Capturing one of the most inspiring concerts of MTV's Unplugged series, Unplugged in New York has importance not only for Nirvana, but set a high bar for later performers on Unplugged that couldn't be met. This isn't a collection of acoustic versions of Nirvana's hits (in fact, the lack of Nirvana hits was a sore spot for the MTV execs). There is far more to this album that practically makes it a stand alone album and not a compilation.

Some backstory that may also enlighten listeners is what Kurt was going through at the time. According to others, he was suffering with depression and drug withdrawal during the days of rehearsals and the final performance. It was only a few months later that Kurt ended up committing suicide. Looking over the songs on the album (especially the covers), it is easy to see that he was depressed and contemplating death. According to one of Kurt's biographers, when asked about decorating the set for the concert, he basically said he wanted it to look like a funeral. With that mindset, it is easy to see how Kurt's aching vocals on "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam," "The Man Who Sold the World," and "Lake of Fire" got their emotional tone.

But one of the great things about this album is that it strips away much of the "grunge" sound one associates with Nirvana's songs and highlights the songwriting and emotional capabilities of Kurt and the band. The acoustical instruments, use of a single cello, and Dave's softest drumming EVAR gave the band a scrappy blues sound (which is further reinforced with the Lead Belly cover at the end).

If Kurt had lived, could this album have been seen as part of a transition on Nirvana's sound?

Songs I knew I liked: "Come As You Are," "The Man Who Sold the World," "Pennyroyal Tea," "Something in the Way," "Lake of Fire," and "All Apologies"

Songs I didn't know but now like: I have the album, but have barely touched any of my Nirvana albums this century. It was nice to rediscover - "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam," "Polly," "Oh Me," and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night."

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None

With a voice that bounces between a Bob Dylan mumble and a Mick Jagger's swagger, Tom Petty put together a great collection of songs. Similarly to Dire Straits in the UK, Tom was crafting a rock and roll that sounds good in bars/pubs. The arena rock distraction to sound as polished as punk sounded ragged left a void into which this album nicely fit.

As you can see below, I like a lot of the songs on the album. The only real complaint I have about the album is that it sounds a little too polished. The band is casual. The drummer has a slack sense of rhythm. Jimmy Iovine whipped the boys into the same type of recording style as those arena rock bands I mentioned already. But there is a difference to how one expects Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to sound and how Boston sounds. The album would have benefited from a little grit and "realism" in capturing the band's performances in the studio.

Songs I knew I liked: "Refugee," "Here Comes My Girl," "Even the Losers," and "Don't Do Me Like That"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "You Tell Me"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Century City" and "What Are You Doin' in My Life"

Surfer Rosa captures a college rock sound that is dynamic, conflicting, and catchy. Steve Albini's typical spare production and capturing the ambient sound of the room the music is played in as well as the music itself works very well with this collection of songs from The Pixies. The songs sound as if they were recorded in an abandoned cement-floored and cinder-block-walled building in the middle of the wilderness. This canvas gives the songs' shifts from quiet to loud additional heft and feel. When Black sings "Sitting here wishing on a cement floor/ Just wishing that I had just something you wore," it sounds as if he actually is sitting alone on a cement floor delivering those lines.

The instrumentation in the songs vary from cacophonous waves of quickly strummed and distorted surfer guitar riffs to spare picking of notes - often in the same song. "Vamos" features the longest guitar solo in college rock...and it sounds completely different from any guitar solo one would have heard from the hair metal bands at the time.

Black's vocals go from conversational to a banshee wail or agonized yelp and are frequently countered with Kim's whispering vocals. The lyrics also flutter between cute and creepy - "I was talking to preachy-preach about kissy-kiss/ He bought me a soda/ He bought me a soda/ He bought me a soda and he tried to molest me in the parking lot/ Yep, yep yep YEP!" ("Bone Machine").

Surfer Rosa and Doolittle are my two favorite albums by The Pixies. I love them pretty equally. SR is possibly the best portrait of what makes The Pixies a unique indie rock band while D is more polished with a few more catchy songs. The atmosphere that the Albini production adds to the music is what typically tips the scales to my favoring SR.

Songs I knew I liked: Love them all

Songs I didn't know but now like: See above

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: As part of a whole, I dig the two spoken clips "You F*cking Die" and Kim's blurb at the beginning of "I'm Amazed," but I don't think those two snippets really add much to one's listening experience...other than highlighting the humor in the band.

