Thievery Corporation - "Versions" 03-30-2007

Versions gathers 18 Thievery Corporation remixes from across a music spectrum that only the most eclectic could love. The vinyl-popping digital duo embraces '60s psychedelia with the Doors and '60s kitsch with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. They...

Johnny Cash - "American V: A Hundred Highways" 03-10-2007

The ethical questions surrounding this final album in the American Recordings series are as unavoidable as they are, ultimately, peripheral. While the vocal tracks were recorded in the months just prior to Johnny Cash's passing in September 2003, the...

Van Morrison - "Van Morrison At The Movies: Soundtrack Hits" 02-12-2007

If Hollywood's marriage with pop music is too often a marketing-driven shotgun affair, there remain musicians whose artistry can't help but elevate whatever film project they're associated with. This 19-track compendium underscores that notion, gathe...

Nas - "Hip Hop Is Dead" 01-18-2007

Given its provocative title, it's no surprise that parts of Hip Hop Is Dead feel like an elegy of sorts. Nas practically came into the game looking backwards (see "Memory Lane" off Illmatic) but he seems more nostalgic than ever with tracks like "Whe...

Bob Dylan - "Modern Times" 12-28-2006

At a time when the majority of those his age are drifting into retirement, 65-year-old Bob Dylan has put the capper on a three-record run that ranks with the best in his storied, 44-album career. Like Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft before it, Mo...

Gwen Stefani - "The Sweet Escape" 12-17-2006

There's nothing like a Gwen Stefani disc to rip you from your pop comfort zone and, in the pleasantest way possible, knock you around a bit. On The Sweet Escape, the blows arrive roughly every four minutes: a yodel ("Wind It Up") skitters off ceremon...

Incubus - "Light Grenades" 12-10-2006

A rare case in which a band actually gets better with time, this California hard rock quintet seems to have finally grown into its skin on its fifth album. Casting off the dated slap-bass funk and pointless nu-metal angst of its early years (well, mo...

Shakira - "Oral Fixation Vol. 2" 07-31-2006

The English-language Oral Fixation Vol. 2 finds Shakira reclaiming some of the bite she showcased on 1998's smashing Donde Estan Los Ladrones? The Colombian rock goddess is making up for lost time: this is her second disc of new material in 2005. It'...

Ice Cube - "Laugh Now, Cry Later" 07-24-2006

We all know that Ice Cube, founding member of NWA and former "hardcore gangster rapper," performs in family-friendly fluff comedy flicks aimed at the most mainstream of family audiences, but no one with any sense cuts him serious flack for that. Not...

Nelly Furtado - "Loose" 07-08-2006

The buzz for Nelly Furtado's Loose began before the music was even recorded, with the announcement that legendary hip-hop knob-twirler Timbaland (Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake) would act as co-producer. The question on fans' minds: what wou...

Zero 7 - "The Garden" 06-25-2006

"Upbeat" seems like an odd description of a recording that includes song titles like "Throw It All Away" and "Waiting to Die." Yet fans of Zero 7 (the English sound-design duo of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker) will indeed discover that the group's thi...

Busta Rhymes - "The Big Bang" 06-14-2006

This is Busta’s first new album in four years plus Dr. Dre cosigns by signing him to Aftermath. Will the success enjoyed by 50 Cent, Eminem and The Game work for Busta? Surprisingly, Busta has never sounded so mature -- joining a brigade of over 30 r...

Gnarls Barkley - "St. Elsewhere" 06-10-2006

Gnarls Barkley is the highly anticipated collaboration from Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. Danger Mouse is one of the most important artist/producers in music today. "Demon Days" sold over 5 million worldwide and Dangerdoom's "The Mouse And The Mask" sold...

Nightmares on Wax - "In a Space Outta Sound" 06-02-2006

It is evident in listening to In A Space Outta Sound that Nightmares on Wax has travelled far. A contemporary and varied album of many textures, tempos and tones, it is embedded with harmonic inflections from cultures far beyond these shores. Whilst...

