Editorial Review

Shawn Colvin's fans are a dedicated and patient lot. They've had to be, to have waited five years for this new release and nearly six for the one before it. But she rewards the faithful with gems every time, and Read more

Reviews (7)

Another wonderful gift from one of our purest talents
At times rueful, angry, sad and hopeful, Shawn Colvin's new release paints a musical landscape of deep introspection and timeless beauty.Her words penetrate the active listener, a verse, chorus or phrase may touch one of us more than another depending on what life has dealt us (or we've dealt ourselves!), but be assured that there is something here for all of us.John Leventhal (whom I saw a few weeks back onstage with his beautiful and talented wife and musical partner, Rosanne Cash), is, and always has been, a perfect match for Shawn's musical voice.Together, and surrounded by a typically great list of musicians, they have created another masterwork.

Ain't it cool-
I absolutely loved "A Few Small Repairs" and was not sure Shawn would ever be able to top it.Well, she does. I agree that less production is more-- she doesn't need it. In fact, she should do a completely solo album w/voice & guitar and maybe have a few tracks with another guitar & bass thrown in.Her rendition of Westerberg's "Even Here We Are" is perfect--and *almost* makes up for "Every Little Thing He Does is Magic..."I think John Lennon would have liked this one.Seriously.
BestShawn Colvin Album Ever!
I read on one of these things that this was not an "accessible" album or some such rot. Baloney. This is a GREAT album. Period.
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Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Contemporary Folk    3. Contemporary Singer/Songwriter    4. Folk-Pop    5. Pop    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. Singer/Songwriter    9. United States of America   

Editorial Review

For a man who gets his biggest kicks surfing the waves and strumming his guitar on a lonely beach in native Hawaii, singer-songwriter Jack Johnson has carved out quite a remarkable career on the mainland. His 2003 album, Read more

Reviews (352)

I love Jack Johnson
Do any other bro's love Jack Johnson as much as I do? Sometimes I chill with my bros and we listen to it together.It gets you so pumped.
I like this one a lot
Although Flake will probably always be my favorite song of his this is my favorite album.

Boring and repetitive
This guy gets two stars since he is one step above a street performer.His music is a bad resurrection of old-style Blues from the South.He gets more popularity he deserves, but thats true for most mainstream artists of the 2000's. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. College Rock    3. Pop    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop    6. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

The third and final CD in a series that opens and closes a day in the life, Read more

Reviews (28)

Yorn sounds revitalized
Pete Yorn could've just as easily entitled his remarkable 2001 debut
The Best Mix In 20 Years!
I have no idea why people are so hung up on Pete's first album Musicforthemorningafter. Artists change, mature and hopefully never get stuck in a rut. Pete has proven he has indeed taken a huge leap forward. I thought it would be hard to improve on one of the best live sounding albums around, Live From New Jersey, as the balance of everything on that album was near perfect! But Pete did not rest on his past and proved it wasn't a fluke and has engineered one of the best sounding albums I've heard since the 80s. The album is extremely diverse and shows the many tools that Pete possesses. It goes from super pop hits like For Us and Alive, to a southern twang with The Man, to electro with Georgie Boy, to a mellow Jim Croce and James Taylor like vibe with Ice Age. With every song you'll swear you hear a little bit of your favorite bands over the years. This is indeed Pete's best work to date and shows the best is yet to come.

Decent Modern Rock CD with Variety, But Not Outstanding
Three and a half stars.
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Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Rock/Pop    5. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

Jack Johnson has found himself a groove. Indeed, the Hawaiian surfing champion turned alternative pop-folk star really hasn't changed things one iota for his sophomore release. Fans of Read more

Reviews (246)

classic Jack J
If you love Jack Johnson, you will love these tracks. Soothing, fun, simple, and mesmerising to listen to.

On and On
Wonderfully relaxing music; makes you want to turn off the TV and turn on the music.People walk in and say"who is that" and they're off to buy the CD.

