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Phoenix are a pop band, plain and simple: a little bit Sloan, a little bit Fleetwood Mac and a little bit Daft Punk. At least, it feels like there's an unmistakably "electronic" element to the French band's records, even if it's just something about the goose-pimply detailing of their sound. (That could also describe the Fleetwood Mac influence, of course.) In any case, they take it back to the dance floor with a new set of "Lisztomania" remixes for Kitsune, the French label that recently released Phoenix's odd, appealing Kitsune Tabloid mix CD.

DFA's Holy Ghost! do a kind of chugging arpeggio thing that sounds an awfully lot like their own song "I Will Come Back." (Like their label mates Hercules & Love Affair and Black Meteoric Star, they clearly love old house and disco, but their take on it is way glossier.) LA's Classixx give blips their due on a spacy, slow-motion remix, and Manchester's Der Die Das dig into a gooey techno groove that reminds me the slightest bit of old Laurent Garnier. None of them are a patch on the original, nor for that matter upon Phoenix's recent album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, which is very good indeed, if you like that kind of thing. (By "that kind of thing," of course, I mean sunny-day singalong guitar pop that sounds like it's been squeezed from a tube full of rainbows and honey -- and who doesn't like that?)

In other recent indie/dance crossover releases, Strangelets (Supersoul Recordings' Xaver Naudascher and David Ducaruge) remix two of Sebastien Tellier's recent hits, gussying them up in tumbling, Italo-inspired arpeggios stretched to nearly eight minutes apiece. "Sexual Sportswear" is particularly good: brittle, pumping and moody. And, refreshingly, done without a trace of irony: these bleeps mean business.

Fever Ray's "Triangle Walks" is the new single from the Knife's Karin Dreijer-Andersson, and a diverse crew tests its malleable mettle. Tiga's is the oddball of the bunch, a low-slung electro number with booming 808s and a Neptunes infatuation. Elsewhere we find brooding downtempo (Ben Hoo), steely minimal techno (Spektre, Allez-Allez) and stately synth-pop (Tora Vintner, James Rutledge). Despite the stylistic range, they tend to bleed together under the weight of Dreijer-Andersson's almost overpoweringly processed vocals. Maybe that's why Allez-Allez's remix -- which all but erases them, stripping back the vocal track to a lone, repeated tone -- is one of the EP's most successful.

Finally, Moby has a new album out; following just a little over a year after Last Night, Wait for Me plots a considerably different course. While its predecessor was an uptempo celebration of New York's downtown dance legacy, the new one eases into a cozy, intimate vibe that's flush with guitars and vocals. Angelo Badalamenti, Beth Orton and maybe even Mazzy Star all serve as inspiration at different points across an album whose only real constant is its warmth. Taking a few cues from Joy Division (via Interpol), "Mistake" is fine, brooding guitar rock, while "Scream Pilots" sounds almost as though it might be a Plugz outtake from the Repo Man soundtrack. The album's best moments are its short, spontaneous instrumentals, fleeting moments when a musical idea flashes up in a smoke of tube glow and tape hiss, and is gone.

Warning: While you're welcome to try and construct a harder rocking playlist than this one , you'll most likely fail miserably. For one thing, all the selections are from the '70s, after rock got heavy but before metal shot itself in the foot by draining all the boogie out. So most of the songs are very funky as well as very fast, which only makes them rock harder. And best of all, the songs only cost 69 cents each, which means more pennies left in your pocket for beer!

On the Record is a video series where rockstars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds.

ARTIST: Passion Pit RECORD: Untrue

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Lemmy on the Beatles and more in the rest of our On the Record series.

Diplo

Deer Tick

Tom Morello

Animal Collective

Song: Her Diamonds
Album: Cradlesong
Artist:  Rob Thomas

The happily married Matchbox Twenty frontman croons about the hurt of love on his lead single off new album, Cradlesong. Presented by the U.S. Airforce.

