Remember the first time you heard KashmirŒ by Led Zeppelin? Well, maybe it wasn¡t important to some, but for one little kid, hearing that song proved how classical music and rock together can be truly powerful. It seems about every rock band dabbles with a string section nowadays ¢ coming across as an afterthought almost every time.

With Sea Change,Œ Beck is one of a select few who actually uses the orchestra section in his songwriting well, and the results are amazing. It is different from what he has done before, but it still sounds like Beck. Some of the melodies hearken back to Mellow GoldŒ and a few of the songs are stripped down Ø la Mutations.Œ

Missing is Beck¡s clichE ¡90s fashion-freaky style. In its place is pure ¡70s songwriting spirit. The change is for the better. Beck might not think so, though; he sounds sadder each word he sings.

On Paper Tiger,Œ Beck drones, Just like a paper tiger/ torn apart by idle hands/ through the helter skelter morning/ fix yourself while you still can.Œ

The lyrics are poetic as always, but much more down to earth than the random word jumbling of albums such as Mellow Gold.Œ

Each song on Sea ChangeΠstands out in its own way. Lonesome Tears,Πwith full-bodied string arrangements and electronics, is about the most complete and dramatic song one could ever hope for, and probably the best one by Beck.

One complaint is that a number of the songs, such as Guess I¡m Doing Fine,Œ Lost CauseŒ and All in Your Mind,Œ follow the same formula ¢ start off acoustic, add strings or electronics, crescendo, finish ¢ but the only almost-cheery song on the set, Sunday Sun,Œ and a few simple acoustic tracks help to break up that formula.

By playing quirky pop experimentalism to the extreme over the past few years, Beck may have put one foot in the grave and almost lost a portion of his fans, but he¡s mutated his style again and the result should bring a whole new audience in with its mix of folk, orchestral strings and space tunes.

¢ Jeff Mitchell

Whiskeytown was a band upon whose shoulders the hopes of an entire genre rested. Many expected Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary, Ethan Johns and the others to become alt-country¡s Nirvana.Œ The group imploded before the prediction had a chance to come true.

Adams was the driving force behind the group and quickly went on to release solo material. HeartbreakerŒ was a sensitive whisper of an album in 2000, while the next year¡s GoldŒ made big noise for Adams on the modern musical marketplace. Somewhere in between is his third solo work, Demolition.Œ

DemolitionŒ could almost be considered a collection of B-sides and demos, since Adams himself says the cuts come from sessions for five different albums recorded after Gold.Œ

When does this guy sleep? But actually, this disc stands on its own, demonstrating some of Adams¡ top-shelf work.

The album has a few of the more sentimental tracks that some fans felt were missing from Gold.Œ You Will Always Be the SameŒ and Cry on DemandŒ have some of the same emotional sad-bastard tinge as the highlights of Heartbreaker.Œ

On a sour note, Tennessee SucksŒ almost begs critics to print, Tennessee may suck, but so does this song.Œ They¡d be right.

One also has to wonder what Adams was thinking when he recorded Jesus (Don¡t Touch My Baby).Œ The song features Adams on all the instruments, including an out-of-place drum machine.

DesireΠmore than makes up for any slight transgressions on the rest of the disc. TomorrowΠalso delights, bringing back a welcome reunion with Gillian Welch.

Adams has already proven himself as one of the most prolific singer-songwriters today. DemolitionŒ places the focus on the DemoŒ part of the word and fans of Adams¡ work should find plenty to keep satisfied for the mere months before we hear from him again.

¢ Jesse Stensby

The Murderdolls are five guys who have watched a lot of B-movie horror films.

And one of those guys happens to be Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison.

The band also originally featured Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen until he recently left the band to fulfill his duties to Static-X.

Don¡t let anyone fool you into thinking this band sounds like Slipknot, though ¢ it couldn¡t be further from the truth.

The Murderdolls are a glammed-out bunch of punks who specialize in dirty grimy three-chord punk anthems straight from the gutter.

Oh yeah, they also like to sing a lot about zombies, grave-robbing and killing Miss America.

One listen to the Murderdolls will instantly conjure up memories of the original Misfits, but even those guys didn¡t play with the whiplash speed and morbid fascination that you hear on songs like Dead in HollywoodŒ and Slit My Wrist.Œ

Lyrically, the band has songs that would probably make Eminem blush.

Well I¡d rather cut you than the wedding cake/and your bloody guts on my rented tux/and I do, I do wanna kill you/¡til death do us part I¡ll tear us apart,Œ vocalist Wednesday 13 spews on Die My Bride.Œ

Jordison and company have the anarchic punk-rock spirit of The Sex Pistols along with the sleazy glam-rock image and attitude of early ¡80s Sunset Strip bands like M^tley Cr,e.

Their tongue-in-cheek songs about Norman Bates and Leatherface are absolutely hilarious as long as you don¡t take them seriously.

Besides, in these somber times of seriousness in the music industry, what¡s better than a good song about sticking it to a zombie girl?

¢Trevor Fisher