Nice melow music
I got this cd after hearing a song of his on itunes.I loved this cd from the first song.Every song is very acoustic and relaxed.For all you people out there who get home from work and are stressed out and need to relax this cd is for you.Just put on some comfortable clothes, get a beer, turn down the lights, turn the phone on low and just feel the music.This is a great cd and each song should grab you and make you want more. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Bass    3. College Rock    4. Drums    5. Drums (Steel)    6. Guitar (Acoustic)    7. Guitar (Electric)    8. Percussion    9. Piano    10. Pop    11. Rock    12. Rock/Pop    13. Singer/Songwriter    14. Slide Guitar    15. Vocals   

Editorial Review

Resembling at times a soft-sung Robert Plant, Buckley was an intuitive vocalist capable of dizzying arabesques and choir-boy sweetness. He is joined here by a tight band for 10 tracks highlighting his stylistic range--Pearl Jam bluesy on "Eternal Life," impossibly serene on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," art-school noisy on "So Real," Led Zep daring on "Mojo Pin." Unorthodox, this was the debut of '94. Read more

Reviews (533)

Moving...
How else can you describe the combination of his beautiful voice and well written music?I can't add anything to the volumes that have been written about this album already.An album with well over 500 reviews that is holding a 4.5 star average must have something going for it.
Born to Croon
Jeff Buckley sounds like what Marc Bolan would have sounded like if Bolan had taken Perry Como as his musical muse.Seriously, think about Marc Bolan trying to sound like a '50's crooner and you'll know what Jeff Buckley sounds like.

Genius
Gone to soon. What would he have become we will never really know and we are not better off because of his untimely death. An artist with creative vision and the talent to back it up. There is so little of his original music available it is difficult to really understand were he was headed and were his creative would have eventually taken him. The multiple albums of his original music has captured his songs in different stages of develoment and arrangement such that no two versions are completely the same and document his development.
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Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Alternative Pop/Rock    3. Folk-Rock    4. Pop    5. Popular Music    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

Fans of Willy Porter, Ben Harper, and G. Love will all want to check out Jack Johnson's engaging folk- and blues-inflected pop. Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Johnson, a former surfer and film-school graduate, has a knack for acoustic ballads whose calm surfaces hide a subtle but strong lyrical undertow. "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no,'" sings Johnson on "Flake," which features crony Harper on slide guitar. Production by J.P. Plunier (who also handles Harper's recordings) is simple and uncluttered: acoustic guitar and drum tracks share the foreground with Johnson's easygoing vocals, which evoke everyone from G. Love (who recorded Johnson's "Rodeo Clowns" on his Read more

Reviews (481)

Terrific, as the other reviews say
How can such a seemingly simple, barely instrumented album sound so convincing, so riveting?Great lyrics, sung with perfect (nearly telepathic) intonation by Jack Johnson and great communitative playing come together to grab your attention.You can sense something transcendent, something spiritual while listening to Brushfire.Very special and highly recommended.

Pleasant and light but not a keeper
I'm a big fan of acoustic-based singer/songwriter stuff, so I thought I might like Jack Johnson too. And at first I did. His music is laid back, quite catchy, softly sung, undemanding. Anybody would like it, I guess. But after a while I started to find this CD a bit annoying. When you listen over and over to something really good, it reveals things you didn't see the first few times you played it. But all that's revealed here is a rather `lite' and one-dimensional approach to songwriting and arranging. Lyrics that sound cute at first soon sound empty. It's okay on whimsical songs like `Sexy Plexi', but when he tries to be more serious it doesn't hit the mark. And you may soon tire, as I did, of the crack of the drum that accompanies every song, not to mention that one guitar lick Jack can manage and always does. The band's instrumentation is admittedly fairly minimal, but somebody like Josh Ritter or Garrin Benfield gets more variety with just a guitar and fewer notes.
Another Jack Johnson plus
Love the music - always relaxing and upbeat. Even my 12 year old son thinks the music is great. He really appreciates the fact that most of Jack Johnson's songs have an actual message that is common sense - something we all think and/or understand. Overall Good buy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Alternative Pop/Rock    3. Bass    4. Drums    5. Drums (Steel)    6. Guitar (Acoustic)    7. Guitar (Electric)    8. Percussion    9. Piano    10. Pop    11. Rock    12. Rock/Pop    13. Singer/Songwriter    14. Slide Guitar    15. Vocals   

