Barenaked Ladies took their time in following up their almost commercial flop Maroon. Having Don Was in the production seat wasn’t enough to flesh out Barenaked Ladies’ bright musical humor, although “Pinch Me” and “Falling for the First…
A brilliant fusion of pop and gonzo humor, 1994’s Chocolate and Cheese is arguably Ween’s finest moment. Building on Pure Guava’s more focused approach, the album proved for once and all that along with their twisted sense of humor and…
If 2001’s Britney was a transitional album, capturing Spears at the point when she wasn’t a girl and not yet a woman, its 2003 follow-up, In the Zone, is where she has finally completed that journey and turned into Britney, the Adult…
The 2005 double-disc set Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection is the second Def Leppard compilation to be released in the U.S. The first, Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits, appeared ten years earlier, and while the band was active in the…
Greatest Hits is not, alas, the antidote to the botched Nothing Safe: Best of the Box compilation, but rather a lower-priced, ten-track sampler of Alice in Chains’ career. The songs are mostly excellent and well-chosen, but unfortunately,…
Kill ‘Em All may have revitalized heavy metal’s underground, but Ride the Lightning was even more stunning, exhibiting staggering musical growth and boldly charting new directions that would affect heavy metal for years to come. Incredibly…
Of all the major teen pop stars who ran wild at the turn of the millennium, Mandy Moore was perhaps the least successful, if she’s judged merely on terms of chart success. Britney and Christina certainly racked up more hits and headlines…
This compilation just misses being the perfect single-CD Jimi Hendrix anthology, and it’s a crying shame because it comes so close. Its main virtue is that, in contrast to Smash Hits — the only compilation of Hendrix’s work approved by…