Coolly nostalgic, glamorous, and slightly eerie, this enchanting album reels under the influence of James Bond, John Barry, and Internet euphoria: "I'm wired to the world/ That's how I know everything/ I'm superbrain/ That's how they made me," sings the ravished narrator of "Utopia." 2000

In 1997, this smart and successful alternative rock band moved to a quiet resort town off Puget Sound, where they spent two years recording this, perhaps their best album. Sink yourself into the lush music like a trans-world passenger settling into a seat "on the bullet train from Tokyo to Los Angeles of "Hammering In My Head," draw energy from the voluptuous, driving "Push It," or surrender to the layered moodiness of "You Look So Fine." 1998

These striving songs go beyond their straight-ahead arena-rock sound with lyrics that mine a seam of spiritual loneliness and masculine resolve: "Sweet hours to live/ I got no time to kill/ I said hold back those arms raised/ Hold back the bill." 1985