Luscious Jackson "In Search of Manny"

Luscious Jackson's connections to The Beastie Boys are significant -- debut EP In Search of Manny was the first release on the group's indie label Grand Royal, drummer Kate Schellenback played on The Beasties' Pollywog Stew, but most importantly, Luscious Jackson came from the same pop culture-soaked, carnival-esque New York underground scene where punkers and rappers ran in concentric club circles. Where The Beasties rooted themselves firmly in hip-hop, Luscious Jackson used its rhythms as a launching pad for a music that is elastic, casually expansive, darkly seductive, and perfectly realized on In Search of Manny. Although hip-hop beats underpin all seven songs on this EP and leaders Jill Cunniff and Gabby Glaser rap as often as they sing, it's difficult to call this rap, since the songs follow pop form, the samples are for texture and color, not groove, and the aesthetic is slacker bohemia. In short, it's a record that only could have happened in 1992, just as Gen-X alt-rock culture hit its stride but before it reached the mainstream. Not long after this, Luscious Jackson would gel into a full-fledged band and its music would become sunnier, but here, it was still primarily the product of Cunniff and Glaser, with the two working with limited means -- drum machines, acoustic guitars, primitive samples -- to create a work of vast imagination. It may come from a very specific time and place -- it evokes its era more than it transcends it -- and it doesn't court listeners (something they would immediately do with Natural Ingredients), but the music pulsates with a sense of discovery, as the duo carves out its own niche in underground hipster culture. Years later, it retains its alluring vibe and stands as one of the unheralded gems of the alt-rock explosion of the early '90s.

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Track Listing:

1) Let Yourself Get Down
2) Life of Leisure
3) Daughters of the Kaos
4) Keep On Rockin' It
5) She Be Wantin' It More
6) Bam Bam
7) Satellite

Blur "Modern Life Is Rubbish"

As a response to the dominance of grunge in the U.K. and their own decreasing profile in their homeland -- and also as a response to Suede's sudden popularity -- Blur reinvented themselves with their second album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, abandoning the shoegazing and baggy influences that dominated Leisure for traditional pop. On the surface, Modern Life may appear to be an homage to The Kinks, David Bowie, The Beatles, and Syd Barrett, yet it isn't a restatement, it's a revitalization. Blur use British guitar pop from The Beatles to My Bloody Valentine as a foundation, spinning off tales of contemporary despair. If Damon Albarn weren't such a clever songwriter, both lyrically and melodically, Modern Life could have sunk under its own pretensions, and the latter half does drag slightly. However, the record teems with life, since Blur refuse to treat their classicist songs as museum pieces. Graham Coxon's guitar tears each song open, either with unpredictable melodic lines or layers of translucent, hypnotic effects, and his work creates great tension with Alex James' kinetic bass. And that provides Albarn a vibrant background for his social satires and cutting commentary. But the reason Modern Life Is Rubbish is such a dynamic record and ushered in a new era of British pop is that nearly every song is carefully constructed and boasts a killer melody, from the stately "For Tomorrow" and the punky "Advert" to the vaudeville stomp of "Sunday Sunday" and the neo-psychedelic "Chemical World." Even with its flaws, it's a record of considerable vision and excitement.

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Track Listing:

1) For Tomorrow
2) Advert
3) Colin Zeal
4) Pressure on Julian
5) Star Shaped
6) Blue Jeans
7) Chemical World
8) Intermission
9) Sunday Sunday
10) Oily Water
11) Miss America
12) Villa Rosie
13) Coping
14) Turn It Up
15) Pop Scene
16) Resigned
17) Commercial Break
18) When the Cows Come Home
19) Peach

Brand Nubian "Foundation"

Foundation, the first album since Brand Nubian's 1990 debut to feature all four original members, is an incredible return to form. The rhymes by Grand Puba, Sadat X, and Lord Jamar are as striking as they were on the group's breakout, and the focus on message tracks is a refreshing turn from the rap world's played-out tales of thug life. "Don't Let It Go to Your Head" is a cautionary tale for arrogant one-hit rappers, while "Probable Cause" is a scathing attack on the notorious tactics of the New Jersey State Police and "I'm Black and I'm Proud" is an enjoyable roots epic. There are plenty of simple feel-good tracks as well, although those omnipresent Wu-Tang strings appear on several songs (just as on every other major rap album released in 1998). The group ably manages to sidestep another late-'90s rap cliché, enlisting a different outside producer for each track. Though Foundation is no different -- featuring DJ Premier, Lord Finesse, and Chris "CL" Liggio, among others -- most of the best tracks were helmed by Nubian members Grand Puba or DJ Alamo. Of the few N.Y.C. rap acts still left a decade on from rap's golden age, Brand Nubian sound the freshest.

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Track Listing:

1) Here We Go
2) The Return
3) Shinin' Star
4) The Beat Change
5) Migraine (Interlude)
6) Don't Let It Go to Your Head
7) Brand Nubian
8) Maybe One Day
9) Let's Dance
10) Back Up Off the Wall
11) Black on Black Crime (Interlude)
12) I'm Black & I'm Proud
13) Sincerely
14) Probable Cause
15) The Ghetto (Interlude)
16) Love vs. Hate
17) Too Late
18) Straight Outta Now Rule
19) Foundation
20) U for Me

Calexico "The Black Light"

Somewhere in between the creepy non-practicing cowboy aesthetic of Palace and the shuffling beats of Latin jazz clubs, Calexico's The Black Light resonates in gloriously cinematic tones. In the hands of less soulful musicians, such combinations would sound more wanky than wonderful. There's a remarkable amount of variety on The Black Light. "Fake Fur" takes a Brazilian rhythm and adds a subdued, shuffling bass that makes the head begin to sway. "Where Water Flows" weaves cello, vibes and expertly plugged guitar to conjure the end of yet another lonely night. The album's title track is a wonderfully reverb- drenched piece that captures the menacing tension of a convict on the loose. "Minas De Cobre (For Better Metal)" bursts into lusty mariachi trumpets that would feel at home in any Sergio Leone soundtrack. Virtually everything about this album bears an obscene attention to detail. Even the record's recording, performed in a seemingly spacious warehouse, is worth spewing oodles of idle, meandering prose. It's enough to make you want to move down South to partake in a life of crime.

