Are you homely, like "Mary," who "never won a pageant"? Or angry, like "Adam," who "grew up mad and anti-social"? K’naan and Nelly Furtado are here to raise your self-esteem: "This is for everyone who felt invisible," the Canadian hip-pop aristocracy beckon. Early front-runner for 2012’s most dispiriting pop pep talk.

Listen To K'naan feat. Nelly Furtado's "Is Anybody Out There": 

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Let My Love Open the Door”

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."