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Rhapsody Feature

Coldplay
This British quartet's casual dream pop melodies and poetic lyrics have brought it international stardom.

Top 3 Albums In Rhapsody

Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Coldplay have mastered their anthemic craft so precisely that with every peak of Chris Martin's falsetto you can hear the faintest cha-ching of dollar signs. So, for them to usher in Brian Eno to help dip their toes into new terrain is a move that deserves some props. Eno gives them room to build their grandiose crescendos, while adding in oblique bars of airy soundscapes ("Life in Technicolor"), Eastern strings ("Yes"), Renaissance strut ("Strawberry Swing") and even some Phil Collins swagger ("Violet Hill"). It's a good progression, but not as innovative as they might have been hoping for.
Editor: Stephanie Benson
Tha Carter III
On the conclusion to Wayne's Carter trilogy, clouds of incoherence give way to the occasional beams of lucidity. For the latter, nonsense transforms into catharsis, and Wayne sounds like a modern-day, word-drunk Screamin' Jay Hawkins, angry and defiant as he stares in the mirror. Other times, Wayne simply sounds drunk, sputtering limp jokes and railing against imaginary haters. The album's highs ("Mr. Carter," "Dr. Carter") are stunning, but they sink beneath generic pop-hop ("Ms. Officer") and mixtape material ("You Ain't Got Nottin'"). It's singular, but that's not always a compliment.
Editor: Sam Chennault
The Dark Knight - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard collaborate on this grand, unusually moody score to Christopher Nolan's second masterful revision of the Batman franchise. Whether Zimmer and Howard worked together or on separate pieces, this truly is a unified whole (orchestral helicopter noises flit in and out of many pieces), and the nine-minute opener, "Why So Serious?," is a real stunner. The "Dark Knight" theme is almost as strong and "Watch the World Burn" is an embered beauty -- gee, haven't popcorn pictures gotten cheery lately?
Editor: Nick Dedina

Top 10 Tracks In Rhapsody

Album: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Artist: Coldplay

Album: I Kissed A Girl
Artist: Katy Perry

Album: 7 Things
Artist: Miley Cyrus

Album: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Artist: Coldplay

Album: Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded
Artist: Rihanna

Album: Leave Out All The Rest
Artist: Linkin Park

Album: Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded
Artist: Rihanna

Album: Burnin' Up
Artist: Jonas Brothers

Album: Forever
Artist: Chris Brown

Album: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Artist: Coldplay

New Releases In Rhapsody

Breakout
Someday, when Miley Cyrus is shaving her head and entering rehab, we'll hear her cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" as a cry for help. But Billy Ray's little girl is under a very different pressure: namely, to not be Britney. For someone who's meant to embody America's wholesome ideal of teendom, then, Miley's proper debut is pretty adult. Not in a Vanity Fair sense as much as just an undue focus on hard breakups and serious relationships. Except on the tween-tastic title track and the sassy "Fly on the Wall," Miley doesn't sound like she's having much fun.
Editor: Rachel Devitt
War
With this 1983 release -- the last "raw" album U2 would make -- the band created the concept of an alternative arena rock group. The word "anthemic" doesn't even come close to describing the grandiose post-punk that they play here: This is genuinely brilliant, flag-waving rock music. U2 never sounded so totally rocking, so passionate and, honestly, so good. Classics such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Two Hearts Beat as One" and "New Year's Day" sound even crisper on this remastered edition, which also comes with a bonus disc full of b-sides, club remixes, rarities and live cuts.
Editor: Jon Pruett
Conor Oberst
With Oberst dropping his Bright Eyes handle and heading to a studio in a Mexican city famed for UFO sightings to record this album, things seemed poised for the deep end. But aside from the 49-second conch solo of "Valle Mistico," he stays with a relatively unadorned set of songwriter-driven rock in the mode of Cassadaga. Sturdy Americana rockers like "Danny Callahan" and "Souled Out!!!" owe stylistic debts to Wilco, though the crystalline simplicity of the ballads -- especially the elegant closer "Milk Thistle" -- bear the heartrending confessions of his signature.
Editor: Nate Cavalieri

Rhapsody Staff Picks

22 Dreams
Paul Weller celebrated his 50th birthday by getting a bunch of friends (including Blur's Graham Coxon, Robert Wyatt, Noel Gallagher and Noonday Underground's Simon Dine) to come out to his country studio and record this expansive set. Weller's songwriting and never-stronger vocals deftly handle British folk, mod rock, R&B rave-ups, Stones burners, soul ballads, sea shanties and buzzing acid-trippers. The album's held together by a bright nature vibe and tunes such as "Cold Moments," "Invisible" and "Empty Ring" rank among the best in a career that stretches across four decades.
Editor: Nick Dedina
Hot Buttered Soul
Only one song clocks in under ten minutes on this four-song release. A seminal album, Hot Buttered Soul cemented Isaac Hayes's image and his influence on the music industry. The music is stunning both instrumentally and vocally, and its relentless low-key grooves should strike fear in the hearts of poseurs everywhere. Includes the phenomenal "Walk On By."
Editor: Jon Pruett
Early Works
Early Works documents Reich's initial forays into tape loops and phasing. That said, the mid-'60s piece "Come Out" is one of the most prescient pieces of avant-garde music from the subsequent 40 years. The composer took a news clip of a Harlem teenager explaining how New York police assaulted him and transformed it into a pulsating chunk of urban psychedelia. Remember: this was before Funkadelic, before On the Corner, before krautrock and long before hip-hop. The rest of the album is also cool.
Editor: Justin Farrar

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