Pandora apps for Windows Phone are like mystical creatures. A few have popped up in the Marketplace, but then they disappear again. Unfortunately Pandora is mum on the subject of an official app, so we’re on our own to make a replacement. The awesome dev community has come through for us once again with “Radio Controlled.” This is a third party Pandora app that will satisfy even the most avid Pandora users.

Radio Controlled has been submitted to the Marketplace and will be available for everyone very soon. The version we used in this preview is nearly identical to what will be available in the Marketplace.

The image to the left shows the ‘now playing’ screen that you will see most of the time. The album art acts as a live tile. It flips to show more song info like artist and album, and slides down to show the name of the song. Tapping the album art will take you to a screen with more info and buying options. Under the song info is row of five album covers that show the two previous songs, current song, and two upcoming songs. Last but not least is the controls across the bottom for play/pause, skip, stations, and about.