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Save This PageSix full months into the record-buying year, and here's what we've learned:
That young music listeners will tear themselves away from the Internet long enough to actually pay for music -- provided it's Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" -- and that the Generation X-ers, now in their late 20s to early 40s, are drawn to Coldplay's lush, soothing sounds.
Two vastly different demographics anointed the two biggest sellers of the year so far. Wayne's "Carter III" has shipped an impressive 1.5 million in three weeks, while Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" chugs slightly slower behind with just under a million in its two weeks of release.
So those are the big sellers. But does big necessarily equal good? As it turns out, Coldplay not only has a significant hit with "Vida" but has crafted the most exhilarating album to this point in 2008.
Filled with ambitious detours, the album demonstrates not only a matured Coldplay but one that has learned the value of restraint.
On "Yes," falsetto king Chris Martin drops his voice so low it's almost unrecognizable, and the extraordinary title track forsakes guitars for a soaring soundscape of strings, piano and a marching band-style tom-tom drum.
For me, it will be difficult for any upcoming release this year to leapfrog Coldplay in its pole position.
But if the two tracks I've heard from The Verve's first studio effort in 11 years, "Forth," due Aug. 19, are an indication of the rest of the disc, Coldplay's handiwork will definitely be challenged. (Check out the first Verve single, "Love Is Noise," at www.myspace.com/theverve).
So let's push aside the stylized Brits for a moment and take a look at the rest of the best so far this year.
The strings and piano ballad "Thought I Saw Your Face Again" gives a nod to The Carpenters (and that is meant in the most respectful manner -- make fun if you want, but Richard Carpenter wrote some amazing melodies). And "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" and "Sentimental Heart" are summery folk-pop nuggets that would make Brian Wilson smile.
And the happiest surprise? Deschanel possesses a sweet, lilting voice that is infinitely listenable.
Elsewhere, "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)" glides by with layered choruses, chimes and jauntily shifting tempos, and "The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know" is a whispery ballad that showcases the band's harmonic talents.
Singer Brendon Urie can sound a bit strained, but his voice blends perfectly with the old-fashioned ukulele ditty "I Have Friends in Holy Places," which is, actually, pretty odd.
By opening and closing with an explosive, expletive-filled conversation among band members from 1994, the Philly hip-hop masters make it clear that this isn't going to be an easy ride.
Leadoff track "Rising Down," with Mos Def and Styles P, is a dense commentary about a world sagging from its problems ("Everything's for sale, even souls/Someone get God on the phone"), a theme the band weaves throughout its socially astute songs anchored by some serious funk.
A skittering hi-hat ushers in "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)," a searing, relentless rap from Black Thought that, for all of its gravity, shows off a little whimsy ("I arrive on time/I'm never fashionable/You late"). And on "Criminal," an ominous guitar riff and dreamlike background vocals collide for that all-too-rare marriage of melody and meaning.
Also worth a listen: Aimee Mann's "Smilers"; Duffy's "Rockferry"; Jason Mraz's "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things"; and The Ting Tings' "We Started Nothing."
. . .
Thanks to the many readers who sent in their picks for the best and worst cover songs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, "It's My Life" by No Doubt and Cake's version of "I Will Survive" should have been on the "best" list -- I wholeheartedly concur.
To see what other remakes your fellow readers deemed either phenomenal or unlistenable, check out the Pop! Culture blog at www.inrich.com (keyword: pop culture blog).
