Tangled
Artist: Nick Heyward
This Desert Life
Artist: Counting Crows
Community Score: 7.78

It's likely that critics and listeners will consider Counting Crows' long-delayed third album, This Desert Life, another retro effort by a traditionalist band, but it's actually their most individual and finest album yet. All the familiar elements are in place, from Adam Duritz's impassioned vocals and cryptic lyrics to the jangling... Read More

Under a Blackened Sky
Artist: Sarah McLachlan

When Under a Blackened Sky was recorded in 1995, Sarah McLachlan's only commercially available live recording was 1992's Live EP on Nettwerk. However, a fair amount of McLachlan bootlegs surfaced in the 1990s. One of the most rewarding was Under a Blackened Sky, which was recorded live at Denver's Paramount Theater on March 8, 1995. Put out by... Read More

Envy of Angels - BONUS 7 TRACK CD
Artist: The Mutton Birds

Envy of Angels could have been recorded ten years earlier considering its invocation of the new south -- in particular the moodiness of Dumptruck -- not to mention similarities to more commercial guitar rock of the same period, such as that of 54-40. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that Hugh Jones, who also worked with Dumptruck, produced Envy of... Read More

Envy of Angels
Artist: The Mutton Birds
Community Score: 10.00

Envy of Angels could have been recorded ten years earlier considering its invocation of the new south -- in particular the moodiness of Dumptruck -- not to mention similarities to more commercial guitar rock of the same period, such as that of 54-40. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that Hugh Jones, who also worked with Dumptruck, produced Envy of... Read More

Good Dog Bad Dog: The Home Recordings
Artist: Over the Rhine

Five years after the dissolution of their relationship with IRS Records, the Cincinnati-based lit-pop band Over the Rhine once again became a major-label presence when they signed with Back Porch, a new offshoot of Virgin Records. The group took the opportunity to refine and reissue their 1996 homespun masterpiece Good Dog Bad Dog, which had... Read More

Studio: Selected Studio Recordings 1986-1995
Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Studio: Selected Studio Recordings is a fine compilation of highlights from the Cowboy Junkies' albums, including such songs as "Sweet Jane" and "Misguided Angel," as well as the previously unreleased "Lost My Driving Wheel." While this is a thoughtfully compiled retrospective, The Trinity Sessions remains the definitive Cowboy Junkies album,... Read More

Strange Country
Artist: Billy Strange

Recorded in the 1960s (the liner notes do not specify the exact date), this was a sessionman supersession of sorts, also featuring Joe Maphis on banjo, Tommy Tedesco on second guitar, Jimmy Bond on bass, and Earl Palmer on drums. Strange offers fluid, crisp instrumental interpretations of a mixed bag of folk and pop tunes, including not only... Read More

Yourself or Someone Like You
Artist: Matchbox Twenty
Community Score: 7.62
Shoe Box EP
Artist: Barenaked Ladies

Do they have the worst band name since Haircut One Hundred? Yes. Are they one of the finest pop groups in the world? Almost certainly. Their debut album was a tuneful, slapstick adolescent romp and their second was a remarkably mature folk-rock outing filled with as many irresistible hooks as a good Beach Boys album. This four-song EP previews a... Read More

Puerto Angel
Artist: The Henrys

The Henrys' debut album, Puerto Angel, is an impressive, unpredictable record that blends together a variety of roots musics -- blues, country, folk, worldbeat -- into a unique, entirely original fusion. It's evocative, occasionally haunting, but the overriding emotion is joy -- music this original is something to celebrate. Vocalist Mary... Read More

Happy Nowhere
Artist: Dog's Eye View
Community Score: 8.00
Rain, Steam & Speed
Artist: The Mutton Birds
Community Score: 10.00

Envy of Angels has a higher percentage of remarkable songwriting, as anyone who's heard the smooth, flowing, lovely-but-not-wimpy "April," "Come Around," "She's Been Talking," and "Come Around" can attest. But that's not such a bad tradeoff for an LP that sounds more immediate; the self-produced Rain, Steam & Speed is less streamlined than Envy... Read More