"Biophilia"

Björk's seventh album hits stores Tuesday as not just a collection of MP3s or a compact disc. The best way to experience "Biophilia" is to download it as a free iPad, iTouch or iPhone app, then purchase apps for the individual tunes. In this way, you not only get an animated version of evanescent songs with nature-oriented names such as "Solstice" and "Virus" but you also get a game that allows players to manipulate musical elements, a vocal-less score for esoteric karaoke nights, an essay explaining the history and meaning of each tune and, yes, lyrics. These are liner notes to the nth degree.

Leave it to Björk Gudmundsdóttir — punk-rock wild child, early-bird adapter, Icelandic imagineer — to mine the multitudinous possibilities of information-rich gadgetry and reinvent the album as a transformative transmedia experience.