UK-Garage albums by a single artist can be counted on one hand (Artful Dodger, MJ Cole, Wookie), making the So Solid Crew's They Don't Know a welcome addition to this small but growing pantheon of urban UK music. The 30-member group's debut album is a hard, rough mixture of garage, drum and bass and hip-hop, far removed from the smoothness of MJ Cole or the sunny idealism of Lonyo or The Pied Piper. So Solid splay deep, dark beats for their in-your-face lyrics of their small army of MCs (Romeo, Asher D, Mac, to name just a few), creating an apocalyptic, heavy, sound of the street. So Solid's number 1 UK hit "21 Seconds" is here in full as well as a (much sparser) remixed version of "Oh No", the track that would have been their first number one had it not been for a format mix up. They've actually left off quite a few of their best cuts. "Nasty", "Dangerous" and "That Feelin'" are all missing with only the hyper, apocalyptic "Woah" surviving from their "early days". But despite being the bright hopes of UK urban music there's still some dodgy tracks that betray the crew's relative inexperience (most are around 21, the oldest 26). The tacky "Ride Wid Us" uses the Knight Rider theme (Busta Rhymes did this to disastrous effect on "Fire it Up") and Skyla lacks any central idea. They Don't Know isn't a perfect album but an impressive debut by one of the UK's most ambitious young urban groups. They have already wiped out competition from the UK garage underground, with They Don't Know, So Solid are getting their teeth deeply into the mainstream. [+]

Every parent's nightmare and every teenager's dream band, Marilyn Manson take no prisoners on their blistering and brutal Trent Reznor-produced debut. Aiming to shock and rock simultaneously, Portrait scores high marks in both arenas. Manson and his grand grimoire take Alice Cooper's tongue-in-cheek mix of glam and death rock to the nth degree with their vision of youth gone wild, personified on cuts like "Cake and Sodomy" and "Lunchbox", a schoolyard revenge fantasy gone horribly awry. One of the most original, hardest rocking albums recorded in the 1990s, Portrait of an American Family is a hallmark of the industrial/metal genre, but not for those who are easily offended. -Gail Worley.

The bass line of the opening track is the first sign, and the smooth funk of the second track confirms it: On Embrya, Maxwell has done it again. Sophomore efforts don't always fare well, especially when an artist is still riding high on the accolades of a debut, but Maxwell has managed to take the exquisite soul of 1996's Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite and, without sacrificing any of its verve, turn it into something far more sophisticated. Not only is Embrya a sublime summer soundtrack, it's a groove masterpiece from start to finish. "Luxury: Cococure", the first single, like "'Til the Cops Come Knockin'" before it, is only the slightest taste of the treasures waiting to be devoured. If you're looking for lush ballads, skip to "Matrimony: Maybe You", the haunting "Know These Things: Shouldn't You", and the sensual slow jam "Gravity: Pushing to Pull" (and yes, nearly all the tracks are subtitled like this). They may not be as yearning as those that detailed his weekend-long tryst on Hang Suite (Maxwell knows better than anyone just how far a little restraint can go), but these tracks are gifts on their own. Put them together and you have an album that does nothing but elevate Maxwell's impeccable reputation as the man who breathed life back into the soul of R&B. -Rebecca Wallwork.

Actress Jennifer Lopez's debut album fails in its attempt to provide a worthy musical backdrop to her much-discussed diva-esque image. Over the course of 13 songs, On the 6 displays barely a glimmer of the verve, poise, and sensuality of her screen performances in the likes of Out of Sight. With little vocal talent to rely on, Lopez generally seems content to ape Madonna's middle register like any happy radio listener. Similarly, several of the tracks here seem too rooted in the Latin-lite clichés of "La Isla Bonita". With practice-more Lopez CDs will surely follow in the wake of 6's success-the star might develop into a singer worth reckoning with, but for now she stands as a wonderful actress and a musical artist with an unengaging album to her name. -Rickey Wright.