Goldfrapp's Radiant "Melancholy Sky"

Alison Goldfrapp  (am1700radio)

Greatest Hits collections are a curious creation. Ostensibly a gateway drug for the cautious fairweather fan, they have become seductive additions to the devotee's collection merely by dint of including the requisite two previously unreleased, evidently newly recorded tracks.

Coda: REM, RIP

Life's Rich Pageant  (albumartnet)

I'm still thinking about REM. I can't help it. Not only were they one of America's most influential bands, they were important to me. They did more to keep the spirit of the '70s alive than any other band I can think of, while simultaneously helping to spearhead indie rock, that most '80s of movements in pop music.

R.E.M. is Out of Time and I'll be Fine

  Peter Buck,  Michael Stipe, and Mike Mills  (myspace)

R.E.M. made a difference and they will be missed. I was fresh out of high school when their opening salvo "Radio Free Europe" was released in 1981. Like Steely Dan's "Do It Again" a decade earlier, R.E.M.'s debut single sounded like the start of a wonderful musical adventure, while likewise proving to be the work of one of the smartest bands in the US.