In 2009, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Pete Yorn released a collaboration with Omaha tunesmith Mike Mogis and a disc of duets with Scarlett Johansson. His latest, a team-up with Pixies leader Frank Black recorded in just five days, is the most appealing of the three: a stripped-raw set of guitar-driven stompers sung in a direct, desperate yowl. "Paradise Cove I" and "Always" chug along with a Nineties alt-rock flair, though Yorn saves room for gentler tunes like the lovelorn, acoustic-strummed "Stronger Than." But while Black may have brought out Yorn's inner rocker, he hasn't transformed him into a poet: "Rock crowd, throw your arms around me," he sings earnestly on "Rock Crowd." "I feel glad when y'all surround me."

See the hottest live shots of the week

“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.’”