As Drake and Kanye West have demonstrated, there's room in hip-hop for melancholic MCs who upend the self-congratulation that dominates the genre. The problem with Kid Cudi is that, since his hypnotic breakout single, "Day 'N' Nite," he's grown rote in his self-pity and flat as a singer: "These worries are heavy, they rest on my shoulders," he repeats in his hypomelodic baritone on "These Worries." "The darkness, yeah, I'd like to marry it," goes a line from "Maniac." His second album features dramatic, breathtakingly stark production by Emile and Plain Pat ("Wild'n Cuz I'm Young," riddled with sonar-style beeps, kills), but where Cudi fancies himself a deep downer, too often he's kind of a bore.

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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.’”