California club pop chirper Dev’s debut is as stark as it is sweet. This is owed partly to the casually giddy lightness of her talk-singing – familiar from her slizzered 2010 cameo on Far East Movement’s smash "Like a G6," and around-the way-girl frisky like 1980s Latin freestyle. Escaping her smalltown in "Getaway," Dev opens her album braving the unknown. From there, the Cataracs’ stripped-bare basement electro production ensures the darkness she’s dancing into feels exhilarating and disruptive."No Scrabble game night,"she warns, but her bass is down low and a thump's in her trunk – disco lives, and Dev will survive.

Listen To Dev's "In My Trunk":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.