Want to know what all these checkboxes are for? Click here to find out, or just ignore them.

New Year's Peeve
You say you wanna resolution? Here are a bunch from your favorite rockers. [2]
Dave Chamberlain

The Big Noises of Early '98
"Long-awaited" will be the term you'll hear used to describe major albums most often in 1998. [3]
Douglas Wolk

Want to know what all these checkboxes are for? Click here to find out, or just ignore them.

Cheese Doodlers
With the recent Coldcut release "Let Us Play," Jonathan More and Matt Black are the reigning nerd-kings of Britain's mutant hip-hop/downtempo funk scene. [5]
Chris Tweney

Captain Kirk
A three-disc potpourri of material by the late multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk suggests artistry behind gimmickry. [6]
Richard C. Walls

Secret Agent Songs
Producer David Arnold's reworking of theme songs from the Bond movies, might have been a camp joke -- but it's more. [7]
Charles Taylor

Mr. C
A new collection from Rhino Records celebrates the genius and legend of Ray Charles. [8]
Michael Henningsen

Want to know what all these checkboxes are for? Click here to find out, or just ignore them.

The Year in Rock
In music, 1997 was the year of first-rate copycats versus second-rate copycats. [12-29-97]
Matt Ashare

Top Ten '97
Tucson Weekly's regularly contributing music writers pick their top 10 CDs for '97. [12-29-97]
Various Authorities

Between the Cracks
The best unclassifiable music of 1997, from South American rhythms to Celtic fiddles to soulful Hammond organ fills. [12-29-97]
Michael McCall

Top-Heavy
In 1997, country music looked a lot better from the bottom than it did from the top. [12-29-97]
Michael McCall

Nothing New
Caught in an endless cycle, 1997's rock 'n' roll kept pacing the same circles without any interesting movement forward. [12-22-97]
Michael McCall

A Semi-Charmed Year
Lacking a galvanizing artist, album, or trend, 1997 was a lost year for rock music. [12-22-97]
Noel Murray

Some Sounds, Some Buttons
With a few exceptions, many of '97's best records were made by folks who favored words and guitars over microchips. [12-22-97]
Bill Friskics-Warren

Living Blues
Controversies over image and content have plagued jazz, blues, and urban music throughout the '90s, and this year was no exception. [12-22-97]
Ron Wynn

Each reviewer's tastes exist in his or her own private, organic world, a world that's entirely subjective yet perceived, from within, as objective and true. I look upon this week's music summaries, then, as a philosophical experience for which you can leave your Bertrand Russell on the end table and let the pixels flashing by at a thousand pulses a second on your computer monitor expand your mind not unlike Violet Beauregaard after a grand old snozberry feast.

In addition, you can cast your world-weary peepers into the future by reading this list of peevish predictions for the new year in music, as well as letting this Big Noises article inform you of the albums and musical trends to come. Count on your consciousness being altered forever, forging new neural pathways in the unexplored rainforests of the fertile continents that make up your rich mental geography. Yeah.

Perspective? You want perspective? Read these articles about octogenarian John Lee Hooker or Ray Charles or Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and enhance your understanding of the world far better than an evening of those idiots Plato, Spinoza and Kant ever could. You might want to imbibe some smart drugs first, but I personally recommend eating a lot of fish and then chanting nam myoho rhenge kyo for six hours straight. Works better.

Seriously, I hope you'll enjoy these articles and give them more than a passing glance. Like Nietzsche said, read slow and you'll catch more. Or was that Dylan?

Want to know what all these checkboxes are for? Click here to find out, or just ignore them.

The Sound of Teardrops
How deep is John Lee Hooker's blues? "You can't go no deeper than me and my guitar," he tells Ted Drozdowski. [4]
Ted Drozdowski

Want to know what all these checkboxes are for? Click here to find out, or just ignore them.

Boston Phoenix CD Reviews

• Animals on Wheels
• Erykah Badu
• The Tommy Flanagan Trio
• Mick Harvey
• King Kong
• Rockie Charles
• Isotope 217
• Various: Infinite Beat

Rhythm & Views

• Crawdaddy-O
• The Fells
• Chris Morrison

Tiny Tunes

• Phil Ochs
• Reptile Palace Orchestra

Turn Up That Noise!

• The Chemical Brothers
• The Evinrudes
• Robert Mitchum
• June Tabor

Now What?
If you go gaga over the sultry smoothness of a symphonic glissando, just wait till you experience our transitions to cool and useful music links on the Web. [13]

Build your own custom paper. To find out more about this feature, click here.