Few bands of the 1960s retained as much a sense of the roots of rock and roll as did Creedence Clearwater Revival. Their music is rife with country, rockabilly, and R&B influences, a combination that produced several hit singles—most of which are present on this collection. These include "I Heard It through the Grapevine,""Lodi,""Up Around the B ,""Who'll Stop the Rain," and of course "Bad Moon Rising." This is an excellent greatest-hits collection, and a perfect introduction to the music of a band that has been enduringly influential. —Genevieve Williams

It's sometimes easy to dismiss the offspring of legendary musicians, but not Adam Cohen. He may have learned to write music around the kitchen table with dad Leonard, but this 25-year-old with a bohemian upbringing has carved a voice distinctly his own on his self-titled debut. Not desperately seeking fame but diligently working toward making a credible entry into the industry, Cohen spent most of the decade leading up to his first album playing in various bands and putting together demos. The result is a poignant collection of songs that, while both mellow and darkly seductive, have a bite that separates him from the pack of faux-sensitive artists currently in oversupply. Cohen admits the CD is largely autobiographical, albeit a bit exaggerated—which may be a good thing, considering the intense jealousy that imbues "Quarterback" and the confrontation of "Tell Me Everything."—Rebecca Wallwork

Five for Fighting is actually just one guy with a rather substantial chip on his shoulder who's taken his name from the amount of time a hockey player spends in the penalty box for fighting. Los Angeles native and erstwhile prodigy John Ondrasik really knows his way around a melody, bolstering it with a dramatic sense of timing and rhythm like a more modern and hipper Elton John. And that defiant chip does makes for powerful poetry, although oftentimes he sacrifices logic and clarity for the sake of iambic pentameter. While "Superman" is a catchy affair about the restrictions of being superhuman and the desire to belong ("I'm only a man in a silly red sheet looking for special things inside me"), it's doubtful that anyone who ever read a DC comic would believe that Superman would ever be "digging for kryptonite on this one-way street," since a loose fragment from Superman's home planet might turn him into a blubbering infant or a giant ant. At best, Five for Fighting follows in the narrative-based path paved by Counting Crows. —Jaan Uhelszki

Amplified Heart marked a number of changes in Everything but the Girl's career, the most obvious of which was their sudden popularity when a Todd Terry remix of "Missing" became a dance-floor hit. But before the album was even recorded, Ben Watt—who with Tracy Thorn is EBTG—was hospitalized for a life-threatening intestinal disorder (see his book, Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness, for a full account). His recovery invigorates Amplified Heart, making the love songs that much more passionate, the relationship songs that much more tender, and "25th December"—the one song in which Watt sings lead—that much more heartbreaking. Thorn's captivating vocals are the focus on the rest of the album, and she's as smooth as ever; combined with the focus that she and Watt share here, it makes for EBTG's best album. —Randy Silver