| Critics’ Picks
TORTOISE – It's All Around You (Thrill Jockey)
Tortoise – the band that lives up to its name. For three years, I've slowly worn down the grooves of my vinyl copy of Standards waiting for a new release of original material.
ALANIS MORRISSETTE – So Called Chaos (Maverick)
Alanis has morphed from bubble-gum big-haired teenybopper to pissed-off rock chick to thankful earth mother. Her music has always reflected directly off the mirror of her current life chapter. The softening effects of being in love in real life should strip the slightly bitter veneer of past albums and reveal her poetic songwriting skills.
THE DATSUNS – Outta Sight/Outta Mind (V2)
The Datsuns' self-titled debut was a boiling morass of distorted guitars with solos aplenty, topped by on-the-edge vocals. A damn fine rock and roll album. Since the U.S. has trouble cranking out good rock these days, and Sweden is working overtime to cover the shortfall, we now look to Australia with hope in our eyes...
SONIC YOUTH –Nurse (Geffen)
2002's Murray Street rests near the top of Sonic Youth's catalogue as their liveliest work since Dirty a full decade earlier. Thanks in no small part to the now full-time involvement of Jim O'Rourke, Thurston & Co. have never sounded quite so excited – if the recent preview 7-inch Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Handcream is any indication, Nurse should be just as kinetic.
DIVISION OF LAURA LEE – Das Not Compute (Epitaph)
Together with the Glaswegians, Swedes dominate the hipster music scene. DOLL’s full-length Black City was a sonic assault that surprised and impressed. Their brand of post-hardcore rocking is tight, they are fabulous live and the drummer’s name is Hakan. See? You haven’t heard it and you already know it’s great!
WILCO – A Ghost is Born (Nonesuch)
Was Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot really the second coming, or just a pretty good indie-rock album with a great movie? Now that he's replaced half his band, who will Jeff Tweedy try to make happy? Dumb-ass rock reviewers? Being There fans? His bloated, megalomaniacal self?
ATOMIC 7 – En Hillbilly Caliente (Mint)
Their last record made me believe in instrumental surf-rock again and I don’t doubt that Brian Connelly will once again make the most of his Duane Eddy-meets-Ennio Morricone guitar. Besides, how can you turn down a song called "The Wreck of the Dick Family Weiner Boat?"
PATTI SMITH – Trampin’ (Sony)
CAROLYN MARK – The Pros and Cons of Collaboration (Mint)
It’s a tie! Yep, the elder poetess of punk-scream dreams hasn’t hit the right mark for a while, but you can never write off someone who once wrote "Rock N Roll Nigger." Speaking of a right Mark, it doesn’t matter whether she turns up on disc, on a little stage surrounded by 40 people or a massive one surrounded by 4,000, Carolyn Mark’s got songs, humour, class and a voice to put ’em all together with. Oh yeah, and (usually) a band that could melt mercury.
April
Trey Anastasio
Animal Band
Anthrax
Iain Archer
Avril Lavigne
Azita
Beta Band
Belvedere
Black Label Society
Black Ox Orkestar
The Butchies
Lloyd Cole
Julie Delpy
Delta
Drowning Pool
Fear Factory
The Fire Divine
Delta Goodman
Mike Gordon
Grey Does Matter
Shane Henry
Jagged Edge
John Wilkes Booze
Kottonmouth Kings
Lisa Loeb
Tony Lucca
Manta Ray
Pat McGee Band
Vinney Miller
Miossec
Mixel Pixel
Nekromantix
Of Montreal
Pagoda
Sam Phillips
Seal
Sea Change
Ratatat
Ron Sexsmith
Graham Smith
Sounds Like Violence
The Veils
W.A.S.P.
Mary Lou Williams
Alfie Zappacosta
May
Tori Amos
Sebastian Bach
David Bowie
Jane Berkin
Brainflower
Call and Response
The Catheters
Charlemagne
Clann Z
Contrast
Danny Cohen
Lloyd Cole
Chris de Burgh
Vincent Delerm
Sandy Dillon
The Drowning Pool
Lara Fabian
Feist
The Fire Divine
For Stars
Rachel Goswell
Greater California
Lashell Griffen
Jim Guthrie
Havergal
Icarus Line
I am the World Trade Center
Lenny Kravitz
k.d. lang
Joseph Malik
The Matches
Mantler
McLusky
David Mead
Mission of Burma
Joey McIntyre
Morrissey
Jason Mraz
New Found Glory
Stina Nordenstam
The Organ
Out of Your Mouth
Passage
The Pieces
The Real Tuesday Weld
The Reeks and the Wrecks
Gordie Sampson
Joe Satriani
Secret Machines
Asobi Sesku
Scatter the Ashes
Sounds Like Violence
Stabilo
Start Trouble
Steriogram
Tamia
Tangiers
Thee Silver Mountian Reveries
U.S Roughnecks
White Magic
Young Heart Attack
Dweezil Zappa
June
Apostle of Hustle
Bad Religion
Clair De Lune
Cowboy Junkies
Br. Danielson
From First to Last
Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards
French Kicks
The Fucking Am
David Grubbs
PJ Harvey
Lateef & the Chief Are Maroons
The Lackloves
Jake Matthews
A.C. Newman
Quietworld
The Pieces
Red Animal War
Kyle Riabko
Royal City
Telepathetic Butterflies
Tiger Army
Waxwings
Wilco
Erich Zhan
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