Becker and Fagen seem to have found their happy place during the recording of Two Against Nature. And as it's presented on this extremely infectious collection, their joy is contagious.

A finely wrought chronicle of joy and heartbreak, partying and love, his tuneful, raspy voice the perfect balance of eloquence and muscle.

Underneath it all, they're not much different than the fans who buy their records, and it's that adoration of sound that makes Back to Mine shine.

Undoubtedly one of the most infectious records you'll hear this year.

The CD unfurls a ragged blend of infectious melodies, couched in brisk tempos, and shimmering ballads culled from the blueprint of such past hits as "Name" and "Iris."

A sophomore album that actually lives up to its hype.

Another solid effort.

Heathen Chemistry finds the quintet back in cracking mid-'90s form.

He's still slicing and dicing styles like this week's challenger on Iron Chef, but this time he's got some serious guest firepower to back up these cross-cultural forays.

Their latest, Lions, gets back to basics without going backward; the brothers Robinson are still ripping off the classics, sure, but they've expanded the history lesson from the Small Faces and Humble Pie to sharpening the attack with Zeppelinesque tricks and modern rock energy.

Vintage Reed?

Still, the faithful wonder if it's the same Belle and Sebastian that gave them such fey, storied gems as Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister. They can breathe easy now.

Double Figure further fuses the themes fans have come to expect, but feels even more warm and organic than past efforts.

It is truly exciting stuff from a group that represents a sagging genre's vitally bright future.

On Art and Life, Beenie's lyrical flow is unstoppable. He unleashes some of his sharpest and funniest rhymes over slickly-produced tracks aimed squarely for hip-hop radio airplay.

An early study of California hip-hop, Überzone mixes twisted, bubbling Roland bass, big beats, and vocoder effects to make futuristic electro-anthems that manage to pop and lock like robots, but recall the organic '80s breaker heyday and never sound sterile and stiff.

Arguably its most cohesive and dynamic effort yet.

It's the breath-taking songwriting that clinches the deal here.

Title TK sounds as if nothing happened since Last Splash.

Nas has compiled an imaginative State of the Union address to the streets.

Maas has done what not many others in his class have managed to successfully pull off: making a truly decent, engaging record that is more than just 72 minutes of electronica generica trading on name recognition.

A feast of post-punk and seminal house.

The most honest-sounding collection of songs Westerberg has penned in years.

Daybreaker's more conventional nature puts a greater and more intriguing challenge on Orton's vocal cords to be the album's main instrument; that voice, a breathless cry that falls somewhere between Natalie Merchant and Bjork, is more than equal to the task.

While a little too dense in spots, NYC Ghosts & Flowers is 42 minutes of the most neatly executed pop noir you'll hear.

Unlike the band's earlier material, which echoed with thunderous volume, Leaves Turn Inside You is textural and sedate, combining the hazy urgency of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation with the creativity of Yo La Tengo and the ethereality of Slowdive.

His rhymes often approach the immediacy of raw, street-level reportage, like CNN with a better soundtrack.

Lenny benefits from being Kravitz's most consistent album in years, if ever.

Semisonic's newest release, All About Chemistry, hits all the right pop spots, but will likely appeal to a very niche group -- the same group that embraced the easy, witty pop of bands such as Crowded House or Ben Folds Five.

Few bands can both rock and pine as well as Duritz and company.

Guitar-heads will automatically buy this, but it also deserves to reach any audiences excited by imaginative music working outside commercial boundaries.

Weaving fragmented elements of hip-hop, folk, and bossa nova, Whoa, Nelly! is one wildly entertaining multicultural jam.... Though her lyrics are a lot smarter than today's average pop offering, they do wear the more common clichés of hippy-chick wisdom a little too proudly at times. But that's OK: If she's got to get her cosmic ya-yas out, the first record's the place to do it.

Packed with classic R&B and making clever use of electronic/dance, blues, and rock, Everybody shies far from the bloated vocalizing and obvious production that have marked the genre of late, helping put the soul back into a previously moldering art form.

A more polished sonic effort than Dilated's 2000 debut, The Platform.