From left to right: Jeremy DePoyster, Andy Trick, Mike Hrancia, James Baney, Chris Rubey, Daniel Williams

The Devil Wears Prada are not your average scene band. Sure they have their merch in Hot Topics all over the country, and yeah, their fans average around the age of 16, but  in their three-album, five-year-and-counting career, these young Ohio natives have accomplished a lot more than any band with "street cred" (though they have that in their own right, if you want to get technical). Debuting at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 with their latest effort, With Roots Above and Branches Below (see: the same debut Mastodon had with Crack the Skye not two months prior), it's like guitarist/backup vocalist Jeremy DePoyster puts it: "Obviously we're young guys and we're small guys and we wear tight pants, but we can make some really heavy music." So with that "don't judge a book by its cover'" admonishment out on the table, find out what else DePoyster had to say about these young guns' thoughts on their "scene," their success and their goals as a Christian metal band. Forget what you may have heard, and please meet the Devil Wears Prada.

Believe it or not, the year hits the six-months-gone mark this week. And while there's no point in claiming these are the absolute best singles of the first half of 2009 (left "Boom Boom Pow" and "Poker Face" off, for instance, figuring you already know what they sound like), they're still 25 really good ones. Lots of rap, lots of country, lots of soul. Not a ton of "rock", though -- maybe because most of the non-rock rocks just fine.

single-phile: The latest singles, dissected and discussed

When Michael Jackson passed away last week, I think many of us felt like he'd been taken too soon, his life cut short just as he seemed to be poised on the verge of some kind of comeback (although the stress of that may have been a contributing factor in his untimely demise). A lot of that feeling probably had to do with his age: he was only 50, but even that relatively young age seems shocking since Michael often seemed to exist in a state of (largely self-perpetuated) boyhood for us, a Peter Pan figure we prefer to remember as a chubby-cheeked child star or a charismatic teen/young adult. But an important part of Jackson's legacy is his rather prolific professional life -- a career that extended over at least three decades and was often a touchstone for what was (or would soon be) going on in popular culture and music. In honor of the late, great King of Pop, this week's single-phile takes a look at some of his greatest hits, their relationship to the pop cultural climate at the time and their influence on the pop music that was to come.

We asked John McCauley of Deer Tick to put together his ideal mixtape for us. We took his selections and threw in a few Deer Tick tracks to make it complete. Take a listen to the result.

Song: New Divide
Album: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Artist:  Linkin Park

Linkin Park provided the theme song for the summer blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Download it now before the robots attack. Presented by the U.S. Airforce.

When Michael Jackson passed away on Thursday, June 25, 2009, there was an outpouring of grief from around the world. We asked our editors to take a few minutes and collect their thoughts about the music and legacy of one of pop's greatest entertainers.

The Man
Michael Jackson never quite seemed mortal until now. He spent at least 40 of his 50 years trying to escape from his past and his fears and his race and his self, and at least 30 of those 50 years singing about it, and last Thursday, he finally found the door out. Michael Freedberg, the great disco critic from the Boston Phoenix, said once that Michael lived Robert Johnson's life in the plain view of everyone on earth, always watching out for hellhounds over his shoulder. And it's true; if you don't believe me, go back and listen again to the paranoia and foreboding in "Heartbreak Hotel," "Billie Jean," "Beat It," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" ("You're a buffet, you're a vegetable/ They eat off of you, you're a vegetable") "Torture," "Smooth Criminal" ("You ran into the bedroom/ You were struck down/ It was your doom"), "Dirty Diana," "Who Is It," "Give In to Me," and pretty much all of 1997's great, intense, inexplicably ignored Blood on the Dance Floor album, which was almost entirely about being chased, followed, often to the sound of funereal gothic rock: "Susie got your number/ And Susie ain't your friend/ Look who took you under/ With seven inches in." As somebody approximately Michael Jackson's age (I'll be 49 this year, he was 50), also from the Midwest, with a messed-up and sometimes barely existent childhood of my own, I can relate. And so can Axl Rose, I'm sure, and so can Eminem. And so, in their own way, can the millions if not billions of other people worldwide who loved Michael, and probably plenty of the ones who didn't.