Pearl Jam - "Pearl Jam" 05-26-2006

If its debut album 15 years ago made Pearl Jam apprehensive with success, the Seattle quintet better buckle in for a return to eminence. On its eighth studio release--and first since 2002--the band socks away the adventurous experimentation that dogg...

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Stadium Arcadium" 05-14-2006

Four-year career hiatuses followed by sprawling double-albums could spell trouble for a band of the Chili Peppers' stature: consider they'd originally recorded enough for three discs. The restless, trouble-plagued outfit that helped break alternative...

Quantic - "One Offs Remixes & B Sides (Rmxs)" 05-05-2006

2 CD set features this prolific producer's tracks and remixes, along with some interpretations of his music by his peers. The album includes an exclusive track from Quantic & Mr. Scruff called 'Giraffe Walk', alongside remixes Quantic has done for Wa...

Massive Attack - "Collected" 04-23-2006

With their critically acclaimed albums clocking up 9 million sales worldwide, a clutch of awards and a new album due for release in early 2007, the time felt right for a Massive Attack Best Of, an apt reminder of their musical legacy to date. The alb...

James Holden - "At the Controls" 03-27-2006

Brand new album of the UK progressive DJ and producer.Over the past four years, James Holden has established himself as one of the pillars of the dance music community, having an impact of which many an older producer and DJ can but dream. He has a b...

Hooverphonic - "No More Sweet Music" 01-15-2006

European edition of their fifth studio album features a bonus disc of remixes of all the tracks features on the album. 22 tracks in all. Hooverphonic is based in Belgium, a small European country with a strong music scene featuring an open air festiv...

Foo Fighters - "In Your Honor" 01-01-2006

It’s likely that a decade after its debut record this band now has fans who might ask, "You mean Dave Grohl was in a band before the Foo Fighters?" But they, or any Foo followers who pine for the increasingly refined vocals and polished pop-punk unif...

Timo Maas - "Pictures" 10-30-2005

Pictures is the second artist album from Timo Maas; his debut Loud was a combination of techno and big beat with enough drunken party tunes to give Fatboy Slim a run for his money. Here though, Maas is trying for something a bit different with more e...

Depeche Mode - "Ready to Buy?" 10-19-2005

The blasphemous opinions surrounding Depeche Mode's 2001 release Exciter were well warranted. Exciter didn't supply Depeche Mode diehards much in the way of dance tunes, and the experimental sounds drummed up by Bjork producer Mark Bell strayed from...

Kanye West - "Late Registration" 10-03-2005

For haters eager to see Kanye hit a sophomore slump--no such luck. Late Registration can't replicate the novelty of last year's College Dropout, but otherwise, this is an impressively more mature and labored-over album. Lyrically, Kanye's only improv...

Boards Of Canada - "The Campfire Headphase" 12-04-2005

One of the world's most revered and mysterious electronic acts, Boards of Canada re-emerge from the ether with "The Campfire Headphase" their first album since 2002's mystic "Geogaddi". "The Campfire Headphase" will satiate the groups massive, rabid...

Tosca - "J.A.C." 10-03-2005

Tosca are in full hypnosis mode for J.A.C., as the Viennese duo of Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber again show off their mastery of jazzy ambience. Dorfmeister and Huber have been busy since 2003’s Dehli9, having had three kids between them (the...

Coldplay - "X&Y" 07-30-2005

Things have gone ridiculously well for Coldplay since 2002's A Rush of Blood to the Head. The group's global album sales have soared past the 10-million mark, putting it in the same stratosphere as megabands U2 and the Dave Matthews Band. People have...

Common - "Be" 07-21-2005

Confusion would be the understated way of describing how many felt while listening to 2002's "Electric Circus." Many tried to justify it by stamping it as "eccentric" or "innovatively different" but ultimately, it was a peculiar release that left man...

