Arty, cerebral, and sometimes downright kooky, R=isfn Murphy zigs where other British pop singers zag. She's been one of pop's best-kept secrets since Moloko disbanded, edging her way toward a sound that isn't exactly mainstream but will give her the more widespread acclaim she deserves. For her first solo album, Ruby Blue, she collaborated with producer Matthew Herbert, who streamlined her sound into something creative but not gratingly quirky; even though "Rama Lama" ended up on {#So You T...   [ read more ]

CD $18.98

Prog metal supergroup O.S.I. return with their second album, which finds the duo of singer and keyboardist Kevin Moore and guitarist Jim Matheos moving away from the fairly standard-issue epic metal of 2003's Office of Strategic Influence into something that sounds more like Evanescence's gothy metal-pop crossed with late-era Radiohead's fondness for electronic interference. Moore, formerly of Dream Theater (his ex-bandmate Mike Portnoy plays the album's few non...   [ read more ]

CD $45.58

Where the guitarless Foolish Man made Saydak's Otis Spann-influenced piano the axis around which everything else revolved, Love Without Trust places the veteran sideman in the center of a full band. The more fleshed-out treatment gives him the flexibility to try new things -- witness the grace with which he appropriates Bob Dylan's hard-driving blues shuffle "Watching the River Flow" -- but it also seems to have instilled in him a tendency toward overly obvious arrangements. Interestin...   [ read more ]

CD $16.13