Despite their roots on the scrappy New York post-punk-revival scene of the early 2000s, the Walkmen's sweeping visions often imply wide-open spaces, or at least the skyscraper diaspora as the Grand Canyon. On Lisbon's opening track, "Juveniles," singer Hamilton Leithauser proclaims, "The country air is good for me," over a loping drum bash and elegiac bluesy-U2 guitar. "Angela Surf City" and "Woe Is Me" are similarly expansive rockers, and there's a touch of down-home Rod Stewart in Leithauser's grungy crooning. Yet sometimes the Walkmen's anthemic naturalism wanders without much direction ("While I Shovel the Snow" is about as much fun as, well, shoveling snow), and their echo-laden illuminations are at times all sky and no solid ground.

“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."