Die Antwoord are rap's new aliens: a trio of "zef" (i.e., white trash) South Africans led by an MC with a craggy, off-his-meds flow and a pipsqueak hype girl with a crazy mullet. Their major-label debut piles up techno beats, Afrikaans lyrics and choruses that sound like warped schoolyard chants, peaking with the intense and addictive "Enter the Ninja" — whose machine-gun rhymes and surreal singsong hooks suggest Eminem's "Lose Yourself" on crank. Elsewhere, Die Antwoord get stuck in mediocre porn-rap, rhyming about ejaculating in champagne glasses and chicks with dicks. The overall effect is sort of like watching freak-show performers who haven't figured out how to maximize their talents.

Related Meet Die Antwoord in the 2010 Hot Issue

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."