Two things taint this review - 1) I have never liked Eminem as an artist or a person and 2) I prefer my rap chilled not hot and angry (with few exceptions). Along with that, The Eminem Show also struggles with the "fill the CD" addiction that hip-hop albums in particular tend to have. Hey, artists, don't worry about filling a CD and just focus on putting out the best of your stuff. How many listeners would miss hearing "Drips" or the guest rapper intense "When the Music Stops" and the usual time-filling culprits of skits. Despite my best efforts to mentally fool myself into thinking the album was done by someone other than Eminem, my opinions of this music didn't really change from my first pained listen to my last strained attempt to find aspects to like.

Just focusing on vocals, there are two traits that kept rubbing me the wrong way. I don't care if we're talking about Eminem, Busta Rhymes, or someone else, rappers that yell grate my nerves. I like my raps slick, smooth, and "too cool to yell." Eminem is pissed and part of how he expresses that is yelling in the mic. To make that worse, IMO, is the fact that so many of the songs on The Eminem Show compounds the yelling by having Eminem overdubbing his own raps.

Ok, when I tried to see Eminem as just the other side of the coin of Ice Cube's ghetto raps, there are things that Eminem does that undermines that approach. The most outlandish one for me is his going off in "White America" about all of the stuff about the nation that he thinks is bad. There is some powerful content there...but then he ends the song with an apology that he was just kidding and he loves America. WTF!?

Musically, I liked much of it. Dre took a more rock sound with this release and provides a sound that has the quirkiness of Timbaland's samples without his herky-jerky dropping and switching samples in songs. But all is not great with the backing music. The chiming in "Cleaning Out the Closet" annoyed me with its legally-close-but-not-the-same melody as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Dre's use of Aerosmith's "Dream On" in "Sing for the Moment" uses so much of the song that it triggers my Puff Daddy sampling gag reflex.

Songs I knew I liked: "Without Me"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Soldier" and, if I were to completely ignore the lyrics and just enjoy the song for the sounds made by the words, "Business"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Sing for the Moment," "Drips," "When the Music Stops," and all of the skits are singled out as particularly disliked.

This is the last album of The Wailers before Peter and Bunny jumped ship and Bob took full control and changed the band name to Bob Marley & The Wailers. You get a hint about the band tension by looking closely at the track listing and songwriter credits. It is further exposed if you see the track listing of later releases that include additional songs from the recording session - which show the only songs not included were non-Bob penned ones.

The lyrics are on the more aggressive edge in this album. However, the slack reggae rhythms makes it easy for a casual listener to relax with this album playing (with the exception of "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff"). Part of this, I think, is because despite some of the frustration expressed in the songs, there is an undercurrent that both political/economic and spiritual redemption is about to arrive. Things are tough now, but a time is coming soon that things will be great for us.

Songs I knew I liked: "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Burnin' & Lootin'," "Small Axe," and "Rastaman Chant"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Hallelujah Time"

I'm really hoping this is the last Randy Newman album on the list. Are the songs good? Yes. Do I enjoy listening to them? Not really. If you want to listen to a Randy Newman album, Sail Away is probably the one I'd point you to. His songwriting and execution seem the most confident of the albums I've listened to. The songs are a bit more similar in style and attitude and all of the traits that I've come to expect from him are on display here.

Songs I knew I liked: "Burn On" and I was familiar with the Joe Cocker cover of "You Can Leave Your Hat On"

Songs I didn't know but now like: None

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: I won't feel that I've missed anything in life if I never heard this album again. Again, not that it's bad...I just don't enjoy Randy Newman. I've had my fill of him from the 3 or so previous albums I've heard over the past several months.

Station to Station documents David Bowie at the beginning of his Thin White Duke phase. Ziggy is gone and now David sings as a dispassionate character with a love of Krautrock. There is still a good bit of funk and soul in several of these songs ("Golden Years," "TVC15," and "Stay" especially). However, Station to Station highlights mechanics - from stilted, emotionless singing to instruments sounding more like clockwork machines.

The title track is almost like an overture for the album. In its ten minutes there are sounds of trains, guitars sounding like construction equipment, and shifts in musical tone and attitude. Oh, and just to emphasize the point that David was blitzed out of his head on coke (he has revealed he remembers next to nothing about recording the album), there are mentions of the drug on the title track and other songs.

