By the Light of the Moon

The first incarnation of Beverly Hills 90210 featured a 1994 episode that was as rocking as it was weird – the Flaming Lips showed up to play “She Don’t Use Jelly.” Frontman Wayne Coyne admits that their intentions were purely ironic, but the band was easily the coolest music act to appear on the show. In the second incarnation of 90210, the newer cast of spoiled rich kids still incestuously dates and fights, but the music is a bit more varied, witness this more than decent mix of songs. For starters, nouveau garage rockers Jet deliver a song other than “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” — the less catchy but much tougher “One Hipster One Bullit” actually kind of rocks if you ignore the lyrics wherein hipsters make fun of hipsters in a Brooklyn-via-Melbourne-styled hipster denial. Anberlin provide a stylish little ballad in the endearingly melodramatic “A Perfect Tourniquet” and N.E.R.D. team up with Santigold to make for a hit that’s as quirky as it is catchy. But the coolest collaboration here is Adele lending her sultry and soulful inflections to the Raconteurs on a smoky rendition of their “Many Shades of Black.”