Dear 23
Artist: The Posies
Community Score: 9.00

Melodic, pensive, and pretty, this is a new generation of Big Star devotees. ~ Robert Gordon, All Music Guide Read More

Bellavista Terrace: Best of the Go-Betweens
Artist: The Go-Betweens

Not quite as comprehensive or well-chosen as the earlier (and now out-of-print) 1978-1990 retrospective, Bellavista Terrace is nevertheless a fine introduction to the Go-Betweens' enduring brilliance. As Robert Forster's liner notes point out with painful accuracy, this 14-track compilation could scarcely be called a greatest-hits collection as... Read More

Widowspeak
Artist: Lydia Lunch

A double-CD retrospective of Lunch's career compiled by Lydia herself, Widowspeak hits most of her musical high points over the course of its 23 tracks. Included are collaborations with artists like Sonic Youth, Clint Ruin (aka Foetus), and Rowland S. Howard. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide Read More

4 Nights at the Palais Royale
Artist: Sloan
Community Score: 7.00

Taking cues from Rush's All the World's a Stage and Kiss' Alive!, Sloan released its 1999 double live CD 4 Nights at the Palais Royale at the perfect time -- the band had honed its chops since 1996, and Navy Blues was less than a year old. Recorded in Toronto in November 1998, this double live CD is a snapshot of the band: fun, endearing, and... Read More

One Chord to Another - JAPAN
Artist: Sloan

Following the bungled American release of Twice Removed, it seemed unlikely that Sloan would survive, let alone record an album as wonderful as One Chord to Another. On the group's previous album, Sloan had refashioned itself as a power pop band, often with terrific results, but on One Chord to Another the songwriting blossoms. Filled with... Read More

I Have Been to Heaven and Back: Hens Teeth and Other Lost Fragments..., Vol. 1
Artist: The Mekons

Mekons' heaven is one of ethical socialism, something they idealize but feel has never been realized. The reality is a thin, barely held together level of entropy that is on the verge of the cataclysmic. The Mekons' live shows exude that frantic urgency. Every performance has the sudden importance of apocalyptic religion. The Mekons destruct... Read More

78 'Til 79: The Lost Album
Artist: The Go-Betweens

The 1960s always provided major stimulus for Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, permeating a large portion of their catalog. The lineage of that influence is tracked to its source on this collection of their earliest, chiefly unreleased songs. Unearthed after 20 years, 78 'til 79 is an actual lost album that precedes any of the band's official... Read More

C86 Plus
Artist: BMX Bandits

C86 Plus is an expanded CD version of the BMX Bandits' previously vinyl-only 1989 release, C86. (C86 was the name of a promotional cassette that came with a copy of New Musical Express, and featured a batch of new indie guitar bands; it eventually became the unofficial name of an entire subgenre of artless British guitar pop). The BMX Bandits... Read More

The Shazam
Artist: The Shazam
Community Score: 8.00

Right away in "Let's Away" listeners know the Shazam hear the Move's grass grow. The second track, "Oh No," starts up with Cheap Trick, but then this Tennessee trio hits a peculiar stride. Sure, "Hooray for Me" gives a Sweet wink and the rockin' "Rollercoaster" comes down helter-skelter, but the boys also run off into the Greenberry Woods to... Read More

One Chord to Another - US BONUS DISC
Artist: Sloan
Community Score: 10.00

Following the bungled American release of Twice Removed, it seemed unlikely that Sloan would survive, let alone record an album as wonderful as One Chord to Another. On the group's previous album, Sloan had refashioned itself as a power pop band, often with terrific results, but on One Chord to Another the songwriting blossoms. Filled with... Read More

Teenage Symphonies to God
Artist: Velvet Crush

Velvet Crush's second album is an old-fashioned pop record: 12 songs in 40 minutes, filled with ultra-melodic guitar hooks and simple, memorable melodies. While it's traditional in form, the music on Teenage Symphonies to God isn't retro. Velvet Crush manage to inject a real enthusiasm and freshness in the standard three-minute pop song, whether... Read More

Falling into Place
Artist: Candy Butchers

In the mid-1970s, British singer-songwriters like Graham Parker and Elvis Costello launched careers with music that tempered the onslaught of punk to a more melodic rock sound reminiscent of mid-'60s Beatles music and its many followers, and, while retaining punk's lyrical anguish, explored more complex emotions with more eloquent words. On his... Read More