Gorillaz - "Demon Days" 05-16-2005

A side project doesn¹t usually hit gold, especially when said project is a quirky virtual collective fronted by cartoon characters. But the first, self-titled album by Gorillaz--the brainchild of illustrator Jamie Hewlett and Blur frontman Damon Alba...

Beck - "Guero" 04-09-2005

Now that Beck has effectively exorcised his personal demons with 2002's hyper-confessional Sea Change, he can get back to the business of being a total fruit loop. We all know what that involves: video game sound effects, random shouting in Spanish,...

Moby - "Hotel" 03-31-2005

Once a roving maverick who skipped from euphoric rave to speed-metal to ambient soundscaping as if just to prove he could, recent years have seen Richard Melville Hall relax into a comfortable--and yes, lucrative--niche. On the surface, Hotel follows...

Thievery Corporation - "Cosmic Game" 02-27-2005

There's always been a psychedelic edge to Rob Garza and Eric Hilton's Thievery Corporation project. 2000's Mirror Conspiracy is a downtempo classic precisely because of its druggy expansiveness; sober listeners and saucer-eyed trippers alike could fi...

Fatboy Slim - "Palookaville" 01-19-2005

Working with Blur on their Think Tank album clearly made an impact on Norman Cook. Palookaville, his fourth outing as cartoon dance hero Fatboy Slim, has a distinctly beatnik theme running through it. It also relies more on real instruments and prope...

Terranova - "Digital Tenderness" 12-12-2004

Terranova is Fetisch plus special guests. Born in Berlin, Fetisch left home at 16 to live in New York and London. Most of his youth was spent in nightclubs and he was soon swept away by DJ’ing. He then returned to Berlin in 1994 to form Terranova. Af...

U2 - "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" 12-03-2004

The album that carries U2 into its 25th year--and likely the mixed blessings of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame--is one of its most frank and focused since the days of October and War. But its gestation was anything but simple, in part salvaged from '...

Thievery Corporation - "Babylon Rewound" 11-26-2004

Thievery Corporation is made up of two brilliant DJs: Eric Hilton and Rob Garza. They have gained critical acclaim form magazines. Urb raves "Aptly named, this studio duo uses the sampler as a weapon, holding hostage the sly secret sounds of action m...

Massive Attack - "Danny the Dog - O.S.T." 10-24-2004

The Band were Approached Personally by Luc Besson and the Film's Director, Louis Leterrier, to Record the Soundtrack. Working Over an 11-week Period, the Band Set Out to Create an Instrumental Soundtrack which Captures Both the Fast-paced Action and...

Gotan Project - "Inspiracion-Espiracion Remix" 10-08-2004

The follow-up to their critically and commercially successful "La Revancha Del Tango" release of 2003 is a double CD remix featuring Chet Baker and Astor Piazzolla, along with Peter Kruder, Anti-Pop Consortium, and Calexico remixing Gotan Project son...

Bjork - "Medulla" 09-05-2004

Normally, an artist such as Bjork with a mass audience across the globe steadily eases off as the back-catalog starts to grow. However, Medulla, the fifth proper studio album from Bjork is without a doubt the most challenging collection of music she...

Quantic - "Mishaps Happening" 08-04-2004

Building on the success and popularity of his first 2 albums "Mishaps Happening" sees Will Holland aka Quantic take it to the next level with the aid of guests like U.S. funk legend Spanky Wilson and Quantic right-hand woman Alice Russell. From the e...

Tipping Point - "The Roots" 07-26-2004

On their sixth album, the Roots backslide a bit on the creative promise they showed with 2002's Phrenology. Instead of expanding into more ambitious and experimental areas--the way Outkast has, for example--the Roots tend to fall back to basics with...

Thievery Corporation - "Outernational Sound" 07-03-2004

Mixing fluidly between afro-beat, reggae, rock, Brazilian, soul, easy listening, electronic and rare library music, Thievery Corporation create a set that takes the listener on a trip of truly global proportions. The Outernational Sound is a seamless...

