On her hit second album, this Canadian-Guyanese singer shows she's a multidimensional diva. Melanie Fiona belts her way through "Wrong Side of a Love Song," where her supple voice is framed by organ and string flourishes; "Watch Me Work" is hard funk with trashy-riffing guitar; and "Can't Say I Never Loved You" spools a lost-love lament around a gentle ukulele strum. (Even when she's sad, she's innovating.) Big-name guests like Nas ("Running") and John Legend ("L.O.V.E.") accentuate Fiona's strengths instead of overshadowing them, a testament to her supreme confidence.

Listen to "Can't Say I Never Loved You":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.