There are no real surprises on Figure 8, just the same gorgeous, soft vocals and acoustic guitar heard on his previous releases...

Yup, the angst and fury of 1997's Pinkerton is a thing of the past, as the band indulges in the kind of buzzing hooks and euphonic harmonies that made songs such as "Buddy Holly" and "Undone (The Sweater Song)" such huge hits.

A dark, methodical, and ultimately beautiful album.

Unlike most acts who tend to get over-hyped and fall far short of expectations, Norway's Röyksopp does not disappoint.

Unlike Odelay, the mix-and-match pastiche of Midnite Vultures doesn't show its seams.

Indulging in various vices, imagining exotic locales, and pining after the bad boy, he is now more worldly and wise; it makes for a more textured -- if not as immediately winning -- album.

His music remains lively and contemporary even when he reworks traditional songs old enough to have their copyrights lapse into the public domain.

Fans of both Parton and refreshing acoustic roots music should find the album unambiguously divine.

Spending the last decade releasing mediocre discs with great tracks surrounded by filler, Public Enemy returns with an album reminiscent of Fear of a Black Planet.

While Low turns to touches less subtle than before on Trust, the drape of ambient tension over gently ramping repetitions results in the band's most assertive album to date.

Not every moment of Revelling/Reckoning is a winner. But the record is probably DiFranco's first where all the tags -- staunch D.I.Y.-er, feminist, bisexual folk-punk -- and the baggage of her brutally personal songwriting play second fiddle to the songs found within.

The most alluring aspect of The Platform is the array of finely-crafted beats assembled by Evidence and DJ Premier protégé The Alchemist, which are in turn juggled and sliced at will by the hands of DJ Babu, the oft-forgotten man in the hip-hop equation.

May well be Donelly's definitive post-Belly work.

It's refreshing to see a high-profile album like this take a long-form risk and stand on the merits of intuition and musical construction alone.

His most impressive sound collage yet.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a prettier set of songs about love and disappointment than the ones that grace Teddy Thompson's self-titled debut.

Unlike any of the pop princesses that have gone before her, however, Lavigne offers a sound far more guitar-heavy, and lyrics packed with unshakable attitude.

Co-produced by Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, much of Forever captures that group's penchant for dense atmospherics.

A lush cruise through the Caribbean's romantic songwriting traditions with some additional stops in South America.

With Trickle, the group continues to carve out a private niche in the rather segregated world of electronica with another set of excellent tracks full of pop sensibility and a heaping dose of sensuality.

The eclectic, pan-genre disc opens -- as did 2000's Transcendental Blues -- as an unabashed rocker, but this time around Earle uses the heavy artillery to underscore weightier worldly themes.

One listen to Asleep in the Back's "Newborn" invokes a feeling of unmistakable contemplation and a sense of beauty entirely absent from the repertoires of the Oasis and Verves of Brit rock's last generation.

Artistically, Beaucoup Fish lives up to its advance billing, crisscrossing the genres of rock, techno, ambient, disco and jazz to create a rich, multi-leveled listening experience.

One of the crispest and coziest (and, at 21 tracks, one of the most generous) live recordings in recent memory.

Purists may find Jones' stuffy-nosed tone and tics of phrasing objectionable, yet she reaches directly into the heart of each classic in intimate readings.

It's great for kids and parents, because TMBG, like former Del Fuego Dan Zanes, are among the only children's musicians who recognize that real rock and roll has always been goofy and childlike.

Built to Spill's combo of wry phrasing and explosive sound is more honed on this album than ever before.

The prickly edged new wave of the band's debut has morphed into keyboard-addled post-punk on The Menace.

Staying true to an Underworld-influenced formula of riff-punctuated house music will inspire new converts to the menagerie, as this record's grooves are simultaneously original and accessible.

May be the Coup's tightest album yet.

Like so many great fuzzy rock albums, from the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street to R.E.M.'s Murmur, it takes a few listens to seep into your bloodstream.

It's the between-song banter that makes The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show worth its weight in gold.

Dense with upbeat, guitar-based songs, Wasp Star brings to mind the best of mid-'60s pop (think the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Kinks).