Beastie Boys - "To The 5 Boroughs" 06-25-2004

The hiatus is back off, again, for the Beastie Boys, and music lovers will bob their heads with insuppressible glee. With its Nice & Smooth impersonations and shout outs to Brooklyn's Albee Square Mall, To the 5 Boroughs, their first album in six yea...

D12 - "D12 World" 05-16-2004

You can say this about D12: few rap groups do a better job of straddling the line between the humorous and offensive, silly and sadistic. So when Eminem kick starts D12's sophomore effort by spewing vulgar rhymes to the tune of the adolescent "Name G...

N.E.R.D. - "Fly Or Die" 04-19-2004

Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo practically sweat platinum. As the production duo behind the Neptunes, they have crafted monster hits for everyone from Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears to Jay-Z and Ol' Dirty Bastard. In their spare time they make...

Funkstoerung - "Disconnected" 03-29-2004

Funkstorung is a pioneer of the smooth “glitch-hop” sound promoted and popularized more recently by artists such as Prefuse 73 and Dabrye. They have also remixed everything from Bjork to Wu-Tang Clan. When trying to describe Funkstorung’s new album,...

Maroon 5 - "Songs About Jane" 03-16-2004

Maroon 5 isn't the first band to fuse R&B and rock, but they certainly are one of the most convincing. One can almost hear Stevie Wonder's beaded dreadlocks clattering in time to their deep, funky grooves. At best, the band conjures up latter-day Mot...

Norah Jones - "Feels Like Home" 02-15-2004

The rise of the Texas born, jazz-infused singer songwriter Norah Jones over the past 18 months has been truly remarkable. Her debut album ‘Come Away With Me’ has sold by the truckload and has been awarded countless prizes including eight Grammys. Ant...

Incubus - "A Crow Left of the Murder" 02-09-2004

With the exception of Enjoy Incubus and Fungus Amongus having the same sound and musical structure, aside the addition of a DJ, Incubus' albums display a progression of growth and maturity. A Crow Left of the Murder is a really different sound that I...

Air - "Talkie Walkie" 02-01-2004

Talkie Walkie comes five years after their landmark Moon Safari and Parisian mood-enhancers Air are back doing what they do best. Famously shy of ever repeating themselves, JB Dunckel and Nicolas Godin have filled in the years with the poorly receive...

Guru - "Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality" 01-17-2004

By the time Gang Starr's rapper Guru created the "experimental fusion of hip-hop and jazz" he called Jazzmatazz back in 1993, the idea of blending the two African-American styles had been fairly well explored. But as the first wholly self-conscious g...

Erykah Badu - "Worldwide Underground" 01-07-2004

This is not erykah Badu best work but it does not sound like anything ahe has done in the previous albums. this is an new breed of Ms Badu with original sound and lyrics adn some phat overload lyrics. The new special effects used in this records refl...

Alicia Keys - "The Diary Of Alicia Keys" 12-26-2003

I agree with most of the reviewers thus far. Alicia Keys went back to her roots of "original" soul music (Reference 60's & 70's). And, The instrumentation on this album is sweet. She has laid out more tracks where you can hear her piano (as corny as...

Outkast - "Speakerboxxx/the Love Below" 12-18-2003

At a time when experimentation is taboo in most overground rap, that’s all Outkast seem intent on executing. Firstly, this double CD has no cohesive link, other than the fact that it sounds like a pair of solo albums stitched together to demo exactly...

Wyclef Jean - "The Preacher's Son" 11-18-2003

Wyclef Jean's fourth solo album is "The Preacher's Son" (2003). First track I heard off this was "Industry" two months ago, when the video for it was being played, this track really impressed me, I liked how Wyclef dedicated it to everyone who loves...

