Ani DiFranco -- Swing Set (Righteous Babe/Festival)Page lost from Ani's notebook, 1996: "Reinvent self as danceable, neo-rapping pop star." 8 (CY)

Charlie Ventura & Bill Harris -- Live at the Three Deuces (HighNote/FusionIII) Trombonist Harris and drummer Dave Tough are the highlights here. 8.5 (LD)

The Von Zippers/les Secretaires Volantes -- Dead End Canada 7" (Mag Wheel) Two Canadian garage rawk units battle it out for last place. 8 (JC)

White Hassle -- Life Is Still Sweet (Orange) I agree: the scratching offsets the harmonica nicely. Still, there's that harmonica... 7 (CY)

P.A. -- My Life Your Entertainment (DreamWorks/Universal) Who let these guys back in the studio?! 6 (SC)

Dave Aude -- Rush Hour: Mixed by... (Moonshine/Koch)) Like the cover says, "pumping progressive (trance-y) peak set tunes." An endorsement for illicit substances that hits you in the face like a TGV. 6 (KE)

Shaggy -- Hotshot (MCA/Universal) There's a song on here called "Why Me Lord?" and as I listen to this record I ask myself the same thing. 5 (SC)

Halford -- Resurrection (Metal-Is/EMI) Ex-Judas Priest screamer's second solo record begs the question, "Why?" 2 (JC)

Datachi -- We Are Always Well Thank You (Caipirinha) Noise, scratchy cut-up drum samples, more noise, a nursery rhyme--and all this was done on purpose. How "artistic." 1 (KE)

KYO -- self-titled (Jive/BMG) I don't know about you, but I find it comforting that the French still can't do rock. 1 (CY)

Full length reviews...