Clean, bright, and funky, the admirable if mysterious Organic Audio have created a wonderful album here, with "Play to the Music", "Into Something," and "Always The Sun" among others, perfect songs for cold winter days. 2001

Years after their retirement from making tinny, danceable, glam-disco hits, Duran Duran came out of nowhere in 1993 with this masterful untitled album (referred to by the wedding photo that adorns its cover, for no apparent reason). One well-made song follows another, until it dawns on you that you're in the presence of something exceptional. 1993

Kate Bush holds poetic truth close like a demon lover and never lets it go: "Running Up That Hill" rightly soared on the college progessive charts in 1985, but it is the relatively obscure final seven-song sequence (collectively referred to as "The Ninth Wave," an album within an album) that makes this work an art-rock masterpiece. "Jig of Life," for example, fires off Anglican cannonballs like, "And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools. We are of the going water and the gone. We are of water in the holy land of water." Read the full lyrics of this album here, and a lovingly written essay about it here. 1985