"Me and my different drummer/He play the timpanis," Lupe Fiasco raps on his third disc. Dude's not kidding. Few rappers this side of his fellow Chicagoan Kanye West bring left-field bombast like the man born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco. His last disc, 2007's The Cool, was a 70-minute quasi-concept album about the search for sociopolitical realness in a fallen gangsta world that still managed to give him a hit (the anti-stardom "Superstar"). The long-awaited follow-up, Lasers, is shorter, brighter and — most admirably — more optimistic. It places Lupe in a tradition that runs from Marley to M.I.A.: the soul rebel who refuses to believe righteous struggle has to be a grind. "Just listening to 'Pac ain't gonna make it stop," he raps. "The Show Goes On" cleverly reworks the chorus from Modest Mouse's "Float On" for an inspirational missive to global ghetto kids, and John Legend adds R&B honey to the otherwise somber "Never Forget You." Lupe's beats run from Nineties buoyancy to driving rap rock, but his most exciting tracks are operatic brawlers that give his athletic, whiplash flow and rich imagination room to move. "All Black Everything" isn't just utopian, it's hilarious too, visualizing a world where MLK is still with us, Bill O'Reilly reads from the Koran, "Somalia's a great place to relax in. . . . [And] the Rat Pack was a cool group of black men." A guy can dream.

Listen to "The Show Goes On":

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“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”