Home is the first album from Simply Red for more than three years. Their last (1999's Love and the Russian Winter) was both underwhelming and underperforming-the result of the band's increasingly unfashionable status and the flame that once made Mick Hucknall a great songwriter starting to burn out. Many artists in this position attempt some kind of back-to-basics approach to remind everyone why they sold so many records in the first place. On the surface, this looks like what Hucknall has attempted, particularly with opener "Home". But scratch the surface and you'll find bold, upbeat and funky songs, full of joyous brass and strings. Both "Fake" and "Sunrise" (complete with a forgivable Hall and Oates sample) are wonderfully reminiscent of early Hucknall but infused with a new-found confidence. Home is Simply Red in a nutshell-great, soulful songs, funky guitars and Hucknall's remarkable voice, the latter something that most people forget when criticising the band for their "coffee table" appeal. The main problem is that there aren't enough of these songs. The album is bolstered significantly by a number of covers (most notably the inspired Dylan classic, "Positively 4th Street"). They're great, but ultimately B-side fodder, taking up valuable room on the album after a mammoth absence-what has Hucknall been doing for the last three years? Well, setting up his own record label to release this, for one thing. [+]

By the time she made her bow on MTV Unplugged, Mariah Carey was already a multi-platinum-selling artist who owned the charts, but didn't command much respect because no one had ever seen her perform live. As it turned out, Miss Thing could deliver as sure as Domino's, emoting significantly over soulful arrangements of several hits and a cover of the Jackson Five's "I'll Be There. " That track became a No. 1 hit and earned a solo recording deal for featured backup singer Trey Lorenz. This may not be Carey's best record, but it's certainly her most surprising. -Daniel Durchholz.

The jumpy, Timbaland-esque beats that kickstart the title track of Fanmail, TLC's long-awaited follow-up to 1994's zillion-selling CrazySexyCool, are a lot more impressively modern than the "computerised" voices that introduce several cuts. Most of the album's production is similarly up to date, displaying the trio's smouldering style to good effect. A few of these songs ("Silly Ho," "No Scrubs," "Unpretty") verge on the anthemic, while Babyface-helmed ballads such as "I Miss You So Much" and "Dear Lie" feel like they're running on automatic pilot. For the most part, though, Fanmail earns its status as a multi-platinum sure thing. -Rickey Wright.

HIStory's two CDs (one hits, the other new) were Jackson's attempt to connect his glorious past to a dodgy present and-given it's commercial and artistic performance-cast a shadow on his future. Conceived as his formal coronation as the "King of Pop", HIStory's second disc instead presents Jackson as an epauletted, single-gloved Richard III. By turns paranoid, angry, bitter, sentimental, and, in one instance, possibly anti-Semitic, HIStory was less a collection of songs than a case history. A few tracks-mostly those produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-are sleek, modern pop/soul, but too much of HIStory has the overblown vacuousness of a musician who knows his time is past, but is unsure as to how to react to the situation. -Steven Mirkin HIStory's 2 CDs (one hits, the other new) were Jackson's attempt to connect his glorious past to a dodgy present and-given it's commercial and artistic performance-cast a shadow on his future. Conceived as his formal coronation as the "King of Pop," HIStory's second disc instead presents Jackson as an epauletted, single-gloved Richard III. By turns paranoid, angry, bitter, sentimental, and, in one instance, possibly anti-Semitic, HIStory was less a collection of songs than a case history. A few tracks-mostly those produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-are sleek, modern pop/soul, but too much of HIStory has the overblown vacuousness of a musician who knows his time is past, but is unsure as to how to react to the situation. -Steven Mirkin.

Off the Wall made music history. Not only was it the release that signaled the arrival of Michael Jackson as a major talent outside the Jackson Five, it was the first record by a solo artist to contain four US Top 10 hits. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", "Rock with You", "Off the Wall", and "She's out of My Life" were essential listening in the late 1970s and early '80s. The release also contains the kinetic "Working Day and Night" and "Burn This Disco Out", and Paul McCartney contributes "Girlfriend". Thanks to Quincy Jones's production, it was still all about the music back then. The artistry Jackson exhibited on Off the Wall still amazes. Avoiding the shallow excesses of most of the period's disco, Jackson's dance rhythms here are made all the more powerful by Jackson's vocal restraint. -Steve Gdula.

By now a seasoned master of late-night amour and heartbreak, Vandross upped the creative ante somewhat with this 1985 release. A concept about the rise and fall of a relationship, The Night I Fell in Love is classic Luther, down to the homage to pop-soul's past (an aching cover of Stevie Wonder's "Creepin") and the endless promise of love's potential. Always one of the best and most understated male singers in black pop, Luther is possibly at his peak here. It's impossible to keep the emotions in check on such odes to love as "If Only for One Night" or the finger-popping "My Baby Comes Home. " -Amy Linden.