artist: Dave Matthews Band function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Stand Up format: Dual Disc label: RCA release year: 2005 performance: 7 sound: 7 reviewed by: K.L.Poore “It’s the Firestarter with bling.” Thus Kristin had solved the mystery behind the Dave Matthews Band’s latest release Stand Up. I was getting close, I kept telling myself, but I knew she’d nailed it, and “it” was what I was hoping for when I invited her over to listen to the enhanced stereo DVD side of the DualDisc.

artist: Gene Simmons function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: ***HOLE format: DualDisc label: Silverline release year: 2005 performance: 7 sound 7 reviewed by: Dan MacIntosh Gene Simmons’ solo CDs do not just present the KISS man sans the makeup, but with this poorly titled ***HOLE disc in particular (the asterisks stand in for the “A” word used to describe one’s posterior, by the way), we also get a glimpse of the rock star’s rarely revealed soft white underbelly. This uncommon view of Simmons is best exemplified by “Waiting for the Morning Light,” which the performer co-wrote with Bob Dylan, of all people! It finds Simmons singing in a scratchy Don Henley-like voice.

artist: Bruce Springsteen function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Devils & Dust format: DualDisc label: Columbia release year: 2005 performance: 7.5 sound: 8 reviewed by: John Sutton-Smith Bruce Springsteen is a modern American icon – it’s hard to criticize him because he tries so hard and cares so much and always means his best. And most of the time he delivers, even here on Devils & Dust, his 13th studio album since his debut in the spring of ’73. The world has changed a lot since then and Bruce has changed along with it.

artist: Rob Thomas function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Something To Be format: DualDisc label: Atlantic Records release year: 2005 performance: 5.5 sound 6.5 reviewed by: Paul Lingas Something To Be, the first solo album from Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas, has been eagerly anticipated by fans of the singer and group, but keenly dreaded by many others. Let’s get it straight right now: Rob Thomas does not have a good singing voice. If there are two major things wrong with Matchbox 20, they are 1) the music and 2) the lead vocalist. Thomas does have a very distinctive and strong voice, but too often it is not suited to the surrounding music.

artist: Motorhead function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); format: DualDisc label: Silverline Records release year: 2005                 album: Ace of Spades first release: 1980 performance: 8.5 sound: 8.5 reviewed by: Charles Andrews Look, it’s Motorhead. I don’t have to tell you about Motorhead. Let’s just get right to the 5.1 sound … Uh, yes … I see a hand raised out there … Holy Jailbait, what a reptile. No class. Okay, to begin with, they are gods – well, Lemmy’s a god, Lemmy Kilmister, the bass player to end all bass players, the throat from Hell; he was, is and remains Motorhead, but he/they are not heavy metal gods, though they begat the entire movement of the ‘80s. No, like AC/DC and MC5, they arose from the rock tradition, the hard, loud, hard, faster louder hard rockin’ tradition, and took it over the edge.