Editorial Review

Given these tumultuous times, one would expect Ani DiFranco to confront strife head-on, but on this, her 18th album, she tunnels beneath the headlines toward deeper emotional, psychic, and institutional conflicts and causes. She begins by channeling her inner Joni Mitchell, pouring out a quartet of jazzy confessions lightly dusted with electronica, musique concrete, and keyboard drone, but urged forward by Todd Sickafoose's warm acoustic bass. His throbbing, be-bop lines are this spare but somehow atmospheric album's musical soul. As DiFranco's voice bobs and weaves around those rhythms, the personal poetry makes the politics hit harder--and vice versa. She celebrates marginalia and makes peace with a world in flux. She conveys the heat of across-the-café infatuations and grows anxious over her subconscious desires. When she locks her sights on contemporary culture, she sends a scattershot spray against celebrity cults, network news, biotechnology, Yucca Mountain, stolen elections and, of course, patriarchy. But she's a gifted enough poet and musician to keep the album from collapsing into radical rhetoric and psychobabble. The spoken-word title track begins in Hiroshima and ends in a declaration that feminism is not about equality but about "reprieve"--an amnesty from fear and hate, in other words, and an affirmation of life. In the context of a death-driven culture, her decision to bear children, "to split herself in two," becomes the most "radical thing you can do." None of her manifestos, however, would ring true if it weren't for her imaginative, even playful singing and her ever-more accomplished acoustic guitar playing, sometimes classically graceful, sometimes purely urgent. Read more

Reviews (16)

Another masterpiece!
It seems Ani Difranco is getting better and better as she grows up. This particular record is mellow, deep, thought provoking and musically brilliant.
More of a Man Than Most Men Will Ever Be...
Invariably a looming epitome of political awareness and self-reliance, the very pregnant Ani Difranco is in rare form with her latest studio album "Reprieve." Quite a varied collection, and the first after what has been for her a long absence (the outstanding "Knuckle Down" came out in January 2005), Difranco sounds revitalized and acutely in touch with herself. In each lyric and guitar strum resides a sense of purpose and unquestionable passion.
Brilliant
Ani rocks.However, this CD is even better than the rest.The songs are woven together perfectly, with funky techno sound-effects hinting in the background, each song digitally mastered, gently flowing to the next.During one particular song, we even hear a dog barking, far way...This entire collection is amazing, both as a compilation of songs, as well as individually.I received the CD in the mail a few weeks ago, right when it came out, and I have literally been listening to it non-stop ever since.It's downloaded to my IPod, my ITunes, and on both my computers; I keep the actual CD in my car's stereo.And I can't seem to get enough of this music, even after listening to it, time and time again.And unlike CDs of other artists, I loved this CD immediately.It's simply brilliant.SHE is simply brilliant.I never knew she could get even better than her other music, than her other CDs.There is something unique about this one: it's literally a work of art.She has risen to new heights, folks.Amazing stuff... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Folk    2. Anti-Folk    3. Pop    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop    6. Singer/Songwriter    7. United States of America    8. Urban Folk   

Editorial Review

The word "confessional" is frequently applied to folk of all stripes, including folk-rock and folk-pop, which is where Jewel comes in. Even within the bounds of folk, however, her music is more nakedly confessional than most. (Too nakedly, some have carped.) Along with a coterie of Nashville pros, she began her latest musical journey by laying down another introspective song cycle in the vein of 1995's Read more

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Reviews (92)

