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Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head
People
August 2002
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Fame is treating Coldplay well: gigs opening for U2, celebrity fans like Gwyneth Paltrow and Grammy for best alternative music album for the Brit quartet’s shimmering 2000 debut, Parachutes. Luckily, as this textured, understated follow-up demonstrates, success hasn’t gone to the heads of former University City College London chums Chris Martin, Will Champion, Guy Berryman and Jonny Buckland.
Toning down the Radiohead-iness, Coldplay creates moments of absolute poetry on Rush, blending moody guitars and bass, subtle percussion and emphatic keyboards …

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Korn: Untouchables
People
June 2002
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On this follow-up to 1999’s multi-platinum Issues, Korn remains the cream of the genre it pioneered: an emotionally cathartic brand of alt-metal incorporating hip-hop influences. “Here to Stay,” the disc’s feedback-heavy first single, already dominating rock charts with its goth choruses and angry lyrics, belongs on the soundtrack of an Anne Rice film adaptation. Which is fitting, considering front man Jonathan Davis scored for last year’s Queen of the Damned.
Davis, a former assistant coroner, has been the guiding force behind Korn’s raging confessionals about alienation …

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Avril Lavigne: Let Go
People
June 2002
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Thanks to her catchy, guitar-driven single “Complicated,” Lavigne, 17, is poised to be the next teen-pop princess. But unlike her more mature counterparts Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, she’s not in any big hurry to ditch adolescence. Lavigne laces this fun debut with charming punk attitude on youthful cuts like “Sk8er Boi,” about not judging a boy by his clothes.
While Lavigne may be young, she’s not that innocent. One moment she’s coyly sexy, the next she’s irreparably wounded. With a malleable alto that slips …

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Amanda Ghost: Ghost Stories
People
September 2000
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Make way for the protégée. Everyone from buddy Boy George to UK record exec Andrew Wickham (who signed Joni Mitchell) is claiming credit for discovering Ghost (nee Gosein), a London-based singer-songwriter of Indian and Spanish descent. And with good reason.
Ghost, 25, is a wunderkind of the Fiona Apple variety, with a throaty, aggressive alto and eclectic songwriting style that reflects her sense of displacement. On the club-ready “Filthy Mind” she spits out bitter come-hither commands (“Could you make a suggestion/ For an act …