No dolt, she figures it's in her best interest to sound like one--as well as an insider outsider like Gush and Bore, whose horrible lessons in playing it safe she takes to heart.

Mediocre pop songs with pretensions.

It's only a mix record (two mix records, why stint in utopia?), so how bad can it be? Start with four tracks featuring Dead Can Dance and/or Lisa Gerrard. And for that mass appeal--Blade Runner!

This gentle, suave, insistent smoothie parlayed his direct lyrics and tricky beats into a strong straight r&b album in a year when contenders Raphael Saadig and Me'shell NdegéOcello got tangled up in form.

Even when the forced pronunciations turn gauche, she remains a good egg who's not afraid to put herself on the line.

Definitely not dead yet.

[Crosses] PG-13 thug and subpar Luther Vandross.

Rainer Maria is the genuine collegiate article: impressionistic and overwrought.

Aiming to fill the Queenhole by injecting video-game sci-fi and radio-head sonics into a pop-metal base, the Korn protégés forge a "startling vision of a future world in which communications technology has been turned against us, becoming a tool for government surveillance rather than personal convenience." Gosh, how'd they think of that?

Here the defining flow is sonic--a shadowy, guitar-drenched tone poem of the streets.

An album as invigorating in its contempt for rock professionalism as Neil Young's Tonight's the Night.

These ill jockeys are just a two-inch ruler for Marshall Mathers to measure his dick against.

Bad laptop Blondie.

What gave Shawn Christensen and his botched tonsillectomy the idea of joining the exalted ranks of Robert Smith and Simon Le Bon?

Morrison's predictably intelligent solo debut puts personality where the Dismemberment Plan's synergy used to be.

Deeply anonymous.

Beyond some rich-and-famous irony, not a single suburban detail soils an hour of good intentions. And you know the music overreaches too.

The sole outright attraction of her pathologically modest follow-up is "Then Ya Gone."

At 78 minutes this is too long, and especially given his history, "The Lost Children" is offensive. But the first three tracks are the Rodney Jerkins of the year, "2000 Watts" is the Teddy Riley of the past five years, and even the prunables offer small surprises.

Inferior to not just Nirvana but Oasis.

Yanni is Tchaikovsky by comparison, Sarah McLachlan Ella Fitzgerald, treacle Smithfield ham.... Like Master P or Michael Bolton only worse, she tests one's faith in democracy itself.