As long as the Verve Pipe continue churning out albums (this is number four), modern "college" radio will never run out of easy air fodder. But even after repeated listens, none of the big, fuzzy guitar hooks and angst-laden verses crowding The Verve Pipe add up to anything not already heard by the Goo Goo Dolls, Foo Fighters or, for that matter, the Verve Pipe. The lyrics on "Hero" sum up the problem: "I'm just a jerk / but a hero's what I wanna be." Heroes, even the most ordinary ones, stand out in a crowd. (RICHARD SKANSE)

Widespread Panic Til the Medicine Takes (Capricorn Records)

Panic's last album, the double live Light Fuse Get Away, marked the end of a recording era. The band's sixth studio album, finds the Athens, Ga. band spreading their creative wings in the studio as they have never done before. These guys have always been able to dig the deepest of grooves and it has made for several exciting albums that reflect the excitement of the band's live sets. But Medicine is more about studio craft than riding the high of a jam. Brass, turntable scratching, gospel guests...after ten years of recording, Panic enters exciting new spaces. (ANDREW DANSBY)

Macy Gray On How Life Is (Epic)

Verbena Into the Pink (Capitol)

Bree Sharp A Cheap and Evil Girl (Trauma Records)

Bree Sharp has already garnered moderate attention for her paean to celebrity worship, "David Duchovny," but that's just one of many dizzy pleasures on A Cheap and Evil Girl. Nearly every song on here -- though in particular the sly title track and the wicked "Faster, Faster" -- recalls and nearly one-ups the very best efforts of previous evil girls like the Liz Phair and the Go-Go's. Sharp's name says it all. (RS)

Jeremy Toback Another True Fiction (RCA)

"You make me feel / isn't that enough?" sings Los Angeles-based Jeremy Toback on Another True Fiction. Given the endless stream of sensitive pop-folkies peddling feelings these days, one more doing the same really shouldn't be allowed to get off so easily. But when the songs are this effortlessly appealing, it's more than enough. (RS)

THE ROLLINGSTONE.COM STAFF
(July 27, 1999)