10 Songs Worth at Least 99 Cents

By Josh Tyrangiel

Albums are inconsiderate things. To hear them, you need an hour's worth of your crowded life, not including the time it takes to penetrate the layers of security stickers. Singles, barely sold in record stores anymore but making up the vast majority of downloads, ask for only three good minutes. Here are 10 songs guaranteed to thrill for half an hour or so.

AL GREEN

YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

Joe Cocker covered this song in melodrama, which makes Green's restoration effort more amazing. Producer Willie Mitchell eschews preciousness and finds a tender little groove, while the Rev undersings at all the right moments. Green has turned trash into gold before (the Bee Gees' How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?), but this time he tops himself.

SHOUT OUT LOUDS

VERY LOUD

Singer Adam Olenius broadcasts his influences with his vocal cords (the Cure's Robert Smith and U2's Bono), but his swing from nonchalant weariness to faint glimmer of hope on this up-tempo heartbreak tune is so winning it almost sounds new.

AKON

LONELY

Senegal-born, U.S.-raised Akon starts his tale of abandonment with typical woe. Then the chorus--a sample of Bobby Vinton's Mr. Lonely, played at Chipmunk speed--arrives, and the song turns into a joke about self-pity. A rare R&B hit with a hint of self-awareness.

GOLDIE LOOKIN' CHAIN

SELF SUICIDE

The funniest thing by this intentionally moronic group straight outta Cardiff (yes, it's Welsh hip-hop) celebrates the commercial benefits of suicide with a jaunty clarinet sample and lyrics ("Committed suicide to enhance me career/ it worked for Biggie and Tupac Shakeer") citing people who were actually killed.

BRAZILIAN GIRLS

DON'T STOP

None of them are Brazilian, and only one is a girl, but this foursome uses bossa nova, reggae, lounge and any teasing rhythm to create a dance track you might actually dance to.

50 CENT

CANDY SHOP

For a guy who once sparked a rap feud by accusing Ja Rule of being too soft, Fitty engages Olivia in a whispery duet about mutual satisfaction, built on a slithering Middle Eastern keyboard riff that makes him sound awfully, uh, considerate.

BLOC PARTY

HELICOPTER

While aspiring to postpunk art-house dance music, Bloc Party wisely refuses to let its genre fixations get in the way of tunefulness. There's an actual melody here, and a good one, driven on by the manic playing of Matt Tong, rock's best new drummer in years.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

DEVILS & DUST

The title track from the Boss's upcoming album starts with a gentle acoustic strum, gains steam on the backs of evocative nouns (blood, stone, bone) and peaks with a harmonica solo. It's nothing new, which is to say, it's very good.

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT

BLOODY MOTHER F******* A******

The dry, ecstatic voice is a legacy of papa Loudon and mama Kate McGarrigle, but the talent for profanity is all her own. This roar of a song is further proof that a girl and a guitar can be just as menacing as a guy and a gun.

MEI-LWUN

SWEET HOME COUNTRY GRAMMAR

Mash-ups--the marriage of a vocal from one song with the music bed from another--no longer sound so revolutionary as they did when they first conquered the Internet, but the unlikely pairing of Lynyrd Skynyrd's riff and Nelly's spliffs improves both. --By Josh Tyrangiel