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On his new album, Elliott Smith sounds like the man who came in from the home studio. And he's all the better tackling the world outside his navel.

Cabaret and "Cabaret" star Ute Lemper invites a new generation into the genre by singing Costello and Cave.

Oasis gets experimental -- and even a bit modest -- on "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants," but Great Pumpkin Billy Corgan stays self-involved.

As teen pop shimmies up the charts, Air and William Orbit are hooked on classics and Femi Kuti is reinventing Afro pop. Auteurism, anyone?

D'Angelo will sing no line before its time. But after a five-year wait, "Voodoo" is still spontaneous, dynamic, and sometimes oddly unfinished.

Imagine the twentieth century without Elvis. Sony already has (for $329), but smaller labels are reeling in the last 100 years more intelligently.

Their names are Beck and Prince (or something like that), and they are funky. Unfortunately, they're also very conflicted.

Rock isn't dead, but it's facing commercial decline, critical dismissals, and even insults from Sting. Three fall releases offer some hope for a cure.

On Garth Brooks's new album, the cat in the hat comes back -- as a greasy-haired rock star with a soul patch and an attitude.