Can a folk warbler be a pop diva? The debut album by singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding proves that the answer is yes. Goulding, from Hereford, England, has a classic British folkie's voice — the kind of tremulous soprano that evokes a wintry day on a fog-swaddled moor. But Lights places her vocals and minor-key melodies against producer Starsmith's club-ready mix of synths and brisk, busy electro rhythms. The results are moody ("Lights"), pretty (the Top Five U.K. hit "Starry Eyed") and uniformly catchy. On first listen, Goulding can sound innocuous: Dido with dancier beats. But there's darkness here. And lots of sex. "I will take away my feelings/I will be an animal," she sings, and you believe her.

Listen to "Starry Eyed":

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“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"