Meredith Brooks

Oregon native Meredith Brooks returns with the follow-up to her 1997 smash release Blurring the Edges with Deconstruction. This time working with producer Dave Darling, Brooks delivers another pleasant if somewhat derivative helping of adult rock but fails to come up with anything that is likely to command the heavy airplay of "Bitch." Deconstruction leads off with "Shout," a slice of noise-pop that sounds a bit like the Breeders, before she tackles a cover of Melanie's Woodstock-era anthem "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)." It's a punchy version that benefits from an appearance by Queen Latifah who adds some updated lyrics.

Depending on your viewpoint, director Brian De Palma has been frequently lauded/taken to task for liberally appropriating the stylistic flourishes of other directors. And if De Palma's biggest "inspiration" on Snake Eyes is Alfred Hitchcock, the director found an admirable, if unlikely, semblance of frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann in Ryuichi Sakamoto. Though better known for more delicate, electronic, and ethnically tinged work, here Sakamoto does a truly amazing Benny impression, cranking up the brass and swirling the strings into an unsettling sonic maelstrom that would've done late '50s Hitch proud. Meredith Brooks and LaKiesha Berry also contribute a pair of songs in the contemporary pop vein that the kids seem to like so much.

Now That’s What I Call the 1990s focuses on the decade’s second half, splitting its time between pop songs and the alternative music that followed in grunge’s footsteps. Pearl Jam and other hard-edged bands are absent from this compilation; instead, slicker groups like Live (“I Alone”) and Collective Soul (“Shine”) represent the wave of mainstream rock that swept through the Clinton era, with Everclear (“Father of Mine”) and Sublime (“What I Got”) thrown in for good measure. Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be” and New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” help anchor the album’s pop side, while the inclusion of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” is a reminder that the decade also spawned many an omnipresent wedding song. Ignoring grunge, Euro-dance, and teen pop makes this a narrow-minded compilation, but for those who like the aforementioned songs, Now That's What I Call the 1990s is an easy way to get them all in one place.