Taylor Swift, alt-country hipster? Hearing is believing, and on this first cut from The Hunger Games soundtrack, Swift sounds the part, cooing a lover's lullaby over stark folk-twang accompaniment (courtesy of T-Bone Burnett), with harmony vocals from indie sweethearts The Civil Wars. Whether this is a one-off novelty, a trial balloon cred-move, or the stirrings of a "grown-up" style remains to be seen. In any case, it's Swift's prettiest ballad.

Listen to "Safe and Sound": 

Related
• Listen: Taylor Swift's 'Hunger Games' Ballad 'Safe and Sound'
• Taylor Swift: A History in Photos

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."