Roomic CubeArtist: Takako Minekawa
Based on the concept of a "room" being Takako Minekawa's favorite place for creating music, Roomic Cube finds a place for everything. Co-written and produced with her friends in Buffalo Daughter, the album stretches her sound: while her more usual style of minimal, poignant songwriting shows up on tracks like "Sleep Song" and "Never/More," the...
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Pristine SmutArtist: Murmurs
Community Score: 10.00
For their second album, the Murmurs decided to electrify their collegiate folk-pop and add a full rhythm section. Such an approach could have led to a standard-issue post-grunge affair, where the sound is grungy but glossy and the lyrics are too angst-ridden, but under the watchful eyes of producers k.d. lang and Larry Klein, the duo is steered...
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HatchedArtist: Inqbator
Psychedelic and oddly jittery, Hatched sports an impressive guest list, including Lenny Kravitz (who delivers an incendiary guitar solo on the single "Electra"), Daniel Lanois (who co-wrote and co-produced "Needles") and Karl Wallinger (who co-authored "Be There"). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Nothing Feels GoodArtist: The Promise Ring
Community Score: 7.40
The sophomore disc from these young ones finds the band moving further into the poppiness that they only hinted at on Thirty Degrees Everywhere. Some things remain the same -- beautifully odd lyrics, extremely catchy and powerful music, and the overall feeling of sentimentality and imagination that the Promise Ring's music always seems to exude....
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Fantastic Pirate SatelliteArtist: Liquid Gang
Big CalmArtist: Morcheeba
Community Score: 7.00
Realizing that trip-hop was a dead end, at least as far as hipness goes, Morcheeba expanded their sonic palette on their second album, Big Calm. Trip-hop and dance rhythms remain, but the trio has spent more time writing songs, crafting an album where pop, lounge, film soundtracks, reggae, jazz, and electronica all peacefully coexist....
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The Best of R.E.M.Artist: R.E.M.
Community Score: 6.90
To Corner WoundsArtist: Drunk
The third album from Richmond, Virginia'a Drunk offers a fully realized vision of their signature sound; the record's frequently brilliant songwriting is based around minimally clean, chimy electric guitars, with a rustic Appalachian feel that recalls (but goes much further than) the work of Palace or even Cat Power. The results are...
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