3.5 out of 5: Coldplay: X&Y

After the success of its second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay returns to serve up “A Rush of Blood to the Head Pt. 2,” otherwise known as X&Y. The band has gone through a lot since its rapid ascent to stardom in 2003, but two long years have passed with marriages, botched recording sessions, and a baby called “Apple.” Despite the asides, X&Y is a solid album utilizing the standard formula that Chris Martin and the boys have perfected: soft piano intro, soaring choruses, and a thunderous build-up that ends in a crashing crescendo. Songs like “Speed of Sound” and “Fix You” will take you back to the days when Coldplay dominated the airways, and no doubt these songs will saturate the popular music market as well. It has been said that if you put all three of Coldplay’s albums in a CD changer, you’ll have a hard time figuring out which album the song belongs. Good or bad, Coldplay has created a sound that is unique and distinct, and X&Y won’t disappoint you. Whether they reach that Joshua Tree status U2 enjoyed in the late 80s is left to be seen, but they have certainly constructed an album complete with stadium appropriate anthems that will fulfill their quest for world domination. Coldplay will be playing two shows this September in Charlotte and Raleigh — get tickets now before they sell out.

4 out of 5: The White Stripes: Get Behind Me, Satan

Whether he’s dating a famous movie star (or most recently marrying a supermodel), jamming with a famous country star (Loretta Lynn), or acting and contributing to the soundtrack of a Hollywood blockbuster movie (“Cold Mountain”), Jack White is constantly thinking about music and his next project. Get Behind Me, Satan was originally intended to be an acoustic album — possibly influenced by his Van Lear Rose and “Cold Mountain” experiences, but once you hear the first single, “Blue Orchid,” you’ll hear the Stripes we all know and love. Musically, this is the most diverse album Jack and Meg have created with rhythms centered around piano, bells, acoustic guitars, and of course, Meg’s perfectly simplistic drumming. Stand-out tracks like “Blue Orchid,” “My Doorbell,” “Little Ghost,” and “Instinct Blues” should find themselves in the Stripes live set lists as the band plans to go on tour this summer and late fall in the U.S. Surprisingly, this is the most accessible album Jack and Meg have put out so far. The Detroit-blues\rock that the two are known for is buried beneath layers of vocals and instrumentation that project the duo in a slightly unusual direction — keeping what was old new again so that their audience becomes neither bored nor dismayed by their explorations into the uncharted territory of what is The White Stripes.

— Joe Hooten (thatbeat@hotmail.com)