On their debut, this shaggy quartet conjure classic West Coast folk rock like they were baptized by David Crosby and reared by the members of Love. The guitars on Modern Rituals are mostly electric, but the sound is slow-rolling and slightly surreal. Chief pile up lush, profoundly stoned harmonies on songs like 'Night & Day,' a minor-key lament where Evan Koga tells a lover (or the ghost of one) that 'I just can't see your face, every night and day.' Modern Rituals is pretty stuff, but tunes like the soft-rock daydream 'This Land' float by somewhat shapelessly, and Chief could learn something from fellow California nostalgics Best Coast: Atmosphere is great, but so are sprightliness and hooks.

“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."