Takin' My Time
Artist: Bonnie Raitt
Community Score: 8.00

This album is an overlooked gem in the catalog of Bonnie Raitt. On Takin' My Time, she wears her influences proudly in an eclectic musical mix containing blues, jazz, folk, New Orleans R&B, and calypso. Although she did not write her own material for this album, she demonstrates an excellent ear for songs and chooses material from some of the... Read More

No One's Really Beautiful
Artist: Jude
Community Score: 8.33

Jude graduated from college with a philosophy degree, a usual surefire sign that his pop music would come loaded with cerebral sentiment. Anyone who has listened to their share of Jude's labelmate, Alanis Morissette, knows that dimestore philosophy can be a stumbling block, with self-important lyrics often getting in the way of well-executed... Read More

Acetates and Alternates, Vol. 2
Artist: George Harrison

This latest bootleg from the All Things Must Pass sessions is superior to its earlier rivals, pulling together the best tracks from the four-disc Making of All Things Must Pass and adding some related treasures. The most important of the latter is George's superb demo of "It Don't Come Easy," although the 45 r.p.m. single mix of "My Sweet Lord"... Read More

Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon
Artist: John Lennon
Community Score: 8.33

Lennon Legend was released in the fall of 1997 in England to replace the deleted John Lennon Collection, and the 20-track collection is remarkably similar to its predecessor, replicating a full 16 tracks and deleting the relatively nonessential "I'm Losing You," "Dear Yoko," and "Move Over Ms. L" in favor of "Borrowed Time," "Mother," "Nobody... Read More

Retrospective
Artist: Leon Russell

Retrospective is an 18-track collection that features the bulk of Leon Russell's greatest hits ("Tight Rope," "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," "Lady Blue," "Back to the Island"), plus many key album tracks. Since Russell was primarily an album artist, this approach doesn't necessarily do him justice, but for listeners who only want the hits, this... Read More

Extreme Honey: The Very Best of Warner Brothers Years
Artist: Elvis Costello
Community Score: 10.00

For anyone who didn't follow the many paths Costello treaded during the '90s, Extreme Honey: The Very Best of Warner Brothers Years is a good way to become acquainted with the strangest portion of his career. Like the Warner years themselves, Extreme Honey is flawed, suffering from the same idiosyncratic compiling method as Girls! Girls! Girls!... Read More

Blame It on Me
Artist: Alana Davis
Community Score: 5.00

It's strange that singer/songwriter Alana Davis first received national attention through "32 Flavors," a cover of an Ani DiFranco song. In one way, the gesture was fitting, since it acknowledged a primary influence, but in another way it was frustrating, since her debut album Blame It On Me showcases a strong developing songwriter. Drawing from... Read More

East West
Artist: Julia Fordham
Community Score: 8.50

Working with noted producer and guitarist Michael Brook, British singer Julia Fordham released her fifth album (including the mini-LP Love Moves), East West, in 1997. Fordham wrote all of the record's ten tracks except for "I Can Tell You Anything," which she co-wrote with Simon Climie. Fordham possesses a gorgeous, dusky voice that is... Read More

Resigned
Artist: Michael Penn
Community Score: 6.20

Backing away from the introspective inclinations of Free-for-All, Michael Penn delivers a concise and thoroughly infectious guitar-pop album with Resigned. Like most of Penn's music, the album relies heavily on Revolver-era Beatles, but his melodies are uniformly tighter and catchier than before, and producer Brendan O'Brien gives the record a... Read More

Road Tested
Artist: Bonnie Raitt
Community Score: 10.00

In a 24-year recording career, Bonnie Raitt had not previously released a live album, so this concert set was overdue. Coming off three multi-platinum studio albums, Raitt and Capitol pulled out all the stops, compiling a 22-track, double-disc package from dates recorded in July 1995 in Portland and Oakland. Raitt ranged over her career,... Read More

Longing in Their Hearts
Artist: Bonnie Raitt
Community Score: 7.00

On the follow-up to the follow-up (and another million-selling number one hit), Bonnie Raitt contributes more than her usual share of original songs, writing four songs herself and setting a lyric of her husband's to music for a fifth. Elsewhere, she draws on such strong writers as Richard Thompson and Paul Brady, all for a collection devoted to... Read More

Luck of the Draw
Artist: Bonnie Raitt
Community Score: 9.00

Nick of Time not only was an artistic comeback for Bonnie Raitt; it brought her largest audience yet, so there was no reason to mess with success for its sequel, Luck of the Draw. And sequel is the appropriate word, since Luck of the Draw is nothing if it isn't Nick of Time, Pt. 2. True, there's a heavier reliance on original material... Read More

The Bonnie Raitt Collection
Artist: Bonnie Raitt

After Bonnie Raitt's commercial breakthrough on Capitol with Nick of Time in 1989, Warner Brothers decided to trust her own taste in choosing songs for The Bonnie Raitt Collection, a best-of compiling songs from her nine-album tenure at Warners. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read More

Video Collection
Artist: John Lennon