Strangest Places
Artist: Abra Moore

Abra Moore's second solo album, Strangest Places, finds the singer-songwriter developing her idiosyncratic voice, expanding her music from its folk-pop roots to feature a fuller, pop-oriented sound. That wouldn't matter if the songs themselves weren't so melodic, intimate and charming, confirming that Moore has a singular voice in an age... Read More

Collection
Artist: Lloyd Cole
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

The Last Dog and Pony Show
Artist: Bob Mould

Just before The Last Dog and Pony Show hit the streets, Bob Mould announced that his supporting tour would be the last time he hit the road with a full electric band. From this point on, he would be challenging himself, finding different musical avenues to explore and leaving his trademark tower of guitars behind. Presumably, this also meant... Read More

Deadweight
Artist: Beck
Community Score: 9.70

Released in 1997 as a stopgap between albums, the Deadweight EP clearly provides the missing link in Beck's artistic progression from the wild Dust Brothers-produced pastiche of 1996's Odelay to the restrained psychedelic pop crafted by producer Nigel Godrich on 1998's Mutations. While still containing an inventive mix of vintage drum machines... Read More

From the Choirgirl Hotel
Artist: Tori Amos
Community Score: 8.55

Shortly before she began work on From the Choirgirl Hotel, Tori Amos suffered a miscarriage. While she was recording the album, she married her long-term boyfriend. As expected, both events cryptically wind their way into the album, which arguably has Amos' most personal lyrics since Little Earthquakes. The surprise is, From the Choirgirl Hotel... Read More

This Euphoria
Artist: Davíd Garza
Community Score: 7.03

David Garza made his major label debut in a big, brilliant way -- compared to the almost genteel efforts on earlier albums like Eyes Wide Open, This Euphoria flat-out rocks. Call it a natural progression, call it what happens when there's big bucks to work with, but Garza came up with one of the best rock albums of the second half of the '90s.... Read More

Got No Shadow
Artist: Mary Lou Lord
Community Score: 5.00

For many years in the alternative revolution of the early '90s, Mary Lou Lord was touted as the next big thing by those in the know, but she never delivered a full-length album, preferring to turn out a series of indie EPs on Kill Rock Stars. It wasn't until 1998 that she released her full-length debut, Got No Shadow. While many of the titles on... Read More

The Lateness of the Hour
Artist: Eric Matthews

Displaying an increased sense of songcraft and sharper arrangements, The Lateness of the Hour takes the virtues of Eric Matthews' debut, It's Heavy in Here, and amplifies them, resulting in a richer, fuller album. Where its predecessor only made a passing acknowledgment of rock, there's more guitar on The Lateness of the Hour, and it has a less... Read More

+1
Artist: Melissa Ferrick

Having started and built her career primarily by touring, it's only fitting that Melissa Ferrick release a live album and +1 is it. Just a girl and a guitar, this collection finds Ferrick in all her vulnerable and raw glory with nowhere to hide. Few artists are bold enough to release such a warts and all portrait, yet here she is. The songs are... Read More

The Mollusk
Artist: Ween
Community Score: 7.78

On the surface, The Mollusk is a return to the panoramic, multi-genre extravaganza of Chocolate and Cheese, but in its own way, it's as much of a concept album as 12 Golden Country Greats. It just isn't as explicit about its intentions. Nearly every song on The Mollusk has a nautical theme, buoyed by a heavy progressive rock influence. Several... Read More

1212
Artist: Barbara Manning

For all of her past recorded output, Barbara Manning has never been the most prolific of composers, her many albums relying instead on her gifts as an interpreter of other writers' songs; the achievement of 1212 isn't simply that it's made up largely of Manning originals, but that chief among them is her most ambitious creation to date, a... Read More

Mutations - JAPAN TRACKS
Artist: Beck

According to party line, neither Beck nor Geffen ever intended Mutations to be considered as the official follow-up to Odelay, his Grammy-winning breakthrough. It was more like One Foot in the Grave, designed to be an off-kilter, subdued collection of acoustic-based songs pitched halfway between psychedelic country blues and lo-fi folk. The... Read More