One
Nostalgia Trails
Four September Suns
Tino Izzo is one guy with a lot of guitars. He plays all the instruments on this album, and makes it a point to identify which string instruments from his collection are used in each song. In this case, he plays a 1966 Guild D-60, a Takamine CP1325 acoustic, an Aria M300 mandolin, and a TRB Yamaha bass. What I don’t understand is why he hasn’t recorded more albums.

Hem
Leave Me Here
Rabbit Songs
We recently saw Hem perform live in New York. It was a small venue with cabaret seating – we were right next to the stage. They sound every bit as good live as they do on the album. Sally Ellyson’s voice is pitch-perfect, and Dan Messe’s song writing is too beautiful to be believed.

John Gorka
What Was That
The Company You Keep
John Gorka is a folk musician, but this particular song is smoother than any folk song has a right to be. Lyrics aside, the music gives off the feeling of, “I’m happy and comfortable in my own skin right now.”

Oh Susanna
Tangled and Wild
Johnstown
She’s Canadian but she sounds like she’s from the Deep South. If this is country music, then this is how it should sound – deeply melodic and heart-wrenchingly honest.

Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny
The Precious Jewel
Beyond the Missouri Sky
These two jazz musicians got together and recorded a jazz album with its roots in American folk music. You would think that the two are incompatible, but no… it simply works.

Catie Curtis
Magnolia Street
A Crash Course In Roses
A beautiful little song with what may be the best love story I’ve ever heard in a song. I knew that I loved you the first time you got into my car / Your cheeks were flushed and I felt a hush come over me in the dark / I got us lost but at the next cross you said I don’t care where we are / I’m in the right car.

Swan Dive
The Day That I Went Home
Swan Dive
Another group that doesn’t get the attention they deserve. These are finely honed Burt Bacharach inspired jewels of pop songs. Here they move away from the retro-pop sound for a slightly-folkier guitar-based song.

Mark Cohn
Already Home
Burning The Daze
You know Mark Cohn from the hit song Walking In Memphis. Who knew he was still turning out music? Here is something a little more funky than you would have expected after hearing his debut.

The Style Council
Changing Of The Guard
Confessions of a Pop Group
This is the best album of Paul Weller’s years with the Style Council, and the least successful. Go figure. Beautiful, lush melodies... and yet, not suited for the radio. While Paul Weller has gone on to greater commercial success in the UK, he has yet to top this, musically.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
As I Sat Sadly By Her Side
No More Shall We Part
Nick Cave’s music is more like dark, depressing poetry set to music. Here debates the interconnectedness of everything (or lack thereof) and revels in the sadness and despair of others when he confronts them with his views.

Maria McKee
Absolutely Barking Stars
Life Is Sweet
After Maria McKee’s first two albums, she took a more experimental turn with a much harder-edged sound. This is one of the more successful experiments as she struggles with her inner muse. After this she took a five-year hiatus and is only now about to release another album. I like her earlier work better, but this song in particular stands out.

Paul Weller
Out of the Sinking
Stanley Road
Paul Weller’s solo career has been marked by a retro-rock sound. Often this comes off as something as an affectation, but here it’s just subtle enough not to get in the way of a great song.

Chantal Kreviazuk
Time
What If It All Means Something
Chantal is one of those artists who has had tremendous success in her native Canada, yet no one south of the border seems to have heard of her (despite appearing on several movie soundtracks). Maybe it’s because no one can pronounce her name. That’s too bad, because she writes pleasant, accessible songs that are easy on the ears.

Banderas
This Is Your Life
Ripe
This is from a perfect little pop gem of an album from the early nineties. These two women recorded it and then promptly disappeared into obscurity. Maybe it was the contradiction between their Sinead-style shaved heads and what is, after all, just pretty music. Maybe starting a song with, “Where is the purpose in your life?” isn’t the best way to chart success.

Jai
I Believe
Heaven
Another one-album wonder -- I seem to have an affinity for those. This is very smooth pop – almost modern jazz. Yet, you can very easily imagine a dance-club mix. Not that you’d catch me dancing, but you know what I mean.

Terence Trent D’Arby
Let’s Go Forward
The Hardline According To Terence Trent D’Arby
TTD had great initial success and then experimented himself off the charts with his subsequent releases. Hardline is still his creative high point, as this song proves. He’s still making music today as Sananda Maitreya.

David Sanborn
Pearls
Pearls
This album of covers is the perfect one to slip into the CD player for a romantic evening. This song in particular, by Sade, is what I call, “music to boff by.” Not that I need music to boff by. I’m just saying.

Remedios
Forgive Me
Love Letter: Original Motion Picture Sountrack
The Japanese film Love Letter by Shunji Iwai at first seems to be a romance, but is really a study in catharsis and the acceptance of death. Now you really want to see it, right? Actually, it’s a great film. I only learned about it when I heard this music on an Internet radio station from South Korea.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

How'd you come up with the title?

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Batman created by Bob Kane