"Another Gem from Jewel !"
Another Gem from Jewel!
&Dreaming is a Good Thing Cause it Brings New Things to Life

A Turning Point in Jewel's Career
I have had a long musical relationship with Jewel.I feel like she's been a part of my life forever.That's not the reality, but it is true that she is very much responsible for getting me into music.I'm a college student now and music is a huge part of my life.Everything from the Beatles to the Clash to Tori Amos is beautiful and timeless to my ears and I will continue to nurse my addiction to CDs for the rest of my life.None of this would be true if it weren't for Jewel.
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Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Rock/Pop    5. Singer/Songwriter    6. United States of America   

Editorial Review

Fiona Apple, brooding, brainy belter and capital-A artist of near forbidding depth, begins her much gossiped-over third CD on a lark. The title track, one of two songs produced by Jon Brion before the label dispute that prompted hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo (50 Cent, Eminem) to step in, sounds like a Judy Garland number slathered with irony or something Rufus Wainwright might have had a hand in--strings soar, beats bump around skittishly, and notes require a ladder. But playful as it is, by the time the chorus kicks in it's clear why the world has missed Fiona Apple so much. Young female artists who have stepped into the spotlight since she fled it six years ago-- Nellie McKay andJoss Stone spring to mind for their cleverness and heat, respectively--seem slight in comparison. With every track ticked off, in fact, Read more

Reviews (262)

Let's open our minds...
I have never heard the unofficial version of this CD, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I will say that I've been a Fiona fan since I was in high school. I loved "When the Pawn..." so much that I listened to it from 10th grade until I was a Junior in college. Her songs were real and they were something I could relate to as an adolescent entering early adulthood. This CD is much different from her previous works, but I enjoy it all the same.
Extraordinary
I was a casual fan of Ms. Apple with a couple of Tidal tracks on my Ipod. I grabbed EM in the public library last week & I have listened to it everyday since. Outstanding depth, beauty, darkness, and light all over this CD. I am not aware of another voice that even compares. I have played "Red Red Red" a dozen times today. What a haunting song.
What happened....
...to the frank passion and energy of her first release.This is pretentious drivel.Some call it more mature; I find it nearly unlistenable. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Pop    3. Pop/Rock    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop    6. Singer/Songwriter    7. United States of America   

Editorial Review

If you are an artist at a crossroads/ "maturing point" in your career, it's a great idea to seek out the original musicians who played on music you adore and that inspire you greatly–it's the opposite of what Rick Rubin does with the old folks. The results, however, are often lackluster; it can just be too hard to forge a connection in a short period of time with studio dudes twenty to thirty years older than you. Chan Marshall, who took just three years between albums this time, returned to Memphis to record with many of the architects of Southern soul music at Ardent Studios on Read more

Reviews (63)

Overproduced, but still better then most
This is an ok album, but i dont think its going to be the album that makes her go main stream or anything. She has done better with less help in the studio.
Never heard of Cat Power before this one ....
... So the other reviews here, necessarily, have me baffled.
A strange new direction
It's been released for a while now, so if you were going to do it, you would have done it already, but if you like her other stuff I would dissuade you from buying Cat Power's latest album "The Greatest".
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Subjects:  1. Bass    2. Drums    3. Horn Section    4. Indie Rock    5. Piano    6. Pop    7. Rock    8. Rock/Pop    9. Singer/Songwriter    10. Strings    11. Vocals    12. Vocals (Background)   

Editorial Review

Those who know Jack Johnson only as college radio fave are in for a pleasant surprise here, as are wave-riding aficionados with a taste for eclectic, cooled-out musical vibes. The project Read more

Features

• Soundtrack

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Bass    3. Drums    4. Drums (Steel)    5. Guitar (Acoustic)    6. Guitar (Electric)    7. Percussion    8. Piano    9. Pop    10. Singer/Songwriter    11. Slide Guitar    12. Soundtrack    13. Soundtracks & Film Scores    14. Vocals   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (305)

Ahh! Bliss.....
Tidal is a lovely album, and for me can only be likened to the sensation of lying on a settee in that near sleep stage, warmed by an autumn sun streaming through the window. It is that post-lunch satisfaction, the lazy smoke off a fire of piled leaves on a still evening. It is all of these and more. The songs that particularly stand out for me are 'Slow Like Honey' and 'A Child is Gone'. I must admit that I love this moment in her musical life, for, in my humble opinion, 'Tidal' and 'When The Pawn' show acres of raw awareness that 'Extraordinary Machine' unfortunately appears to have lost.