Ludacris - "Chicken N Beer" 11-05-2003

Ludacris--2, Bill O’Reilly--1. The diss is mightier than the sword, and Ludacris wastes no time berating Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly (O’Reilly enticed Pepsi to cut Ludacris off their payroll citing his lyrical irresponsibility). On "Blow It Out," h...

Outkast - "Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below" 10-22-2003

At a time when experimentation is taboo in most overground rap, that’s all Outkast seem intent on executing. Firstly, this double CD has no cohesive link, other than the fact that it sounds like a pair of solo albums stitched together to demo exactly...

Mary J. Blige - "Love & Life" 09-07-2003

Mary's voice is a force of nature, and even when she's singing of joy and love, as she does on most of this album -- the tension in her voice always reveals the natural blues within. That said, the songs here are only ocassionally up to par with her...

Metallica - "St. Anger" 07-26-2003

Never underestimate the regenerative powers of Metallica. Following the stripped-down Load and Re-Load, they've returned to the raw, vitriolic savagery of their earlier canon, using 1984's Ride the Lightning as a template for St. Anger. The title tra...

Evanescence - "Fallen" 07-19-2003

The Daredevil soundtrack provided a nice boost for this previously unknown quartet from Little Rock, Arkansas. Evanescence’s songs "My Immortal" and the imposing "Bring Me to Life" are clear standouts in the film, mainly because they work so well wit...

Cold - "Year of the Spider" 06-04-2003

Though Cold's music has become more melodic and accessible, that doesn't mean that they've turned over a new leaf. Scratch the surface and you'll find these Florida soreheads are still mad at the world, but happily able to channel that rage into comp...

Matchbox Twenty - "More Than You Think You Are" 05-25-2003

Florida's megaplatinum matchbox twenty prove with their third album to be far more versatile than expected, comfortably outlasting the predictions of naysayers. Reuniting with producer Matt Serletic, the quintet takes credible swings at gospel ("Down...

Sean Paul - "Dutty Rock" 05-12-2003

Sean Paul follows the footpaths of Beenie Man and Super Cat (whom he sounds and looks like) as the next high-billing dancehall artists capable of sitting in the upper echelons of American popular music. Paul enthusiasts still buzzing over his breakth...

Godsmack - "Faceless" 04-21-2003

Fans of Godsmack’s dark, swirling, commanding music will be delighted by the Boston band’s powerful third effort, which mixes arena rock in the vein of an Alice in Chains (in fact, Godsmack takes its name from an AIC song) with the aggression of Pant...

Linkin Park - "Meteora" 04-04-2003

Linkin Park’s second studio effort (not counting the 2002 remix album Reanimation) overflows with glossy production values and Big Rock oomph, fully embracing the pop instincts of their Hybrid Theory debut. For many, Theory sounded inexcusably corpor...

Aphex Twin - "26 Mixes for Cash" 03-27-2003

26 Mixes for Cash is right. Among the canon of rare releases commanding collectable prices, deleted and highly limited productions by IDM inspiration/innovator Richard D. "Aphex Twin" James are the stuff of fanaticism that High Fidelity skewers. Not...

Kid Rock - "Cocky" 03-20-2003

Detroit-bred rocker/rapper Kid Rock has reason to be "cocky," as 1998's multiplatinum Devil Without a Cause established the multifaceted artist with the Southern rock influences as a generally likable braggart able to back up his boasts musically. Ro...

Tosca - "Dehli 9" 03-03-2003

While Richard Dorfmeister will always be remembered along with Peter Kruder for the now-classic 1998 downtempo record The K&D Sessions, both Kruder and Dorfmeister have given over substantial time since then to Peace Orchestra and Tosca, their respec...

Jay-Z - "Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse" 03-03-2003

Do you want in on hip-hop's dirty little secret? Well, not even rap's greatest icons have been able to pull of a memorable, fast-forward-free double disc--2Pac's All Eyez on Me and Wu-Tang Clan's Wu-Tang Forever included. On this follow-up to part on...

