Aerosmith - Honkin' On Bobo

By Steve LaBate at 12:00 AM on June 1, 2004

Aerosmith might have lost you in a sea of bad production and even worse songs during the last 25 years...  read more

The Paperboys - Dilapidated Beauty

By Bill Clifford at 12:00 AM on June 1, 2004

On the first half of this impressive double-LP from Canada’s Paperboys, textured landscapes of violin, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer and dobro support Landa’s voice...  read more

Automato - Automato

By Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen at 12:00 AM on June 1, 2004

Just when it seems there’s nothing new under the hip-hop sun, artists inevitably emerge—in both the mainstream (OutKast, Black Eyed Peas) and on the fringes...  read more

Great Big Sea - Something Beautiful

By Brian Quincy Newcomb at 12:00 AM on June 1, 2004

Great Big Sea combines power-pop with the occasional, floating whistle or flute suggesting an Old World influence...  read more

Pedro the Lion - Achilles Heel

By Jason Killingsworth at 12:00 AM on June 1, 2004

The date is May 25, 2004. Pedro the Lion’s new album, Achilles’ Heel, hits store shelves on an otherwise uneventful day...  read more

Los Lobos - The Ride

By Tim Porter at 12:00 AM on June 1, 2004

I’ll admit, I’ve been a frustrated Los Lobos fan for years. Frustrated by my friends. “Los Lobos? That ‘La Bamba’ cover band? That’s, like, Latin rock, right?”...  read more

Bellglide - Bellglide

By Leila Regan at 12:00 AM on May 27, 2004

When you hear a soaring voice reaching into the heavens backed by a hard-rocking wall of guitars, strings and piano, the easiest thing to do is write the sound off as another Evanescence. But when further attention is paid to North Carolina’s Bellglide...  read more

Allison Moorer - The Duel

By Jay Moye at 12:00 AM on April 1, 2004

Despite critical praise, country radio never fully warmed to Moorer’s gracefully gritty sound, which channels Memphis and Muscle Shoals as much as it does Nashville...  read more

Ron Sexsmith - Retriever

By Jason Killingsworth at 12:00 AM on April 1, 2004

“There are no great songs, just great melodies.” I heard this quote a few months back and, while Google’s algorithm refuses to help me with attribution, I can’t shrug off its inherent logic...  read more

Slaid Cleaves - Wishbones

By Andy Whitman at 12:00 AM on April 1, 2004

Slaid Cleaves’ 2000 album Broke Down was a revelation, a gritty, melancholy batch of rootsy story-songs about the erosion of relationships and the cost of dreams deferred...  read more

Modest Mouse

By Matt Fink at 12:00 AM on April 1, 2004

In today’s fickle indie-rock universe where a band is considered passé by the time it graces its first magazine cover, Modest Mouse stands out as something of an anomaly...  read more

The Honeydogs - 10,000 Years

By Bud Scoppa at 12:00 AM on April 1, 2004

Let me say right at the start, I was not prepared for this record. Until I listened to 10,000 Years, I’d considered The Honeydogs that other twangy pop band from Minneapolis...  read more

Spain - Spirituals: The Best of Spain

By Dave Sims at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

Spain treats every note of its meditative songs like a sacrament, examining, savoring and moving on with the deliberate calm of a guru...  read more

Ani DiFranco - Educated Guess

By Michael Gallucci at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

A theme of sorts for DiFranco’s latest is laid out in “Origami,” when she declares, “I am an all-powerful Amazon warrior / Not just some sniveling girl...  read more

The Minders - The Future's Always Perfect

By Philip Christman at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

These popular Portland psych-poppers abandon lo-fi on this album—the guitar and bass have that small-venue clipped buzz, singer Martyn Joseph sounds like he’s throttling the mic stand...  read more

stellastar*: stellastar* - stellastar*

By Thomas Bartlett at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

Like most of the other hot bands coming out of New York these days, gleefully hopping that baby step from grungy Williamsburg practice room to much-hyped major label debut...  read more

Chicago Underground Trio - Slon

By Brian Baker at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

Slon, the Chicago Underground Trio’s third album, is an aural and political statement. Coronetist Rob Mazurek, bassist Noel Kupersmith and drummer Chad Taylor are phenomenal jazz talents...  read more

Sinead O'Connor - She Who Dwells in the Secret...

By Pamela Winters at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

Sinead O’Connor played the Virgin Mary in 1997’s The Butcher Boy, and, by God, she hasn’t forgotten it. But the artist who’s so often said, by deed, “Look at me,” now wants us to look away...  read more

Carla Bozulich - Red Headed Stranger

By Dave Sims at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

With a jazzy openness borrowed from Astral Weeks, and a hazy, drowned-cathedral aura purloined from The Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions, former Geraldine Fibbers frontwoman Carla Bozulich essays Willie Nelson’s classic concept album...  read more

The Elders - American Wake

By Brian Baker at 12:00 AM on February 1, 2004

The Elders may sport a Kansas City address but they’ve fashioned a sound as Irish as a Dublin bar fight. The sextet’s authenticity comes courtesy of Irish transplant Ian Byrne...  read more