Imagine a different Eighties: The Replacements made Born in the USA, Hüsker Dü were Hulk Hogan's entrance music, and indie rock was the keggercrushing choice of Top Gun America. On their second LP, Vancouver drums-guitar duo Japandroids sing about lost youth and sex and drinking atop hammer-of-the-geeks distortion swirls and holler-along refrains a gorilla could pump some paw to. It's just eight songs (including a scorchedearth oldie by Eighties L.A. garage scumbos the Gun Club), but 'Roids singer-guitarist Brian King doesn't need much time to make their point: "She'll kiss away your gypsy fears/And turn some restless nights to restless years."

Listen to 'Celebration Rock':

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“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."