Fats Waller Fine Arabian Stuff (High Note/Fusion III) Delightful music from 1939. 9 (LD)

T-Model Ford She Ain't None of Your'n (Fat Possum/Epitaph) The swampiest blues, straight from the kitchens of Mississippi. 8 (JC)

Various Louder Than Ever (Loud) Gold and platinum hits from Big Pun to Project PAT. 7 (SC)

Cevin Fisher Underground 2000 (Maxi/Razor & Tie) The "hard-bag" house master's first full-length of originals and remixes, like "The Way We Used To" and "Music Saved My Life." 7 (KE)

Jill Sobule Pink Pearl (Beyond/EMI) I diss the girl. 6 (CY)

Tupac Shakur The Lost Tapes (Lightyear) This is Tupac on some pro-black circa 1989. 6 (SC)

Deathray self-titled (Capricorn/Universal) The post-Cake rural new wave band. Comparable to Weezer's equivalent Rentals offshoot, and about as memorable. 5 (RB)

Sisqo Unleash the Dragon (Def Soul/Universal) Excuthe my lithp, but I don't want to hear thith "Thong." 5 (CY)

Bill Conti For Your Eyes Only soundtrack (Ryko/Outside) For poor ears only, more like. The '80s were not kind to James Bond, musically anyway. 4 (RB)

Shelter When 20 Summers Pass (Victory) Krishna hardcore? Ha ha ha! But seriously, this CD is... Krishna hardcore! Man, that's rich! Ha ha ha ha ha! 3 (JC)

Billy Joel 2000 Years: the Millennium Concert (Columbia/Sony) I believe this is the kind of portent of doom to which Nostradamus referred... 2 (RB)

Full length reviews...