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Bolstering his eclectic, avant-pop provocations with cinematic compositional prowess, electronic music's own Serge Gainsbourg designs a neo-R&B concept album about sex.

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It would take an act of genius for a new British dance-rock band to seem original four years after the debut of an already quotation-conscious Franz Ferdinand. Nicking from Talking Heads and beyond ("On Board" lifts a synth riff via Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle's house track "Your Love"), these suburban lads make no such claims.

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Leader Emanuel Lundgren tussles with sophomore jitters on the shorter, spottier sequel to his 29-member indie-pop band’s beautiful 2006 debut. He’s a softer yet more confident singer on grand ballads like "Andy," and his choir now adorns rather than simply bolsters him.

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This entrancing Norwegian singer-songwriter evokes a haunted Dolly Parton minus the drawl. Her songs can be simply devastating, and at other times, oddly reassuring. Touching on elemental fears and desires, Changing of the Seasons rewards intimate listening -- in the final verse of the title track, a lover’s embrace suddenly silences any thoughts of straying.

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Having paired with future Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson back in 2001, this Prince-approved dynamo is so ahead of the white-chick, retro-soul bandwagon that she's already celebrating her freedom from major-label shackles.

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The seeds of pop music's future were sown when African Americans cultivated early-'80s European synth pop and developed the DIY disco of hip-hop, house, and today's digitized R&B. Yet, bizarrely, there's never been a black Eurythmics. J*DaVeY fills that vacuum and then some.