The reunion of the original Quicksilver Messenger Service (plus Dino Valenti, who didn't appear on their earliest efforts) is one contradiction after another. Though much of the arranging is dull and unvaried, when the inimitable John Cipollina lets loose his stinging, tremoloed guitar, the band is at its finest.

Quicksilver still revels in crisp rhythm guitar and the avoidance of distortion. Several of Solid Silver's songs, however, are just a few basic chords played beneath obscure melodies. On the other hand, David Freiberg's "I Heard You Singing" and Cipollina-Valenti's "Flames" are rich and emotive. But on his own Valenti becomes musically and lyrically clichéd, as in "Cowboy on the Run," a naive flowerchildlike anthem. On the basis of this release, Quicksilver's regrouping is more a personal celebration than a musical one.

“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."