This excellent solo record by My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel is a rare thing: a woodsy little indie-folk record that refuses to brood. On All Birds Say, Broemel spreads cheer with every pluck of his acoustic guitar, singing short, endearingly sweet songs about love, nature, drinking wine and other worthy topics. Broemel writes hooks that sneak up on you through simple singsong melodies. His lyrics sound like hippie beatitudes: "Everybody's on the way/Whether or not they know it. . . . /There is space in the garden." Even his come-ons are beatific. "Let's go home and be friends," he chirps in "Heaven Knows." And then he bursts into a whistling solo.

“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."