The $50 Guide

Robert Hilburn’s guide to keeping up with the best in pop music on an album budget of $50 per month.

June

The Go! Team’s

“Thunder, Lightning, Strike” (Memphis Enterprises -- import only)

This new British outfit conveys some of the fun-loving, chaotic spirit (though not emotional depth) of Arcade Fire’s live show. It’s as if the Team has so many ideas for every song that it just shoves them all into each track, leaving it up to us to make sense of it all. It sometimes doesn’t even get around to lyrics, but you won’t miss them because the instrumental numbers are simply delicious. You’ll find echoes of Link Wray rockabilly, Blondie charm and Looney Tunes exuberance in the electronica exercise. The CD will be released in the U.S. by Columbia on Sept. 27.

Bruce Springsteen’s

“Devils & Dust” (Columbia)

If Springsteen made only mostly acoustic solo albums like this and “Nebraska,” he would never have been able to fill stadiums or be called the Boss. Yet in these quieter moments, he has given us a body of work that is often as inspiring as the best of his rock ‘n’ roll energy. Some of the songs are slight, but the best -- including “Reno,” “Jesus Was an Only Son” and “Maria’s Bed” -- are portraits of troubled souls that are as graceful and penetrating as anything he has done.

The White Stripes’

“Get Behind Me Satan”

(Third Man/V2)

Lots of Stripes fans have been confused by Jack White’s move away from the trademark guitar assault of “Elephant,” but this album is the most idea-driven of any Stripes CD. “My Doorbell,” “Forever for Her (Is Over for Me),” “As Ugly as I Seem” and “Take, Take, Take,” among other psychological studies, are stone classics. In these and other sometimes shattering looks at innocence and betrayal, White is more personal, provocative and unpredictable than ever. An album-of-the-year front-runner.

July

Antony and the Johnsons’

“I Am a Bird Now” (Strictly Canadian)

Some vocalists are striking enough to make you reach over and turn up the volume if you hear them for the first time on the radio. Others are so uniquely compelling that you are tempted to pull the car to the side of the road so you can focus fully on them. Antony fits in the latter class. The most immediate comparison is the delicate, ethereal style of jazz singer Jimmy Scott, though there’s also a trace of Tim Hardin’s vocal quiver and Marlene Dietrich’s seductiveness in Antony’s style. The New York-based artist also writes songs with mystery and gender-bending twists.

Coldplay’s

“X&Y;” (Capitol)

Not everything in this British band’s third album would catch your ear on the radio, much less make you pull the car over. Yet the highlights -- from the beautifully vulnerable “What If” to the exquisitely tender “Fix You” -- are so simply enchanting that you might want to sit down with someone you love and listen to them together. All this talk about Coldplay being the new U2 is clearly premature. It hasn’t come close to the depth and imagination of “One,” but “ ‘Til Kingdom Comes” may just be its “With or Without You.”

System of a Down’s

“Mezmerize” (American/Columbia)

Even more than Audioslave, this L.A. band seems to have inherited the mantle of Rage Against the Machine. There’s a similar aggressive social comment, but it’s Down’s blistering sonic design that makes the music truly mesmerizing. Well aware that metal fury alone has its limits, System brightens the music by dropping in all sorts of wildly unexpected, lighthearted, Zappalike vocal and instrumental touches that can make you laugh out loud.