Santana - Shaman
Awesome. About equal to Supernatural. Some of the songs suck, but some of them are complete greatness. The main problem here is that Carlos Santana doesn't have much to do here. Allmusic said it best when they said something to the effect of "the songs are tailored to the guest artists' strenghts; not Santana's." But hey, as long as not tailoring to Santana's strengths churns out songs like "The Game of Love" (w/ Michelle Branch) and "Why Don't You & I" (w/ Chad Kroeger, and I suggest you ALL get it), I can't complain. 3 out of 5

The Best of David Bowie (2-disc)
Blah blah, it's great, blah. Bowie's been around for too long for anyine with a decent IQ to be able to take apart his discography and come up with 2 discs of quality music. I'm not gonna bitch about the chronological sequencing here (as I will with Nirvana) because Bowie's sound did evolve over time. It just sounds fine chronologically. Nirvana's... I'll get to theirs later... I'm deducting half a point from Bowie's because the idea of releasing a single disc set and a double disc set with identical covers is ludicrous. Somewhat helpful to the consumer, but dammit, change the background on one of them or something! 4 1/2 out of 5

The Strokes - Is This It (w/DVD)
If this IS it, I'm happy with it. It's nice having the videos, plus 2 live performances on DVD. My ONLY problem is a minor one: I wish they had added "New York City Cops" to the album. Tacked it on to the end or something. It's their best song, and the time for 9/11 sensitivity THAT extreme is long gone. 3 out of 5 (for the DVD)

October 29, 2002
Christina Aguilera - Stripped
Best pop album of the year. Period. Christina's S/T kicked most of the competitions' asses at the time of its release. Stripped finishes off the survivors. Like her style or not, she knows what she's doing musically. 4 out of 5

Justincase - Justincase
Pop-rock. Nothing spectacular about it (other than "Without You" and maybe 1-2 other tracks), but nothing terribly bad about it, either. It'll probably grow on me, and they DO have some potential, but right now they're not too distinguishable from other artists out there. 3 out of 5

Nick Carter - Now or Never
In two words, it's generic and forced. Nick's trying REALLY hard, but it still comes off as rather forced. At times, he sounds like he's aping the profession of "singer-songwriter," but without whatever heartfelt sincerity that some artists convey. Other times, he's doing a backstreet boys song without those other guys getting in his way... In the end, I have to admit that it's a guilty pleasure. Probably should please its target audience, though. 2 1/2 to 3 out of 5 (I can't decide on a specific rating)

Nirvana - Nirvana From a musical standpoint, it's all golden. However, as a "Greatest Hits" package, it's sloppy. Other than the remastering, it's like having 4 of their albums, but missions 3/4 of the songs from each album. Nearly everything is ordered as it was on the album it originally appeared on (as in, most of the songs from Nevermind and bunched together in the order they appeared on Nevermind, etc.). It's bad here (and not on Bowie's) because it's not like any of the songs would sound awkward next to each other. There would be no genre clashes. And there's nothing to make up for it. The cover art and liner notes are bland. There are no real surprises, and it's REALLY short. It feels like a rushed cash-in (what the rush was for, I don't know). Hopefully the rarities album will make up for it. Nirvana deserves better than this. However, like I said, the music itself is all good, so... 3 out of 5

Various - 8 Mile Soundtrack Its only problem is that almost everything is overshadowed by Eminem's songs. Everything is, at least, decent, though. Even the Macy Gray track. If I'm not careful, I may grow to tolerate her... 3 1/2 out of 5

Various - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Soundtrack Instead of going through each disc seperately (which I might do around Christmas on this site), I'll just say that it's a spectacular retrospective on the 80's. It's funny, too. My only real beef is that I wish they had arranged everything a little better. I think the commercials should be mixed in among the songs so it sounds more like a radio program. Oh well. 3 1/2 out of 5

November 5, 2002
Dave Matthew Bands - Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado
Very good disc. Some of the more recent shows have been better (hopefully that show they did for that webcast will be released officially in the future, but it's highly bootlegged, so I doubt it), but it's still a good release. EXCELLENT version of "Angel" on here. Other than that, though, there aren't any real highlights... Oh, and Hatebomb, on the DVD, the chick who was flashing isn't too hard to spot... she was right in the center of the screen. On a guy's shoulders. In the light. Anyway, the rating's for the CD version... 3 1/2 out of 5

Justin Timberlake - Justified
Pretty good. It sounds WAY better than I thought it did when I first heard it in MP3. Must've grown on me. Either way, it's just unpretentious fun. Can't go wrong with that. It doesn't break any new grounds, and it's not gonna change the face of pop music. It's definitely what Michael Jackson wishes Invincible was. Hell, it's what Michael wishes Dangerous and the second half of HIStory were. If there's any real fault, it's that the Neptunes' beats are really getting tired. I'm a pretty tolerable person; it takes me awhile to get sick of something. But, their production is just going nowhere, and hasn't been going anywhere for about a year now. And, to make things worse, they're EVERYWHERE in the pop scene these days. Ugh. But at least Justin holds his his own; it's damned good, but it could be better. 3 1/2 out of 5

