Breakups tend to bring out the best and worst in singer-songwriters. Unfortunately, Sarah McLachlan's first disc since splitting from her husband, Ashwin Sood, feels scattered: The carefree single "Loving You Is Easy" feels out of place. The rest alternates between vulnerability and bitterness, using the same sighs and moans with which she used to convey ecstasy. Producer Pierre Marchand strips away the gauzy instrumental layers of her old discs, but without them, her heavy-handedness is exposed.

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."