Music » Pop Music

With all the media hype that dogged the Strokes before the release of their debut album, it's rather apt that they chose the title Is This It. On the strength of just five songs released on two singles, the Strokes were being hailed as everything from the saviors of rock & roll to the Savior himself. Surely, few bands could live up to the impossibly high standards set for this young five-piece, but the band needn't have worried: Is This It is one of the most exciting and energetic debut albums to spring from New York's long-dormant club scene. In fact, the Strokes are a New York City band through and through; like the Velvet Underground, these are a bunch of uptown artsy types elegantly slumming downtown to the tried and tested themes of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Their singer-songwriter, the fantastically named Julian Casablancas, delivers his lyrics with a weary nonchalance that belies his age on songs like the title track, "Soma," "Hard to Explain," and the altogether wonderful "Barely Legal." And the band recalls the likes of Television and the Stooges on "Last Nite" and "The Modern Age." Let's hope this sexy, stylish, and undeniably cool band is the future of rock & roll. --Robert Burrow

The most complete collection ever from this Grammy. and Oscar. winner! Features 16 tracks spanning 1980-1994, including hard-to-find cuts like "A Chance For Heaven (Swimming Theme)" from 1984's XXIIIrd Olympiad album, plus three tracks newly remixed by the artist.

Hitch up your I-Pods, egg-headed hipsters of the future: They Might Be Giants, the out-there band that files its sound under the banner of "Can't We All Just Get Along" is speaking your language. What they're saying is No!, but in a way that's weirdly welcoming, especially to anybody who's over 3 and has a hard drive. No!'s computer enhancements (animation, games, and a sing-along scroll bar) don't assign the strictly audio experience to the so-what pile, but at certain moments they seem necessary--how else are you supposed to decipher a song ("Violin") whose only words are "violin," "hippo," and the ticking off of fractional segments of George Washington's head? Of course, to try to make sense of the 17 tunes contained here may be to miss the point. While TMBG's lyrical and vocal hijinks can be off-putting to grownups prone to self-consciousness about not getting the joke, the generation No! takes aim at needs nothing in the way of validation. Thus the brilliance of baggage-free ditties like "Fibber Island," where the natives strum rubber guitars and sew buttons on cars, "John Lee Supertaster," a rock & roll fantasy following a hero with heightened senses of sweet and sour, and "I Am a Grocery Bag," detailing what's bumping around in brown paper after a trip to the market. With their triumph over the tube (TMBG took home a Grammy for the theme to Malcolm in the Middle and perform and wrote the intro to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), frontmen John Linnell and John Flansburgh have already infiltrated the family market, sort of. No! finds the band bending to a level lots of other giants might overlook, but without cramping up. Given the right reach, They Could Be Kiddie Icons. -Tammy La Gorce

Emerging, literally, from the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they gained notoriety through busking, this strange trio led by guitarist-vocalist Gordon Gano became a cult favorite with their self-titled debut album in 1983. Influenced greatly by Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers, the Femmes' minimalist sound pitted Gano's low-volume electric guitar against Brian Ritchie's acoustic bass guitar and Victor De Lorenzo's ashcanlike homemade drum kit--all of which only served to make Gano's angst-ridden adolescent tirades more arresting. Highlights here are the rockabillyish "Gone Daddy Gone," the snotty "Kiss Off," and the emblematically nervous "Blister in the Sun." All in all, a fond reminder of the innocent days of alt-rock. (Note: The 20th anniversary deluxe version of the album includes an additional 26 demos and live tunes, 22 of them never before released.) --Billy Altman

21 unforgettable Cher songs on one disc spotlighting Sonny & Cher along with her recent hits. slipcase. Warner/Geffen. 2003.

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: DIAMOND,NEIL
Title: JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL
Street Release Date: 07/07/1987
Domestic
Genre: VOCAL

This whole album is filled with scathing fury, mostly directed at the impossible situation that confronts women when they are asked to be both wild sources of pleasure and unblemished mother figures. Live Through This uses the same recipe of punk and metal wrapped around pop melodies that made Nirvana so captivating, but Hole uses the methodology in a more conventional manner. The metal ingredient tends to dominate, perhaps because it's the simplest to master, and too often the album resembles early Heart or late Joan Jett--particularly when Courtney Love opens up with her big, wailing voice. Love externalizes her anger, blaming all her problems on the rest of the world. Self-confrontation makes for far more interesting songs. --Geoffrey Himes

Sell 10 million copies of your debut album and you might find yourself putting on a few airs. Evidence that it's happened to matchbox twenty can be found in the new, spelled-out format of their all-lowercased name and the pretentious insertion of that name into the title of this, their sophomore set. The level of popularity achieved by their 1996 debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, posed a more profound problem, though--should they follow in the footsteps of that smash effort, or strike out in a different direction? To their credit, the Orlando quintet puts their massive popularity on the line by opting mostly for the latter course: there are no obvious retreads here of earlier hits such as "Push," "3 a.m.," and "Real World"--or of "Smooth," the multiple-Grammy-winning Santana hit penned and sung by matchbox frontman Rob Thomas. Instead, the album sports a nice mix of material that is catchy, but may take a little longer to settle into your memory banks, such as the moody yet intense "Bent," the horn-driven rocker "Black & White People," and several songs examining various aspects of relationships, "If You're Gone," "Rest Stop," and "Bed of Lies." Whatever the members of matchbox twenty want to call themselves, these guys may yet be able to have it all--artistic growth as well as massive sales. They're not headed for Hootieville just yet. --Daniel Durchholz

New Jersey's favorite sons in the days before Bruce Springsteen, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons were practically the only group from the doo-wop era to continue to thrive during (and after) the British Invasion. Aside from a natural facility for four-part harmony, the group had the added advantage of keyboardist Bob Gaudio (who wrote most of the group's hits) and producer Bob Crewe, who gave the songs a Spector-esque sheen. This disc collects the best Four Seasons stuff from 1962 to 1965, including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Dawn (Go Away)." It's an appealing package, but provides an incomplete picture of the group; Four Seasons fans should definitely check out Volume 2, which includes more complex later hits like "Let's Hang On" and "Working My Way Back To You." --Dan Epstein

Includes two bonus tracks, both not on the U.S. version: 'What's Wrong With That' and 'Fool'.