Every rose has its thorn, and every airport bar has its 22-year-old divorcee. But not every album has two songs from different reality shows starring Bret Michaels, or the theme from the prison movie he wrote, directed and starred in. Only Bret Michaels albums have those things. Michaels is an earnest doer, the kind of guy who's working on his bucket list long before the paramedics get him on the gurney. Sure, each time his third solo album recapitulates (or rerecords) "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," it's like the sad cowboy is getting trampled by his horse. But Miley Cyrus brightens up the cellphone-waver "Nothing to Lose," and Michaels' cover of Sublime's "What I Got" rings with survivor's pride.

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.