Phillip Phillips, "Behind the Light"

Atlantic Records

Coldplay’s Chris Martin and his actress wife Gwyneth Paltrow could have saved the “conscious uncoupling” announcement and simply let the band’s new “Ghost Stories” album serve notice of their breakup.

All nine of the songs here are tinged with loneliness and heartbreak. And the band’s move toward the icier end of EDM only magnifies the chill of Martin’s lyrics.

“Flock of birds, hovering above, just a flock of birds, that’s how you think of love,” he sings in “O.” In the lament “True Love,” Martin muses, “For a second I was in control, I had it once. I lost it though.” On “Ink,” he worries that he “feels like something broken inside” and later that “all I know is that I love you so, so much that it hurts.”

While the rest of Coldplay tries to support Martin with a stunningly spare, well-produced musical backdrop, the sadness eventually overwhelms them, too. Only “Magic,” with its looping bass-and-drum background, and the soaring “Sky Full of Stars,” with its pop-leaning dance beat, are able to escape the feeling of doom.

“Sky Full of Stars” is the closest thing to what people have come to expect from Coldplay, an anthem that outlines a problem but ends up soaring. However, it’s clear from “Ghost Stories” that Martin just doesn’t have that kind of energy this time around.

For some artists, heartbreak is inspirational. For Martin, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

— Glenn Gamboa, Newsday

Phillip Phillips

“BEHIND THE LIGHT”

Interscope Records

Phillip Phillips takes a giant leap forward on his sophomore album, “Behind the Light,” without abandoning the formula that landed him the smash hit “Home” and made him the biggest “American Idol” success since Carrie Underwood. His updating of Dave Matthews-like musicianship and rock crooning combined with Mumford & Sons’ driving, thump-oriented folk is as winning as ever.

The first single, “Raging Fire,” shows how he’s mastered that combination, as do a string of radio-friendly anthems such as ?Midnight Sun” and “Alive Again Me.” But it’s the bluesier, more experimental numbers such as “Thicket” and “Trigger” where “Behind the Light” really starts to shine.

— Glenn Gamboa, Newsday

Jolie Holland

“Wine Dark Sea”

ANTI- Records

Ten years into a recording career that has yielded five albums, Jolie Holland has before toyed with American musical forms: the jazz-tinged “Springtime Can Kill You” from 2006 gave way to the country patina of 2008’s “The Living and the Dead” which begat the lo-fi collection of set poems on 2011’s “Pint of Blood,” with her band The Grand Chandeliers subtly filling in the spaces. Distilling these elements with an infusion of blues, soul and avant-garde energy, Holland ups the decibels on her latest album “Wine Dark Sea.”

Made with an ensemble cast of musicians from New York’s experimental music scene, including two drummers, a quartet of guitars, squawking horns and woodwinds, “Wine Dark Sea” begins with a rumble of fuzz and feedback on the intentionally maudlin opener, “On and On.” Holland then plunks into the cold piano jazz of “First Signs of Spring” before lamenting lost love on the meandering blues of “Dark Days,” with its trembling, climactic guitar squalls.

Holland’s musical influences shine through on “Wine Dark Sea.” It’s unafraid experimentation speaks to the compositions of John Cage, the broad and varied styles of Nina Simone, the casual indifference of Tom Waits and most notably the Staple Singers on the album closer, “Waiting for the Sun.” In a state of repose amidst a slinking bass line, Holland chides with the brashness of Mavis Staples before giving way to her band to darken the proceedings in an unhurried storm of hybrid soul-funk commotion. Produced by Holland, “Wine Dark Sea” is a triumph of artistic growth and ambition.

ON TOUR: June 14 — Star Theater, Portland; www.startheaterportland.com or 503-345-7892.

Aug. 1-3 — Pickathon; Pendarvis Farm, Happy Valley; www.pickathon.com.

— Eric Risch,

PopMatters.com

Yann Tiersen

“ ∞ ”

Mute Records

Yann Tiersen’s new record “∞” is a perfect example of his tendency toward the atmospheric. It is also one of his strongest records to date.

One hears the chilly wind of the North Sea whipping around this music, causing its scarf to flutter out behind it. Tiersen lives on a remote rocky Breton island, and much of “∞” was recorded in Iceland, but the listener does not even really need to be told this.

The music itself conjures up images of dark, foreboding seascapes and rocky crags, with large, exotic seabirds swooping around the notes.

Over the course of the last three decades or so, Icelandic musicians have become specialists in electro-acoustic music, fusing warm synthetic sounds with Western classical and folk traditions to great effect.

Tiersen has been straining toward an electro-acoustic marriage of this kind for some time. On his previous release, 2011’s “Skyline,” he presented a dense wall of synthesizers that, while excellent, did not sound much like his earlier work. On “∞,” he sounds like both the musician that made “Skyline” and the musician who created the “Amélie” soundtrack. The results are dark, textured and hauntingly beautiful.

ON TOUR: June 15 — Wonder Ballroom, Portland; www.ticketfly.com or 877-435-9849.

— Benjamin Hedge Olson,

PopMatters.com