If he did anything wrong in his life -- and part of me doesn't ever want to know if he did -- he certainly also did more good than any of us can ever conceive of. He was easily the greatest dancer of the past three decades, probably the greatest singer, and quite possibly the greatest songwriter. Which adds up the greatest entertainer, period. "I can guarantee you one thing: we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis," Lester Bangs wrote in Presley's obit 32 years ago, only a couple years before Michael Jackson definitively proved him wrong, emerging full-blown into adulthood as the world's most popular musician by presaging generations of young people who would celebrate their adulthood by refusing to grow up. And he emerged, of course, with some of the most celebratory music anybody from those generations will ever hear. But always, in the middle of that celebration, and not always submerged, there was dread. If anybody deserves to finally rest in peace, it's him. -- Chuck Eddy 

Laura Izibor's story isn't the typical neo-soul narrative. Born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father, Izibor grew up poor. Eventually, music was her salvation. At the age of 13, she submerged herself in classic soul singers such as Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack and Marvin Gaye. And then, at 15, she won a national talent contest and was subsequently signed to a record label. By 17, she had begun recording her debut, Let the Truth Be Told. It would take four years, but the wait was well worth it. In the album’s dusty grooves, you can hear the ghosts of soul’s past delivered by one of its most promising young stars. We recently caught up with Izibor and spoke with her about growing up in Ireland as well as her new album.

Killswitch Engage have been growing in strength since their first self-titled album was released a decade ago. Now, as they unveil their fifth album, they find themselves at the top of their game. Co-produced by Adam D. and Brendan O'Brien, the second coming of Killswitch Engage displays the powerful combination of technical musicianship and catchy melodies that these frontrunners forged and cultivated. Listen to the new record here, plus take a look at our thoughts on the album, read our Q&A with members Mike D'Antonio and Justin Foley, dive into Mike D's top 10 essential albums, and listen to playlists featuring the best of Killswitch and their Massachusetts contemporaries.

BROWSE: Check out Rhapsody's review of Killswitch Engage (II).

INTERVIEW: Check out our exclusive chat with KsE's Mike D'Antonio and Justin Foley.

EXPLORE: Dig into Killswitch's "Top 10 Essential Albums"

HEAR: Listen to a playlist of essential Killswitch Engage jams.

PLAY: Blast this Massachusetts Metalcore playlist.

RADIO: Hear what's new and awesome in metal with "Fury".

Ms. Jazmin Lopez is an up-and-coming star of duranguense -- the Mexican regional music that is a kissing cousin of the Southwest's brassy banda and the accordion-driven norteño, but also grew up in Chicago. Even this early in her career, however, Lopez's resume is already impressively diverse: She also hosts MTV Tr3s's ReMexa and is a connoisseur of both the regional Mexican music that program showcases and the urban dance and hip-hip sounds on rotation at MTV Tr3s's parent station. Her self-titled debut is a tribute to her wide-ranging interests and experiences:

Jazmin Lopez: Jazmin
Banda and duranguense have always seemed like long shots for breaking Mexican regional into the pop mainstream. And yet the oom-pah-ing horns and synth beats of these genres share a common ground with the dance beats of the pop charts -- and Jazmin Lopez may have homed in on it. Jazmin is ebullient and infectious, like both good banda and good dance pop are. But like her paradigm-challenging predecessor Yolanda Perez, the savvy Ms. Lopez also manages to work in more mainstream pop elements, intertwining her husky "Oo! Oo!"s and throaty vocals with R&B flourishes ("La Carcacha") and hip-hop beats ("Tu").

Further Listening
Playlist: Jazmin Lopez Picks the Hits, a playlist of her inspirations and favorites

Michael Jackson passed away on Thursday, June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. The monumental loss has been felt around the world. Jackson was a prodigiously talented singer and dancer -- an icon that transcended borders, race and age. Beginning in 1969 with the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson loomed over the pop landscape like no one before. Thriller, Off The Wall and Bad rank as three of the greatest pop albums of all time. But more than just the music, Jackson understood the value of spectacle in pop entertainment, and his own life took on a mythical quality. Sure, the fall in the '90s was fast and hard, but Rhapsody would like to take this moment to remember the numerous career highlights from the King of Pop.

	LISTEN: Michael Jackson’s pinnacle, the unforgettable Thriller		PLAY: MJ’s best songs not on Thriller
	REMEMBER: Our Editors reflect on the man, the music and his legacy		FAMILY: The greatest music from the Jackson clan
	DISCOVER: Songs from Aaliyah, Jay-Z, Kanye and Bjork that sampled MJ		READ: The Top 25 Pop Albums of the 1980s

On the Record is a video series where rockstars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. Born On Flag Day was released on June 23rd.

ARTIST: Deer Tick RECORD: In Utero

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Lemmy on the Beatles and more in the rest of our On the Record series.

Diplo

Tricky

Tom Morello

Tori Amos