In the era of crappy indie rock, here came someone who has it all...the voice, the mind, and the soul...
I remember buying this album without hearing a song on it.My instinct told me to, despite that I hated indie rock because of its whiny, adolescent, childish tone, and, mostly, because indie rock DOESN'T ROCK.I was afraid that Ms. Apple was going to be another insipid Lisa Loeb clone (who is insipid herself), but hell no!This woman has depth, soul, and what a voice.She looks like a waif, but she has some of the greatest pipes on her.This album (and her followups) are incredibly powerful, tuneful, and magnetic.The production here is superb as well, making Apple's great songs even greater.There were a few artists that managed to come out of the 1990's, and Fiona was one of them.Sure, she didn't always behave in a mature way, but then, does the press really behave in a mature way?Not the illiterate, American one, who drools over the stupidity of someone like Brittney Spears, but who makes fodder of someone like Apple who actually has some talent.Fiona is a phenomenal woman.I don't think she was ever a girl.She's too smart to be just a girl.Brilliant stuff....
Heavy.
I will get straight to the point. Tidal is a masterpiece, classic and timeless. Without hearing it, it's hard to describe just how deep the imagery is within this album. I first bought this, at the age of 15, and since then, it's meaning has only strengthend. On tidal you're not just listening to a C.D, by another deep, confused white teenage girl. I'd go as far as saying you're looking into someone's soul. Apple's soul being an extreamly wounded one. Raped at the age of 12, she penned most of these songs in her bedroom, just note-pad and piano. Her songs take the listener on journeys of feeling misunderstood, rejected, guilty, and tempted. Apple's voice is soft, and yet absolutley burning with passion and pain through-out the entire album. A personnal favourite would be 'Slow Like Honey' in which she sings, ''It's my big secret, keeping you comming''. There is an endearing mystery about her sadness, and her wisdom.
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Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Alternative Pop/Rock    3. Alternative/Indie-Rock    4. Pop    5. Popular Music    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

Blessed with the voice of a wispy angel, Elliott Smith creates sad little pop songs, which, like the work of Nick Drake (to whom he's been compared) threaten to disappear into the night air. Several of the tracks here were featured in Gus Van Zant's movie Read more

Reviews (117)

Mr. Smith's Best.
I have owned this album for a few years.I always liked it, but I just didn't give it the time it deserved.When I bough XO earlier this year, I absolutely fell in love with Elliott Smith.I played that album a million times, as it was immediately accessible to me.I was convinced that it was better than Either/Or.However, when I decided that I would give Either/Or another spin, the greatness of that album jumped right out at me.I heard the songs like I had never heard them before, and as I kept listening to Either/Or, the songs kept getting better and better.Either/Or is my favorite because it is not as heavily produced as XO, which gives the songs more meaning to me, but it is more diverse than Roman Candle or his self-titled album.The songs are more somber and subdued than his songs on XO, but they are not as flat-out depressing as his earlier stuff (which, don't get me wrong, is still amazing).His lyrics on this album ring even truer to me now than those on XO.It just took me an extra step (XO) to get to this masterpiece.My advice for new listeners is to start out with XO, and then when you need another Elliott Smith, immediately buy this one. Once you fall madly in love with this album, all of his other albums should be greatly enjoyable to you as well.

