Click to Listen to The Strokes' "Under Cover of Darkness"

The lead single from the first new Strokes record in five years barrels into the bar with "Return to Form" written on its forehead. "Under Cover of Darkness" (set to be released February 9th on the band's website) takes the basic elements of their sound, breaks it down, builds it back up and expands it: the skinny-tie boogie bounce of "Last Nite," wave after wave of cute and sharp interlocking guitar, and a grand, gaping chorus where Julian Casablancas torments his vowels like he's got them trapped in his secret basement laboratory. The band members even throw in tricky tempo changes and a weird, slow breakdown just to show us they've been woodshedding. "I've been all around this town/Everybody's been singing the same song for 10 years," Casablancas observes. So the Strokes give us that same old song one more time, primed and polished for a new age.    

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“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."