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Track Listing:

1) Gypsy's Curse
2) Fake Fur
3) The Ride, Pt. II
4) Where Water Flows
5) The Black Light
6) Sideshow
7) Chach
8) Missing
9) Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal)
10) Over Your Shoulder
11) Vinegaroon
12) Trigger
13) Sprawl
14) Stray
15) Old Man Waltz
16) Bloodflow
17) Frontera

Neutral Milk Hotel "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"

Perhaps best likened to a marching band on an acid trip, Neutral Milk Hotel's second album is another quixotic sonic parade; lo-fi yet lush, impenetrable yet wholly accessible, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is either the work of a genius or an utter crackpot, with the truth probably falling somewhere in between. Again teaming with producer Robert Schneider, Jeff Mangum invests the material here with new maturity and clarity; while the songs run continuously together, as they did on the previous On Avery Island, there is a much clearer sense of shifting dynamics from track to track, with a greater emphasis on structure and texture. Mangum's vocals are far more emotive as well; whether caught in the rush of spiritual epiphany ("The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three") or in the grip of sexual anxiety ("Two-Headed Boy"), he sings with a new fervor, composed in equal measure of ecstasy and anguish. However, as his musical concepts continue to come into sharper focus, one hopes his stream-of-consciousness lyrical ideas soon begin to do the same; while Mangum spins his words with the rapid-fire intensity of a young Dylan, the songs are far too cryptic and abstract to fully sink in — In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is undoubtedly a major statement, but just what it's saying is anyone's guess.

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Track Listing:

1) The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. I
2) The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. II & III
3) In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
4) Two-Headed Boy
5) The Fool
6) Holland, 1945
7) Communist Daughter
8) Oh Comely
9) Ghost
10) The Penny Arcade in California
11) Two-Headed Boy, Pt. II

Gang Starr "Moment of Truth"

By the release of Moment of Truth in the spring of 1998, Gang Starr were rap veterans, having spent nearly ten years as professionals. That elapsed time meant that the album was positioned as something of a comeback, since the duo had been inactive for four years, and it had been even longer since they had a hit. They knew they had to come back hard, and Moment of Truth accomplishes their goals. Retaining the swing of their jazz-rap fusions, Gang Starr nevertheless have their rhythms hit at a street level, and Guru's rhymes are his best in years. It may not have the thrill of discovery that made their first albums so exciting, but on the whole it's a successful return.

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Track Listing:

1) You Know My Steez
2) Robin Hood Theory
3) Work
4) Royalty
5) Above the Clouds
6) JFK to LAX
7) Itz a Set Up
8) Moment of Truth
9) B.I. vs. Friendship
10) The Militia
11) The Rep Grows Bigga
12) What I'm Here 4
13) She Knowz What She Wantz
14) New York Strait Talk
15) My Advice 2 You
16) Make 'Em Pay
17) The Mall
18) Betrayal
19) Next Time
20) In Memory Of...

Billy Bragg & Wilco "Mermaid Avenue"

During the spring of 1995, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora contacted British urban folk troubadour Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics. This was no minor task — Guthrie left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967 that had no music other than a vague stylistic notation. Bragg chose a number of songs to finish, as did Jeff Tweedy of the alt-country band Wilco (often with bandmate Jay Bennett). Nora Guthrie impressed a common goal upon them: Rather than recreating Guthrie tunes, they should write as if they were collaborating with Woody, creating new, vital music for the lyrics. Both artists completed more songs than could fit on Mermaid Avenue, which is neatly split between Bragg and Wilco, with Bragg taking lead on eight of the 15 songs. The results are almost entirely a delight, mainly because all involved are faithful to Guthrie's rowdy spirit — it's a reverent project that knows how to have fun. There are many minor, irresistible gems scattered throughout the album, and most of them come from Bragg. Where Wilco's fine contributions sound inextricably tied to the '90s, both for better and for worse, Bragg's music sounds contemporary while capturing Guthrie's folk traditions. That's not to say Wilco's contributions are failures — it's just hard to imagine Guthrie singing the plaintive "California Stars" or the plodding "Christ for President," neither of which quite fit the lyrics. Nevertheless, their hearts are in the right place; more often than not, they come close to the target, and their joyous playing invigorates Mermaid Avenue. The blend of Bragg's traditionalist sensibility and Wilco's contemporary style ultimately illustrates that Guthrie's words, ideals, and aesthetics remain alive in the '90s.

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Track Listing:

1) Walt Whitman's Niece
2) California Stars
3) Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
4) Birds & Ships
5) Hoodoo Voodoo
6) She Came Along to Me
7) At My Window Sad & Lonely
8) Ingrid Bergman
9) Christ for President
10) I Guess I Planted
11) One by One
12) Eisler on the Go
13) Hesitating Beauty
14) Another Man's Done Gone
15) The Unwelcome Guest