U2 - Best of 1990-2000
It's a good starting point for U2 fans (this and 1980-1990, of course). And the B-sides disc is great. I haven't watched the DVD yet. I'm loving the whole thing, since U2 has a pretty deep discography with a LOT of records, so a "Greatest Hits" compilation or two are good things. Unlike Nirvana who have four proper albums to draw from... and even then, whoever compiled Nirvana's missed a full CD of studio stuff. But, I digress... 5 out of 5

The Wallflowers - Red Latter Days
I love it. There are some great highlights on here. I have no clue how it stands up to any of their previous work (I had Breach in MP3 for a little while, but that's it), but it's a damned fine rock album. "If You Never Got Sick" is a killa. 3 1/2 out of 5

The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (w/DVD)
This goes for the new additions; my review fot he original is up on Ubermusic. I'm disappointed. "Hand Springs" and "Lafayette Blues" should've been tacked onto the end of the album. What THE HELL is the use of having audio tracks on DVDs unless they have some kind of special usage (like DMB including a 5.1 surround sound version of "Bartender" on the DVD that came with Busted Stuff). Dammit, the CD is less then 41 minutes long, too. EASILY could have fit the two. Stupid V2, always fucking with my artists... But it's nice to have the four videos produced from this album ("Hotel Yorba," "We Are Going to Be Friends," "Fell in Love with a Girl" and "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground") on DVD. So it gets some points for that... 1 1/2 out of 5 (for the DVD)

November 12, 2002
Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970-2002
Excellent overview of Elton's career thus far. It's definitely the best GH set of his that has been released. Can't say much about it. The only song I'm really missing is "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters," and I'm not a big enough Elton fan to know if that was a hit or not...
5 out of 5

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse
The 2-disc format fits the Jigga man well. The first disc is mostly dance tracks and the second disc is mostly more serious material. Kinda. Maybe I'm just hearing what I want to hear. It's at least lossely like that. The first single, "03 Bonnie and Clyde" kicks, as far as songs like that go (yeah, we all know I'm a sucker for a line like "All I need in this life of sin/is me and my girlfriend, me and my girlfriend"). "Meet the Parents" and "Bitches & Sisters" are the REAL highlights here, though. Despite being two discs, it's still as uneven as any Jay-Z album. Gotta love that consistent trend of inconsistent albums.
3 1/2 out of 5

Pearl Jam - Riot Act
RAWKIN'. Flow already summed up the positives of the album... But I'm going to have to refute a high score because of something intangible about it that I don't like. It's not that PJ isn't trying anything new... they rock as hard/soft as they need to, this time around... it's better than Binaural... It just lacks "it." Kinda like the Stones' Tattoo You, I guess. "Save You," "Love Boat Captain" and "I Am Mine" are Jam classics, though.
4 out of 5

Shakira - Laundry Service (limited edition w/DVD)

November 19, 2002
Audioslave - Audioslave

matchbox twenty - More Than You Think You Are
Equal to their other two works in every way. In some ways, it even surpasses them. "The Difference" is easily the best track, and it's nice to see the band come closer to the sound of Yourself or Someone Like You. It feels rather short compared to Mad Season, but it's punchy. VERY punchy. In fact, there's more of an edge to this album than any previous matchbox album. Kudos to Rob & the crew.
4 1/2 out of 5

Talib Kewli - Quality
Hip-Hop Album of the year, as of now. J5's Power in Numbers comes close, though. Anyway, Kweli hits heavy on a plenthora of emotions on this album: anger, lust, love, humor, desperation. It's a well-done and well-rounded rap album. I honestly cannot think of any flaws or sub-par tracks. The only major rap releases hereafter are The Roots' Phrenology, 2pac's Better Dayz and Nas's God's Son. It's been a good year for hip-hop, needless to say.
5 out of 5

November 26, 2002
Paul McCartney - Back in the USA

Roots, The - Phrenology
Another contender for "Best Hip-Hop Album of the Year." The Roots have always been a unique hip-hop band. I personally have not watched the DVD that came with it, but I'm sure it's a killa. However, the music on the actual album is excellent with some awesome tunes like "Pussy Galore" and "Rock You." Oh, and the end of "Water" may very well be Hip-Hop's "Revolution 9."
5 out of 5

Sum 41 - Does This Look Infected?
An excellent but over-short (barely over 30 minutes) pop-punk album. The songs take time to flesh themselves out from each other, but once they do, it's clear that they have developed from the All Killer, No Filler days. It also seems that they've taken the rebellious/cliche'd route of avoiding the success of their biggest hit single, "Fat Lip." Good for them. I will, however, have to deduct points for putting more footage in the DVD than music on the album itself. Not only that, but there are 2 extra F'N songs on the damned DVD that could have EASILY fit on the CD. Damn you, extra DVDs!
3 1/2 out of 5