1995 The Best & Worst/Music

2 Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette (Maverick/Reprise) The problem with this overnight heavyweight isn't, as some complain, the grab bag crafted by producer Glen Ballard. Ballard knows a solid hook when he constructs it, and only a true crank could deny "You Oughta Know." No, the real nuisance is the frontwoman, whose histrionic yelp reduces honest expression to contrivance and whose lyrics descend to trash-TV topicality. Not for nothing was she once considered to be the Debbie Gibson of Canada.

3 Thank You Duran Duran (Capitol) Did you hear the one about the lounge lizards who follow up their comeback with an album of covers? And not just any covers, but R&B, rap, and new-wave oldie covers way beyond their reach? [Wild laughter.]

4 Sixteen Stone Bush (Trauma/Interscope/Atlantic) Silverchair, this year's other leading alterna-posers, can be forgiven since they're just teens imitating their heroes. There's no excuse for Bush, smarmy Brits who plundered every Seattle inflection and, depressingly, rode it to platinum sales.

5 Honor Among Thieves Edwin McCain (Lava) Bad enough that Hootie & the Blowfish sound as if they were cloned from ghosts of soft-rock past. Now imagine a Hootie clone. --DB