Summer music '07.

Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (June 17)
Chris Martin's crucially flawed idea of "progress" is to cut and paste work from other innovative bands into his own. Simply rewriting the violin stabs from Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" into "Yes" doesn't make the song great, though, and anybody at all familiar with My Bloody Valentine will scoff at "Chinese Sleep Chant." Yet one has to respect the lads of Coldplay for their ambition. Even after the bloated X&Y sold like hotcakes, they are more interested in expanding their sound than offering a commercial retread. While they aren't nearly as talented as they think they are – and they remain far from the heights of their heroes U2 and Radiohead – Viva la Vida is still intriguing as a pantheon to Coldplay's lofty aspirations.

Coldplay - "Viva la Vida": (from Viva la Vida...; 2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44xirQ55IgA

Lil' Wayne – Tha Carter III (June 10)
"Lollipop" has been topping radio charts for a long time now, but it's not an easy song to appreciate. In fact, at first blush, it's a tasteless track full of vulgar innuendo and inexcusably terrible lyrics. Upon closer listen, however, one begins to appreciate it. Lil' Wayne's newfound infatuation with T-Pain-style vocoders congeals with Static Major's vocal hook and Deezle's futuristic production to create something dense, alien and compelling. The advance single for Lil' Wayne's oft-delayed Tha Carter III is a handy avatar for the album as a whole. First impressions may leave a bad aftertaste, but it's a grower. Tha Carter III is over-the-top, overlong and, if you give it time, a rewarding piece of work from one of mainstream rap's finest.

Lil' Wayne - "Lollipop" (feat. Static Major): (from Tha Carter III; 2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=740d8sTpM7U

Nine Inch Nails – The Slip (May 5)
If there's one good thing today's major labels have accomplished, it's the inspiration of Trent Reznor. Thanks to his acrimonious break with Interscope and his frustration with the industry's near-sighted distribution tactics, Reznor decided to meet fans on their own terms by releasing The Slip as a free download with a Creative Commons license. The best thing about his latest album isn't the price, however – it's the music. The Slip is the single greatest Nine Inch Nails record since the band's seminal breakthrough, 1994's The Downward Spiral. Sure, Reznor may fret over his relevancy on "Discipline" and "Echoplex," but the music speaks for itself. The Slip proves the aging industrial rock icon is pertinent as ever.

Nine Inch Nails - "Discipline": (from The Slip; 2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ZMKfFHU3U

Weezer – Weezer (June 3)
Weezer's third eponymous album (colloquially referred to as "the red album") is essentially an homage to Rivers Cuomo's mid life crisis. After three albums of passable (but mostly stagnant and predictable) power pop, he and his trusty band of nerd rockers set out to create their wackiest, weirdest, most off-the-cuff set of songs to date. For evidence, check "Greatest Man That Ever Lived," an epic whose 6-minute span sees Cuomo try his hand at baroque counterpoint, rap, virtuosic falsetto, spoken verse and, of course, those familiar crunchy guitars. It's not quite the return to form old-school fans had been hoping for, but Weezer's latest is easily the best of their post-millennial releases – and a ton of fun to boot.

Weezer - "Pork and Beans": (from Weezer; 2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs (May 13)
When the 8.5-minute stalker anthem "I Will Possess Your Heart" hit radio stations in mid-March, the song's long length and emphasis on texture had fans speculating that Death Cab had a big change in store. Then the band released Narrow Stairs, and it became apparent that the album really is little more than a more muscular version of Plans. There is some experimentation scattered throughout the disc, but the boys in Death Cab seem as though they are treading water. This is not to say Narrow Stairs is a bad album – in fact, songs such as "Cath..." and "I Will Possess Your Heart" rank among the band's best work. At the end of the day, however, Narrow Stairs feels like more of the same from an increasingly mediocre group.

Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart": (from Narrow Stairs; 2008)
http://www.mtv.com/videos/death-cab-for-cutie/223342/i-will-possess-your-heart.jhtml

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals (June 19)
Greg Gillis is the ultimate party guy. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Gillis (better known as Girl Talk) earned his fame by elevating mash-up music from a novelty to an art form. Cramming as many as 30 songs into a single 3-minute piece, his first big break came with 2006's Night Ripper – a frenetic, hyperactive affair that found Nirvana slotted next to Notorious B.I.G. Feed the Animals takes Night Ripper a logical step forward – here, Gillis has allowed the mash-ups to gestate longer and spent more time finding samples that really gel with one another. Rich Boy and Aphex Twin? Lil' Wayne and Red Hot Chili Peppers? Radiohead and Jay-Z? Gillis will find ways to mesh them – and better still, he'll make you dance while he's at it.

Girl Talk - "Shut the Club Down": (from Feed the Animals; 2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMyyg3G1bt4

Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/jul/14/tableaus-guide-to-summer-music/