Their simplest, softest sound yet. While 1997's The Fawn thrived in tender disarray, this 10-track outing sparkles with a warm and graceful confidence.

As cohesive and potent as Everyday or anything else in the DMB's catalog

This is blender pop of the finest order, held together by some of the most high-minded funk in this galaxy.

10 is a return to form for LL, and the album finds him doing what he does best: Making relaxed, radio-friendly jams while giving the ladies a little something extra.

Pink continues to work her groove thang on much of Missundaztood, but equal time is given over to some genuine stylistic risk-taking.

Parachutes is full of devotional songs that whisper their honorable intentions in our ears like a repentant sinner's promises, while moody sonics mostly call to mind Radiohead, though at times you can hear the grandiose bellow of U2 and the vocal poignancy of Jeff Buckley.

RZA and company get back to basics with the kind of stripped-down ghetto menace that made the Wu Tang great in the first place.

Piled high with elegant strings, horns, and vibraphone, these 10 tracks mark a new sophistication for this talented group.

Fixed Context is a prime example of mutable sound, which is to say, songs that are less about structure than direction.

The overall package is a slick, Rockwilder-produced old-school styled joint that's still got a foot in the year 2000 -- classic and timely all at once.

Framed in delicate, candlelit arrangements that beckon like distant ghosts, Phillips addresses matters of faith, love, and spiritual connection in such a way that questions are as important as answers.

Whatever the source, each song is given a finely detailed treatment that gets to its emotional core, and the exquisite engineering allows each nuance to add to the total effect.

Waits' voice has always been an acquired taste, but those on the bus will appreciate the way he throws himself into every track as if haunting the characters like some sort of lunatic guardian narrator.

Innovative and gorgeous, equally recalling Dionne Warwick-era Bacharach and contemporary ambient pop.

A thoroughly modern, introspective album... The lush sound of earlier Go-Betweens albums has been traded for simpler, more restrained instrumentation even when accented with cello and violin.

Air's score darkens their brand of soft, introspective melodies with wavering pianos, funereal organs, and disembodied synth loops, and the resulting soundscapes often have a spacey, Pink Floyd-ish quality.

Beyond the music, X's sincere subject matters keep the album enticing.

Tool has made an album that's undeniably its own, yet one which adds layers of subtlety, texture, and meaning that move its sound forward into complex new territory.

Secret South may be an even stronger work than its predecessor, 1998's exceptional Low Estate

What dignifies her from the pack is her ability to blend accessible and likeable arrangements with messages that are simultaneously straightforward and enigmatic, jovial and pained.

All Hands on the Bad One may not be as spiritually cohesive or accomplished as the band's classic 1997 outing, Dig Me Out, but none of that matters when you turn it up and play it loud.

Her triumphant, long-awaited Righteous Love is no carbon copy of Relish, but that's because Osborne, who's always demonstrated open ears, has continued to develop as an artist and take on additional influences.

It's Cole's deep vocal tracks, though, that steal the show.

By going back to that almost naive passion for spacious, drawn-out, instrumental dance tracks, the Chemical Brothers have discovered songs again, not just "tracks."

The country-tinged melodies and beautifully simple arrangements combine with the downcast romanticism of singer Neil Halstead's lyrics in a way that is simultaneously inspired and confident.

As a result of Bragg and Wilco's increasing ease with Guthrie's enormous legacy, this album sees both more experimentation and a stronger contemporary feeling than its predecessor.

His latest album manages to find a middle ground between mindless crowd-pleasing and progressive sound manipulation.... Unreasonable Behaviour is obviously Garnier's attempt to push the creative envelope, with entirely satisfying results.

Isolation Drills may not match Bee Thousand's magical, mystical tone (not many records can), but it's as melodic and powerful as the best of GBV's vast catalog. It also firmly cements Pollard's reputation as one of rock's all-time greats...

Morphine's most ambitious and accomplished work.

The Contino Sessions is one of the more interesting, well-crafted albums of late 1999. Death in Vegas partners Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes have packed as much interest and emotion into each of the album's relatively short 48 minutes as they possibly could.

Scarecrow is a fine album, one that can be placed favorably next to Brooks' career milestones No Fences and Ropin' the Wind.