L.A.'s Local Natives take you to the beach and cry in your umbrella drink. Their blindingly bright washes of CSNY harmonies and wide-spiral psychedelia can recall Grizzly Bear or Fleet Foxes. But there’s an undercurrent of stormy emotionalism that really comes out on the band’s second album. Kelcey Ayer vents pillowy angst in vivid detail as minimalist synth surges and push-pull drum rumble rough up his dove-winged melodies. Local Natives recorded Hummingbird in New York with Aaron Dessner of the National co-producing, because the band found L.A. "too nice." Good move: Some New York grit clearly helped keep them down-to-earth.

“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.