raging Latin-punk band whose members have more to concern themselves with, politically speaking, than your average American suburbanites. It shows on their self-titled album, with fiery guitar chords underlying the criticism on tracks like "Tiempos Muertos" (Dead Times), "La Ironía Se Acabo" (The Irony Is Over) and "Son de la... Read More

The Best of the Lemonheads: The Atlantic Years
Artist: The Lemonheads

Evan Dando -- for all intents and purposes, he is the Lemonheads -- is a sporadically brilliant songwriter. Every one of his albums contains as many flops as masterpieces, sometimes more. Hardcore fans have learned to live with this and even cherish his dopey detours, but there are many others who would prefer to have all the best bits on... Read More

What Makes It Go?
Artist: Komeda
Community Score: 10.00

Komeda are a Swedish quartet who give us quirky, danceable ditties with memorable melodies. Funky electronics, basslines, and mesmerizing rhythms roll along by playing off one another. There exists a '60s flair with added horns, analog synths, and acoustic guitars that pound out rhythms. Maybe, a Stereolab reference could by placed with the... Read More

Epgyptology/Vanity Fair
Artist: World Party
Retrospective
Artist: Pin Group

Siltbreeze's Retrospective is a re-issued collection of recordings by New Zealand's seminal Pin Group (fronted by Roy Montgomery) -- the disc includes the "Ambivalence"/"Columbia" 7" (actually the first single issued on the Flying Nun label), the "Coat"/"Jim" 7", the Pin Group Goes to Town EP, a live cover of War's "Low Rider" and two low-fi... Read More

Egyptology
Artist: World Party
Community Score: 7.00

Karl Wallinger defined the ornate, Beatlesque World Party sound on their debut Private Revolution, and he never strayed from that blueprint over the next decade, even if he augmented it with other '60s and '70s pop flourishes. Egyptology finds Wallinger at his most conservative, sticking to the basic late-'60s pop and psychedelia that... Read More

A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
Artist: Hooverphonic
Community Score: 7.91

The Belgian trio Hooverphonic haphazardly tinkers around with ambient pop on its debut album, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular. Overall, it's a decent derivation of post-grunge and a healthy sampling of rising trip-hop and ambient electronica during the mid-'90s, so perhaps it's all right for the album itself to experience floppy production.... Read More

Blur
Artist: Blur
Community Score: 7.42

The Great Escape, for all of its many virtues, painted Blur into a corner and there was only one way out -- to abandon the Britpop that they had instigated by bringing the weird strands that always floated through their music to the surface. Blur may superficially appear to be a break from tradition, but it is a logical progression, highlighting... Read More

Blur - AUSTRALIA BONUS TOUR CD
Artist: Blur

The Great Escape, for all of its many virtues, painted Blur into a corner and there was only one way out -- to abandon the Brit-pop that they had instigated by bringing the weird strands that always floated through their music to the surface. Blur may superficially appear to be a break from tradition, but it is a logical progression,... Read More