Fuel

Part of a vanishing herd of post-Pearl Jam grunge-pop contenders, Fuel came straight out of Pennsylvania in 1998 with "Shimmer," a canny mix of strings and hard-rock hooks that was one of the year's guiltiest pleasures and the best thing on their major-label full-length debut, Sunburn. Fuel boasted a charismatic lead singer (the somber, improbably named Brett Scallions) and enough decent tracks ("Jesus or a Gun," "Bittersweet") to ensure a better future for itself than, say, Seven Mary 3. With the same reliance on depressive, love-gone-wrong ballads and melodic metal-lite ("Last Time" and "Hemorrhage [In My Hands]"), the band's second effort, Something Like Human, was more of a lateral move than an artistic step forward; Natural Selection stayed that uninspired course. (ALLISON STEWART)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide