When things fall apart

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What becomes of the brokenhearted

At the moment, there are two distinctive versions of The Love Language -- live versus studio.

The studio version is a one-man band singing torch songs of almost unbearable sadness. The live version is a raucous six-piece band with multiple keyboardists and guitarists who makes those songs sound almost jaunty.

Understand, both incarnations are mighty fine.

Has the pop, needs some buzz

Brendan Benson has been cranking out brilliant pieces of ornate popcraft for years. But the third track on his new album still stands out. The arrangement brings old-school Motown to mind, with a surging bed of strings. And it accompanies a torch-song tale of heartbreak that's ... well, a little twisted:

If she throws her heart away

I'll be there on garbage day

Sound Affects: Music reviews and ratings

Massive Attack - "Heligoland (Virgin) (rating 6 out of 10)

Massive Attack managed three game-changing albums, but it's been 12 years since the last one, "Mezzanine." By 2003's underwhelming "100th Window," Massive Attack was a band in name only, Robert Del Naja, aka 3D, having asserted his dominance so effectively that the other two members quit. Not coincidentally, the music, though well-produced as always, was a threadbare and somewhat embarrassing attempt to capture a gravitas that seemed to be gone for good.

But then original member Daddy G returned, and 2006 single "Live with Me" effectively found the lost magic, if not the innovation. All this makes "Heligoland" a pretty pivotal album, with high hopes riding on its shoulders. Yet even before you hear a note, it has trappings of a disappointment. Its creation was labored, spread over much time and several studios. An initial version of the album was scrapped at the 11th hour. The list of guest vocalists, though impressive, seems like a grab for attention

Keeping her boots firmly planted

Metaphorically speaking, Sarah Borges has traded in her cowboy boots for rockin' shoes. Her new album "The Stars Are Out" (Sugar Hill Records) starts out with a blast of Joan Jett-styled rock belligerence and proceeds from there with much rock, not much country -- in marked contrast to her first two albums, which were grounded in honky-tonk twang.

Literally speaking, Borges just can't bear to tamper with a wardrobe routine that has worked well for years. So even though she's in more of a rock frame of mind nowadays, she'll still have her trusty cowboy boots on when she plays Raleigh's Berkeley Cafe on Tuesday.

"I'm really superstitious about what I wear when I play, which has been a problem in the past," she says, calling from Seattle. "You just can't wash things as much as you'd like on tour, for one thing. But I'm still wearing the boots. I never wore them to try and be 'The Alt-Country Lady,' they're just what I normally wear. I need to get some spurs or spikes or something to embellish them, because

Coldplay is the rare act these days

There's a lot of gloomy, end-of-times talk in the record business these days about the death of the industry. Fewer and fewer new acts break through every year, and the ones that do never seem to have any staying power.

But that paradigm doesn't apply to Coldplay, which plays Thursday in Raleigh. At a time when "gold is the new platinum," this British quartet still moves tonnage that recalls the industry's glory days. Last year's "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" (Capitol Records), Coldplay's fourth album, has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide -- easily the top-selling album of 2008.

Somehow, Coldplay has emerged as The Last Big Band, combining mainstream popularity with industry respect and widespread (though not unanimous) critical acclaim. Similar to Fleetwood Mac in the '70s, U2 in the '80s or R.E.M. in the '90s, Coldplay has become one of those omnipresent consensus bands whose lyrics get scribbled in yearbooks.