COLDPLAY Vinyl Records and CDs

Like neo-Brit popsters Radiohead and Travis, Coldplay create sparse, emotional soundscapes that drip with melancholy and hit you squarely in the gut. The London-based quartet can comfortably go from rousing stadium anthems to slow-burning charmers -- and will quite happily take you along for the rollercoaster ride. Marked by Chris Martin's falsetto-happy vocals, Coldplay's songs employ stop/start dynamics that allow serene verses to build to a crescendo, at which point they explode into blistering choruses. Many of Coldplay's songs center around the well-trodden theme of love -- first love, lost love, unrequited love, obsessive love. It's all here, wrapped in remarkable blanket of fireworks and shooting stars, which makes the wistful ache even more wistfully when it all falls apart. And in Coldplay's songs, love always falls apart.