Before Anodyne, Uncle Tupelo already had one masterpiece in 1991's noisy and tense Still Feel Gone, but this album, the band's major-label debut, had even grander ambitions. Replacing the group's grungy guitar with soaring lap and pedal-steel fills, plus fiddle and mandolin breaks both sweet and raucous, Anodyne is overflowing with a spacious grandeur that alludes to, and then makes it own, everything from the Band and the Stones and Neil Young (both as a solo artist and with Crazy Horse) to old Acuff-Rose songs-all of which is just to say that it's among the best roots-rock records ever made. -David Cantwell.

Though her smoky alto is rich with promise, the debut album by 17-year-old Alecia Elliott suffers from a split personality. Much of the selection is diva-esque balladry, with the Titanic-sized emoting of "I'm Waiting for You" and "That's the Only Way" making Elliott sound old beyond her years. Some of the rest is kid's stuff, from the cloying social conscience of "I Don't Understand" to the perky funk of the title hit to the Shania-in-training "You Wanna What?" (one of two songs on the album that Elliott helped write). Yet, on the album-opening "Some People Fall, Some People Fly"-cowritten and previously recorded by Matraca Berg- Elliott shows how she can soar with a song that suits her. -Don McLeese.

While the hype machine forever proclaims this or that new artist to be "unique," "original," or "a fresh new voice," most of the time what you hear is more of the same old, same old. Thus, it is a rare joy to hear a newcomer that actually qualifies as all of the above. Mindy Smith fits loosely in the alt-country genre but adds some distinctive touches that set her apart from the field. A residency in Nashville brings a welcome Music Row level of craftsmanship to the playing and production, while her singing and songwriting take the music to places where cliché has never been. A song like "Hurricane" has a hook Faith Hill would kill for, but tells a tale of rebirth that might prove a little raw for her emotional range. Like Julie Miller, Smith writes songs that deal with redemption and spiritual matters in a way that is powerful without being off-putting to the more secular among us. Likewise she can write about her stepmother's passing in terms general enough to make it a stirring ode to the loss of any love-and do it in a voice that could make a statue misty. Smith more than held her own on the Dolly Parton tribute, "Just Because I'm a Woman", alongside the likes of Alison Krauss, Norah Jones, and Dolly herself. One Moment More proves that it was no fluke. This time believe the hype. [+]