Massive Attack - "100th Window" 02-17-2003

With dark shades of dub and songs that stretch with patient intensity, 100th Window finds trip-hop legends Massive Attack seeping through your speakers with the same eerie intensity they mined on 1998's revelatory Mezzanine. The burden of high expect...

Beenie Man - "Tropical Storm" 02-14-2003

No one's ever questioned whether Beenie Man has the DJ skills and charisma to blow dancehall music up into Shaggy-like proportions. The question is, at what cost? Collaborations with heavyweight American hip-hop producers DJ Clue ("Fresh From Yard"),...

Thievery Corporation - "The Richest Man in Babylon" 01-09-2003

Thievery Corporation's Eric Hilton and Rob Garza have always treated he line between acoustic and electronic music as a drunken sailor might, unpredictably falling on one side or the other with equal frequency. By this measure, The Richest Man in Bab...

Nirvana - "Nirvana" 12-30-2002

Essentially a greatest-hits collection with one previously unreleased song, "You Know You're Right," and producer Scott Litt's 1994 remix of "Pennyroyal Tea," Nirvana the album is nevertheless a welcome addition to the band's canon. Crisp, elegant li...

Matchbox Twenty - "More Than You Think You Are" 12-03-2002

Florida's megaplatinum matchbox twenty prove with their third album to be far more versatile than expected, comfortably outlasting the predictions of naysayers. Reuniting with producer Matt Serletic, the quintet takes credible swings at gospel ("Down...

Pearl Jam - "Riot Act" 11-11-2002

It's strange to think Pearl Jam was once herded under the grunge umbrella alongside pathos-spewing acts like Nirvana and Alice in Chains. The Seattle group's eighth album (give or take the 72 bootleg-style double CDs it released in 2001) has more in...

Foo Fighters - "One by One" 10-29-2002

There's a certain sameness to the spiky, percussive bursts of punk-pop tabled by the Foo Fighters. Yet it's pretty hard to fault players as palpably enthusiastic as Dave Grohl and his gang. Every Foos record, up to and including their fourth studio d...

Moby - "18" 10-17-2002

Following one of the most licensed CDs in history, 18 delivers more of the gospel samples and spiritual exploration that made Play Moby's breakthrough album. But keep your expectations in check. On 18 there is barely a body-rocker in the bunch. This...

Beck - "Sea Change" 10-06-2002

Beck is bummed. Really bummed. And if song titles such as "Lost Cause," "Lonesome Tears," "Already Dead," and "Nothing I Haven't Seen" don't make the point, his achingly sad lyrics and Sea Change's unerringly downcast sound do. While 1998's Mutations...

Avril Lavigne - "Let Go" 09-30-2002

Self-professed skate punk Avril Lavigne sings that she'd "rather be anything but ordinary" on her debut. While the fact that she had a record deal by the age of 16 separates her from the pack, too often Let Go's lyrical shortcomings drag the teenager...

Coldplay - "A Rush of Blood to the Head" 09-17-2002

Coldplay required a lifetime to make its wonderfully assured debut, Parachutes. But it took less than two years for the moody British quartet to deliver a masterful follow-up. As a band they have advanced to a stage where they outshine nearly every o...

Queens Of The Stone Age - "Songs for the Deaf" 09-03-2002

Despite the advent of the '00s, thoroughly blunted longhairs wearing three-quarter-length T-shirts still boot around the suburbs in painted vans listening to roaring metal. Fittingly, a whole new crop of post-Dazed and Confused-era stoner rockers--Fu...

Linkin-Park - "Reanimation" 08-13-2002

Reanimation is the evil twin of Linkin Park's 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory. While plotting their next studio album, the Southern California band enlisted some of aggro rock's leading lights, as well as some of the more enlightened underground MCs and pr...

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "By the Way" 07-29-2002

When the Red Hot Chili Peppers first appeared smeared in neon body paint with socks dangling precariously from their wieners, even the most faithful funk-metal convert couldn't have conceived they would be around some 20 years later, carrying on in m...

