The beautiful losers that populate Brandon Flowers' songs haven't got it easy. When they're not "playing with fire . . . out on a wire" ("Playing With Fire"), they're "caught up in the crossfire of heaven and hell" ("Crossfire"). As lead singer and main songwriter for the Killers, Flowers has become our staunchest Born to Run-era Bruce Springsteen revivalist, and on his first album as a solo artist he pumps up the pomp, delivering surging synth-rock crescendos and belting out lyrics like "Woke up in the rusted frame of a burned-out old DeVille" ("Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas"). It would be laughable if Flowers wasn't 100 percent committed, and if the hooks on Flamingo weren't irresistible. He is, and they are — and you'll be too busy singing along to giggle.

“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."