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

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

The debut offering from England's Broadcast cascades over the listener like a lush film score.

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

A reaffirming celebration of small details.

The Covers Record is for the daring music fan; Marshall's quiet journey and its rich, emotional rewards are not for the faint of heart.

Built around mellotrons, bowed saws, and other odd sonic devices, All Is Dream's arrangements often recall the prog-rock heyday of bands such as Can and Yes, albeit with more somber hues.

Sexsmith's most underrated asset is his most obvious: that voice. The way he slides into a line, pauses, and then delivers for maximum effect… No histrionics, just truth.

With Kid A, Radiohead has made the ultimate 3 a.m. stoner-headphone album, one that marks an entirely logical progression from -- if not necessarily an improvement upon -- the techno-but-not-really O.K. Computer.... Occasionally, it feels less like a rock record and more like a museum piece, and as a work of art, it's laudable. As an actual, listener-friendly offering, it leaves something to be desired: It's precisely the sort of record a band makes when it has endless amounts of time and money, and has spent long periods of time being told what geniuses its members are.

Music is a weaker record than its predecessor, with only a few tracks possessing the strength, pop sensibility, and hooks that made Ray of Light such a success.

A reminder of how great the band could be when its members put their minds to it.

There are a few saccharine missteps, such as "I Surrender," with its smarmy smooth-jazz guitar harmonies. And certainly this isn't the most varied album, especially by compilation standards -- Sylvian's instrumentals are unfairly slighted, and some more energetic tracks were left untapped. But the flipside is that this is a remarkably coherent collection that largely sets a mood and sticks to it, with the lush productions and Sylvian's charmingly tremulous, attractively reedy singing soothing casual listeners, yet revealing greater depths should one choose to listen for them.

Sounds like a tighter, more focused version of past glories.

All the big Wu dogs are here -- Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Raekwon, Genius, etc. -- and it sounds like they've been sharpening their skills like knives. They toss rhymes back and forth with the precision of a machine -- they're so good it's almost scary.

Mama's Gun wisely doesn't stray too far from the free-flowing R&B of Baduizm: Almost every track here is slinky, scat-influenced soul with rich female backing voices, seeded with the occasional string section, trumpet, or sample (most notably Dr. Dre's "Xxplosive"). Lyrically, most of Mama's Gun rings true, with "Bag Lady," the somewhat draggy first single on which Badu dispenses soulful advice to a homeless woman, as the sole exception.

Occasionally, Yang's sugary, torchy vocals are too heavy-handed for this ethereal drone pop.

The most disappointingly safe alternative album of the year.

There are few big drum samples or disco beats on Sound of Water; as its title suggests, it's far more fluid and sensuous than any music the group has made before.

It's sort of beautiful in its ugliness, a metal record lovingly buffeted by details and white noise.

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.

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

Certainly his most personal record, arguably his best.

Although devoted fans will welcome this straight-down-the-middle approach with open arms, those on the fringes who were intrigued by their tinkering will find it lacks some of the vibrancy of their recent artistic adventurousness.

Still walking that tightrope between seductive soul and fearsome BPM counts, Size and crew grab you by the earlobe and drag you along, whether you like it or not. This time, though, they've polished their sound to a liquid smoothness and brought some friends along, namely Method Man and Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha.... At a time when drum-and-bass has lost its momentum and focus, In the Mode glimmers with brilliance simply because it's everything that drum-and-bass isn't.

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.

So … How's your Girl is more an experiment in possibility than a cohesive album -- hip-hop rubs up against various other forms of digital noise, and the frictional frisson is both pleasant and surprising. Luckily, Handsome Boy Modeling School has lessons well worth learning.

The best results are in the vein of Low-era Bowie. The duds turn up, surprisingly, in the area that Blur is strongest -- songwriting.

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.