Something weird happened around 1994: Bubblegum pop music pretty much disappeared from the airwaves. It wouldn't be gone for long, what with the boy band explosion and various blonde teens with doomed careers just around the corner, but for a brief stretch in the English-language pop business, organic and genuine became the status quo. It was a weird time when adult contemporary music effectively dominated the charts. It's no surprise, then, that the remaining members of Slowdive jumped on board the acoustic express after Creation Records ended their contract. Renamed Mojave 3, the band transitioned smoothly into alt-country and modern folk.

• Love Songs on the Radio

• After All
• Mercy

Ask Me Tomorrow was Mojave 3's first album with 4AD Records. It fits right alongside other southwest-tinged dream pop acts like Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star. Decidedly down-tempo, full of reverberation effects and cut through with plenty of desert road aesthetics, Ask Me Tomorrow is a sort of debut transition album. It takes the lonely, disconnected weirdness of Slowdive's Pygmalion and gives it a heart.

• Who Do You Love
• Some Kinda Angel
• All Your Tears
• Keep It All Hid
• To Whom Should I Write

Three years after Ask Me Tomorrow, Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell and some of their new friends went into the studio to make the cleanest, clearest album of their careers. Out Of Tune may be an unfortunate name for a record, but what's inside it reveals that self-deprecating attitude comes from a sense of humor. Songs like "Some Kinda Angel" are upbeat and lush, a nice change from Tomorrow's cover-to-cover haze. Neil Halstead does his best to channel Bob Dylan and mostly succeeds while the sunny backing tracks make for a surprisingly exuberant listen.

• In Love With A View
• Return To Sender
• When You're Drifting
• Prayer For The Paranoid
• Bringin' Me Home

2000's Excuses For Travellers is really where anyone interested in Mojave 3 should start. It isn't nearly as pop-oriented as Out of Tune but it's significantly more accessible from the get-go than Ask Me Tomorrow. "Return To Sender" is the standout single of the album and most of the rest balances nicely between studio proficiency and charming low fidelity. It's easy to hear the likes of Badly Drawn Boy and even Wilco in this album.

• Starlight No. 1
• Bill Oddity
• Tinkers Blues
• Too Many Mornings

Spoon and Rafter is simultaneously Mojave 3's most impressive and most frustrating album. Tracks like "Bill Oddity" are stunning and unique, but the best parts of the record are sandwiched in between forgettable snoozers. The end result is half of an amazing 21st century folk album and half a complete lack of ideas.

• Truck Driving Man
• Puzzles Like You
• Running With Your Eyes Closed
• You've Said It Before

Some time between 2003 and 2006, Mojave 3 got happy. Puzzles Like You is the most upbeat album the band has produced by far. At times rockabilly, at others classic guitar pop, it's one of those "we've been making music so long, we don't really care about fitting a mold anymore" records. Every artist who's been in the business with their head above water for a decade or two gets around to making one. Puzzles Like You isn't supposed to be fresh, it's just the sound of old friends making songs together. Given that they've been strumming and singing together since the age of 6, Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell deserve an album like that.

Mojave 3 haven't been all that active for the past few years. They took an official hiatus in 2008, though there has been chatter about a new album some time in the near future.