Jelly Legs
Artist: Mundy

With his debut album Jelly Legs, young Irish singer-songwriter Mundy tosses a sparkling sonic net over the vapid pop of the mid-'90s. His confessional musings and superbly crafted songs are a welcome and exciting addition to the high standards of Irish rock. With echoes of atmospheric, late-'80s pop (Ian McCullough) and Celtic rock (U2, the... Read More

Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits
Artist: Dire Straits
Community Score: 9.25

Exactly ten years after Dire Straits' first compilation, Money for Nothing, appeared in the stores, their second, Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, was released. Though a decade is a significant span of time, Dire Straits had released just two subsequent albums -- 1991's On Every Street and 1993's On the Night, a live album culled... Read More

Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Artist: The New Radicals
Community Score: 8.07

The more things change in music, the more they stay the same. The alternative rockers of the 1990s may have caused so-called corporate rockers like Poison and Bon Jovi to become less visible, but at the same time, the worship of 1970s baby boomer culture was alive and well among post-baby boomers. In 1998, one of the most memorable examples of... Read More

Transcendental Highway
Artist: Colin Hay

Since the dismal sales of Colin Hay's 1990 release Wayfaring Sons, none of his solo albums have been released in America, and that's a shame in this case, for there is much here for adult contemporary radio to embrace. On several tracks, Hay demonstrates he hasn't lost the ability to write a clever, catchy pop tune. This is nowhere more evident... Read More

The Globe Sessions
Artist: Sheryl Crow
Community Score: 7.07

Since her dense, varied, post-modernist eponymous second album illustrated that Sheryl Crow was no one-album wonder, she wasn't left with as much to prove the third time around. Having created an original variation on roots rock with Sheryl Crow, she was left with the dilemma of how to remain loyal to that sound without repeating herself on her... Read More

Left of the Middle
Artist: Natalie Imbruglia
Community Score: 8.17

Expectations for Natalie Imbruglia's debut album, Left of the Middle, were high because of the runaway success of the pre-album single "Torn" during 1997-1998. Fans of the single will be pleased to hear that the album is quite similar in approach and sound to the breakthrough single: laid-back alt-pop with sweetly melodic vocals. Admittedly,... Read More

Happy?
Artist: Jann Arden

Living Under June solidified Jann Arden's status as a hitmaker in Canada, and it also broke the American market open for her, thanks to the single "Insensitive." While her follow-up, Happy?, doesn't have anything quite as instantly catchy as that song, it does have a number of well-crafted, melodic, introspective songs confirming that Living... Read More

Tomorrow Never Dies - ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Artist: David Arnold
Community Score: 7.77

The soundtrack to Tomorrow Never Dies, the second James Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan, is strengthened by David Arnold's remarkable score. Arnold keeps the swinging, brass- and string-saturated John Barry foundation intact, but he updates the sound with aggressive arrangements, innovative compositions and the occasional techno flourish, all... Read More

Fourth World
Artist: Kara's Flowers
Community Score: 8.50

With Ryan Dusick on percussion, Jesse Carmichael on guitar and vocals, Mickey Madden on bass, and Adam Levine on guitar and lead vocals, L.A.-based Kara's Flowers delivers a debut that's a fine example of alternative rock in the late '90s. With Levine's sexy, expressive voice, tight productions, and strong songwriting, the band steers clear of... Read More

Whatever and Ever Amen
Artist: Ben Folds Five
Community Score: 7.38

Expanding on the hook-laden songcraft of their eponymous debut, the Ben Folds Five turn in another glitzy array of Todd Rundgren-esque, piano-driven pop on their second album, Whatever and Ever Amen. Though it isn't as consistently tuneful and clever as their first record, Whatever and Ever Amen has a snazzy sense of popcraft -- the hooks of... Read More

Sheryl Crow - JAPAN
Artist: Sheryl Crow

Hiring noted roots experimentalists Tchad Blake and Mitchell Froom as engineer and consultant, respectively, Sheryl Crow took a cue from their Latin Playboys project for her second album -- she kept her roots rock foundation and added all sorts of noises, weird instruments, percussion loops, and off-balance production to give Sheryl Crow a... Read More