Alamada, and pictures of me.
I didn't understand this album at first. I didn't understand why everyone liked Elliot Smith, and this was my first introduction and this is the best Elliot Smith album. I am so glad I kept it on my computer because about 6 months later I heard it again and listened to it again and again. Not pretentious like I had thought but real. and smooth. Alamada, pictures of me, ballad of a big nothing, and speed trials are the best songs. Elliot Definitely inspired by Beatles and Beach Boys. Elliot seems like someone who fits in perfectly yet doesn't. Elliot keeps it honest but not in a "look I am being honest way." I don't want to make it all about Elliot, as I don't like to make music neccesarilly completely about the person or bring it up so much like some critic but this album really does make you feel in touch with him,. maybe it is a sydrome of all people that died young or killed themselves as I feel the soul of Cobain, Joplin, and so forth.....but I feel like I stabbing myself in the chest when listening to this music. it's all relative. anyway this review sucks and I don't care if you agree.

The best of the best.
I can not praise this album any more than I already have to
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Subjects:  1. Indie Pop    2. Indie Rock    3. Pop    4. Popular Music    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop    7. Sadcore    8. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

Chan Marshall devised the Cat Power moniker in order to put a degree of separation between herself and the often-twisted individuals who inhabit her songs. Here, she takes another step back while also taking a step forward. As the album title indicates, these are covers of other people's songs. Yet she sings them with no less intensity than if they were her own. Mick Jagger may have snarled the definitive "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," but Marshall takes a different tack. She removes the chorus and returns it as elegant slow blues. The Velvet Underground's "I Found a Reason" becomes a near-wordless cry. She relies only on her sufficient guitar picking and likeably amateurish piano tinkling, creating an isolated web not unlike that of Neil Young at his most deserted. Most appropriately, she covers "Red Apples" by Smog, whom she resembles in approach. Obscure (traditional and early) Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, and Michael Hurley tunes complement the bruised but not buried surroundings. Read more

Reviews (47)

She can't play em, but she can sure sing em
If you've been listening to the Cat Power album, The Greatest, you'll know that Chan Marshall makes a superb blues singer. The Covers Record, a likable collection of cover songs recorded in the late 1990s, serves as a nice introduction to Marshall's blues/folk singing style. There is no backup band on this stripped down album. Only Marshall's voice and one other instrument per song. Spare, but it gets the job done.
Best way to do a cover
This album is very intriguing to me because i have not heard any Cat Power that i really like. This album gives me hope for the artist. Each cover is done in a very simplistic way where the music sounds almost nothing like the original song (except "Sea of Love bears a resemblance), and she even rearranges the lyrics and leaves parts out. This is very unique because most people do covers as close to the originals as possible, but that is boring in my opinion and all the listener does is compare it to the original, but these are unique to the original so it makes it its own song. The songs are all performed by just her and mostly are either piano or very simply guitar, but it gives it a real slow folky sound that in my mind is beautiful. I think the best song is "Naked if i want to" but i did buy the album becasue i heard "I found a reason", but there is not one bad track on the album. So check it out.

Sad sad songs
It's a cover album, so albiet i will be an artists reindition of songs of other artists???...No..
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Subjects:  1. Indie Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Rock/Pop    5. Sadcore    6. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

The debate over whether he is punk or new wave is long over; today Elvis Costello is less likely to be found on a list with Strummer and Scabies than he is with Bacharach and David and Jimmy Webb. Lauded initially for his energetic and literate attacks on the social ills of Thatcher's England, he has become a peerless master of the popular song. The evolution of Costello's craft as a songwriter and performer, from the early high-octane polemics, through his stylistic experiments with country and soul, and on to standards written for others, is splendidly documented on this elegant two-disc set. Chronology is ignored in favor of a thoughtful program that catalogs the jewels from his prolific output and a sprinkling of covers that demonstrate the maturing of his singing voice. The 42 tracks here lean generously to the first 10 years with the Attractions, but also collects the best of his subsequent collaborations with the cream of America's session musicians and on through to "She," his