Chris Brown is a sixteen-year-old Virginia soulster riding a hot single, "Run It!," a de-crunked "Yeah!" that gets by thanks to a slinky synth beat and the mix of smooth seduction and cunning come-ons in Brown's baby-mack vocals. The rest of his debut is less provocative — full of puppy-love heartache and doe-eyed laments about being too young to hit the club, Chris Brown is innocuous enough for the Teen People set, which is part of the problem. Brown's voice suggests both Usher and a young Jacko, but his charms are often lost in the album's plush, listless production and undercooked songs.

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."