#160 - Forever Changes, Love

"Although it has all the orchestrated trappings of a sunshine pop record, Forever Changes is far from a tiptoe through the tulips. The album is as harrowing as it's beautiful to listen to, and Arthur Lee's confusion and paranoia come through in every song. When coupled with the baroque, psychedelic arrangements, it turns into a nearly perfect album." (real music guide)

#159 - Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes

"One of the most distinctive records of the early alternative movement and an enduring cult classic, Violent Femmes weds the geeky, child-man persona of Jonathan Richman and the tense, jittery, hyperactive feel of new wave in an unlikely context: raw, amateurish acoustic folk-rock. The music also owes something to the Modern Lovers' minimalism, but powered by Brian Ritchie's busy acoustic bass riffing and the urgency and wild abandon of punk rock, the Femmes forged a sound all their own." (allmusic guide)

#158 - The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys, Traffic

"Where their previous album had grown out of sessions for a Steve Winwood solo album and retained that focus, Low Spark pointedly contained changes of pace from his usual contributions of midtempo, introspective jam tunes. "Rock & Roll Stew" was an uptempo treatise on life on the road, while Jim Capaldi's "Light up or Leave Me Alone" was another more aggressive number with an unusually emphatic Capaldi vocal that perked things up on side two." (allmusic guide)

#157 - Living With Ghosts, Patty Griffin

"Patty Griffin's major-label debut was actually recorded as a demo cassette. A&M executives were so impressed with this raw display of talent that they snatched up the tape and threw it, unaltered, into the marketplace. Griffin recorded her songs exactly as she performed them live, armed with only her acoustic guitar and a voice that can rattle fences." (allmusic guide)