Viral video-stars-turned-major-label recording artists Karmin (real-life couple Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan) have a great back-story. They also have one of the most aggressively obnoxious debut albums in recent memory. The Boston duo burst to prominence with peppy-precious electro covers of Lil Wayne and Chris Brown; for Hello they teamed with heavy-hitting songwriter-producers like Stargate. But the shtick is the same, as the pair retain a self-conscious "goofiness" that suggests the whole thing is a joke. Some of it is catchy – "Brokenhearted" has an irrefutable hook – but Heidemann’s daffiness and horrendous rapping spoil the broth every time. Karmin can make you hate pop music.

Listen to Karmin's 'Hello':

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• Who is Karmin? From YouTube Stardom to 'Saturday Night Live'

“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."