I found myself liking the songs and have good feelings for the album, but I'm not really attracted to it. Enjoyable, but no craving happening within me.

Songs I knew I liked: "Golden Years"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Station to Station," "TVC15," "Stay," "Wild is the Wind"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Word On a Wing"

Slowhand hits you with the three singles right off the bat ("Cocaine," "Wonderful Tonight," and "Lay Down Sally"). On my first listen, I got worried about the album dragging on because the unfamiliarity and slow tempo of the two songs that followed. "The Core" caught my attention and I listened to the rest of Slowhand with eagerness. After a second listen, I can state that I enjoy this album. I don't know that I would buy it, but would certainly put it in the list of top contenders if it is a listening option with friends.

So, what's so special about it? Eric and the band just sound so tight. Yeah, the first three songs are truly great and the other songs may just be "good," but all are performed so well that it kind of elevated how much I enjoyed the experience. The musical style and attitude varies quite a bit from the rockin' "Cocaine" opener to the soft instrumental "Peaches and Diesel" at the end.

Now, I must confess that each time I listened to "The Core," I became convinced that much of 80's and 90's CCM has this song as it's foundation (minus the horns, organ, and guitar solos). There something about the vocal delivery (maybe just how high the vocals are in the mix - easily overpowering the rest of the band) that reminded me of a stereotypical CCM song from last century.

Songs I knew I liked: "Cocaine," "Wonderful Tonight," and "Lay Down Sally"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "The Core," "May You Never," and "Peaches and Diesel"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None

It is hard to argue with the pop hooks on Jagged Little Pill. This is an interesting creation of a pop producer and an emotionally confessional 19 year old that sings with a confidence that helps mask the vocal quality. When you pay a lot of attention to the lyrics, the words certainly come across as slightly less than skilled (I'll skip the diatribe on the lyrical problems of "Ironic" this time). But the emotions and situations she sings about are genuine and not some teen fantasy of being broken-hearted. Alanis had her heart broken and these are the best words she could come up with to express that.

Then there is the singing of those words. When she's pissed, there's no doubting it. Where American Idol contestants flourish with vocal gymnastics as if the listener is on a roller coaster, Alanis's vocals ricochet like bumper cars - there is a lack of precision, but there is no avoiding being hit by her emotions.

Alanis was a good combination of pop and "grunge" (attitude, not music) when this was released. While Jagged Little Pill lacks the introspection of Tori Amos or the emotional rawness of PJ Harvey, Alanis connected with the mainstream in a way neither of those other female artists could. Whether you consider that a good or bad thing will likely color how you perceive this album.

Songs I knew I liked: "Hand in My Pocket" and "Head Over Feet" (I hesitate putting "You Oughta Know" because it is a song I kinda don't like but have been caught off-guard singing along to it.)

Songs I didn't know but now like: "All I Really Want"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Ironic," "Perfect," "Right Through You," and "Forgiven" (although I think Evanescence could actually do something with "Forgiven")

I didn't start paying attention to Sonic Youth until Goo came out. I wish I had discovered the band one album earlier. For a band that grew in importance as hardcore punk developed a strict doctrine, it was post-hardcore and during the grunge years that the band seemed to lose their experimental nature and searched for the perfect rock riff or hook that would get them more mainstream recognition. This album was one I frequently picked out to listen to when I've seen it in someone's collection. Alas, this tendency led to my knowing the sound of the album, but kept me from becoming more familiar with the individual songs. Much of shoegaze music clearly has their foundation with the sound that is archived on this album.

On Daydream Nation, the band has ventured from the NYC No Wave movement that inspired them and created a blend of noise and punk that showed had a beauty that most of the No Wave bands couldn't (and didn't want to) make. Feedback, odd chords, and drones have an almost techno-trance feel to them. Repetitious sounds slowly morph. What could otherwise be considered rattling and garbage becomes soothing. It is almost as if the album was produced by Brian Eno.

Daydream Nation relishes in seven minute songs that allow the guitars to fully explore all of the potential harmonics and squeals that manifest themselves. Kim's apathetic, husky vocals are both delicate and abrasive.

Songs I knew I liked: "Teen Age Riot" and "Candle"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "The Sprawl," "Eric's Trip," and "Hey Joni"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None, although I would likely start skipping past "Providence" after more listens.