Dry the River take their music so seriously, even Sting would giggle. The debut from this London five-piece, who've gotten loads of Mumford & Sons comparisons, shouts "We're intense!" at every moment – especially in the trembling falsetto of former choirboy Peter Liddle. He crams his tales of spiritual torment with biblical and agrarian imagery (oxen, a woodcutter) as the music, played in shifting rhythms, rises like – well, it can't rise because it's always at a full-on peak, especially when joined by the group's violinist, who is, alas, classically trained. It's like a Portlandia satire of the world's most studious band.

Listen to "Weights & Measures":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.