Sounding like a Stax-era Aretha Franklin, Jones can't even fit Lou Reed in to her busy schedule

After some dark nights of the soul, the teen stride player turned singer-songwriter decides to trust his voice

His embellishments recall ’70s-era pioneers who invented the extended mix — not remixes, but faithful elaborations of tracks that were great to begin with

The Japanese girl-rock group keeps rolling out its brand of chirpy, sincere rock 'n' roll

The British improviser turns the 50s drums-sax-bass configuration inside out

Alexisonfire is starting to sound a little trapped inside its ugly-pretty format. Despite generously bearded and big-tittied bassist Chris Steele bouncing around in a sweat-drenched white T-shirt, it's lacking sex

When the original lineup - and who ever thought those words would actually thrill? - of Ginger, Scary, Baby, Posh, and Sporty first appeared at GM Place on the opening night of the Spice Girls' reunion tour, it was impossible not to feel a rush at the sight of the icons in the flesh

The title comes from "Get Together", the Summer of Love anthem written by Dino Valenti and popularized by the Youngbloods: the folk-rock pioneer's acoustic demo and the Jesse Colin Young fronted hit version bookend this stunning... [read more]

This is one of the coolest-looking boxed sets ever. It's designed to resemble the head of a Marshall amp, and even features a volume knob that goes all the way to 11... [read more]

Part of the Syd Barrett cult was always predicated on the hope that he might return someday to explain everything. Why did he leave Pink Floyd... [read more]

A half-decade ago, producer-cum-smart-ass Dan "The Automator" Nakamura gave the clueless bachelors of the world an invaluable gift titled Nathaniel Merriweather Presents… Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By...

The three CDs that comprise the Young Marble Giants' recorded legacy come wrapped in a flimsy slipcover. But that's all right, because the music itself is as lasting as stone...

(Columbia/Legacy)

Certain artists are perennially popular, and are therefore destined to be remastered, repackaged, and rereleased, seemingly ad infinitum. Billie Holiday is one such...

Bubblegum pop doesn't get much sweeter or stickier than the tweens-targeted sing-alongs in these recent hit Disney Channel movies...

For me, "Sussudio" was the last straw. Even though it was part of Phil Collins's solo career, that tune irritated me so much that it threw a pall over everything he'd done before...

It was the last straw. Throughout the 1960s, Miles Davis had stretched ever further away from his bebop roots, first with the dreamy modalities he cocreated with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, then with the gauzy ambient soundscapes of...

When Billboard bestowed its coveted Century Award on Emmylou Harris in 1999, the magazine declared her a "truly venturesome, genre-transcending pathfinder"...

Has there ever been another band that did less with more or, conversely, was so much better than it had any right to be?...

René Lussier's Le Trésor de la langue deserves to be recognized as one of the major masterpieces of Canadian music and it might be, in Lussier's home province of Quebec...

The idea that you can sum up British music from 1984 to 1999 on four CDs seems a bit laughable...

You can’t blame the members of Pepper for hauling up stakes and changing ZIP codes, even if you have to seriously question what kind of lunatics abandon the paradise of Hawaii for the smoggy streets of Los Angeles... [read more]

Josh Groban, Noel; Celine Dion, Taking Chances; Alicia Keys, As I Am...

There's really nothing these vapid piles of laundry, rocking baby's first beard or an inscrutable squeak, haven't wrecked