David Simutis

He's given U2 the ambiance to match their soul-searching, Emmylou Harris the atmosphere to surround her angelic voice, Bob Dylan the perfect foil to create his best work in decades, and Peter Gabriel a palette for his passion. What Daniel Lanois hasn't done, though, is write an interesting album's worth...

Mellowing inevitably occurs with age, and Scotland's onetime indie-rock answer Idlewild seems like it's going prematurely gray. The quintet showed promise on its two previous albums, as lead singer Roddy Womble's literature-informed lyrics collided with the band's post-punk assault. Time, or mainstream ambition, however, has dulled Idlewild's punk-rock blade. The...

Iron and Wine's Samuel Beam may be able to take advantage of beaches in his hometown of Miami, but his lo-fi, home-recorded debut disc on Sub Pop, The Creek Drank the Cradle, has more in common with pasty-skinned shut-ins like Lou Barlow, Will Oldham and Nick Drake. A screenwriting and...

Look at the latest industry sales meters -- Billboard, SoundScan -- and at the top you'll see the usual suspects: Britney, Eminem, matchbox 20. But among those familiar names you'll also find a relatively unknown commodity, a new aggro-metal band called A Perfect Circle. While the music-biz hype machine usually...

You wouldn't be to blame if you avoided Travis simply because it's the latest in a long line of U.K. bands being hyped as the "next big thing." Yeah, yeah, it was a No. 1 in Britain, big deal. But you'd be missing out on one of the best records...