Fatboy Slim - "Live on Brighton Beach" 07-16-2002

On a crystal clear English summer's evening in 2001, Norman Cook played a celebrated DJ set in front of an estimated 30,000 loved-up Brightonians, generating two hours of typically hedonistic party mayhem. It's these two hours--or, at least, an edite...

Bob Marley - "Legend" 07-01-2002

Even as greatest hits packages go, this is an utter gem. Every song is inspired, in a class of its own, whether the proper version of "I Shot the Sheriff", the hymnlike "No Woman, No Cry" or the sheer joy of "Jamming". Even allowing that Marley never...

Korn - "Untouchables" 06-10-2002

The band that unwittingly begat the current, if waning, rap-metal frenzy, Korn has been semidormant since 1999's multiplatinum Issues, while bands they inspired, such as Linkin Park, have ruled the charts and minds of disenfranchised teens. The wait...

Ill Nino - "Revolution Revolución" 06-10-2002

One thing about Ill Nino's sound is that its so thick and throbbing, every aspect of Ill Nino is tight, everything works together to create one larger than life wall of sound. 'God Save Us' starts the album out like a bulldozer with a deep growl and...

Tosca - "Suzuki in Dub" 05-27-2002

More moody musical fairytales from Richard Dorfmeister, this time with Rupert Huber under the guise of Tosca. Suzuki is--like his releases with Kruder and Dorfmeister--a sublime work that manipulates emotions through sound. Soft and sweet, subtle and...

Kruder and Dorfmeister - "DJ Kicks" 05-15-2002

K&D continue their relaxed & chilled sound they've perfected. Beginning with downbeat trip-hop including Herbaliser, Statik Sound System and Thievery Corporation, Kruder & Dorfmeister flow through jazzy drum'n'bass (with Aquasky and JMJ & Flytronix)...

Puddle of Mudd - "Come Clean" 09-30-2002

Possessing a likable, arena-rock amalgamation of grunge, alternative, and nu metal, Kansas City's Puddle of Mudd are at once emotional and straight-ahead. Indeed, their no-frills lineup puts one in mind of a less uptight Creed. Singer Wesley Reid Sca...

Ashanti - "Ashanti" 05-08-2002

These days, R&B girls are a dime a dozen, but Ashanti Douglas is a step ahead of the pack. Youthful appeal and a pleasantly dreamy voice complement the 21-year-old singer/songwriter's ability to pen her own radio-friendly verses. However, Ashanti's y...

Various Artists - "WWF Forceable Entry" 04-19-2002

The tagline emblazoned across the top of this latest WWF album's cover reads, ''All New WWF Superstar Themes That Rock!'' And on any compilation where songs by Limp Bizkit and Marilyn Manson are unremarkable for their fast pace and fury, it can be sa...

Alanais Morisette - "Under Rug Swept" 04-19-2002

With all the attention Alanis Morissette's career has garnered, it's startling to think that on the release of her third studio CD she has yet to see her 28th birthday. Under Rug Swept finds Morissette in the producer's role, a position she seems mor...

Nickelback - "Silver Side Up" 03-30-2002

Following Staind's footsteps, Nickelback make the personal public and vent a history of frustration and resentment to melodic hard rock. The band's second album, Silver Side Up, starts with 'Never Again', an angry tirade against domestic violence tha...

P.O.D. - "Satellite" 03-26-2002

The multi-hyphenated (rap-metal-hip-hop-reggae) foursome P.O.D. enjoyed indie success as a popular Christian metal band before their 1999 major-label debut, The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, sold platinum, establishing P.O.D. as a secular sensat...

Pink - "Missundaztood" 02-19-2002

There's a rule in commercial pop: don't bite the hand that feeds you. Translation? If you're getting love on TRL, it's best leaving well enough alone and tinkering only slightly with the sound that pays your bills. So you have to give Pink a whole he...