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Kanye West
“All Day”
G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam
After ballads with Rihanna and Paul McCartney, it was easy to think West, fresh off marriage, fatherhood and fashion shows, had gone soft. But “All Day” is Kanye at his most unapologetically brash, over machine-gun snares and hints of Yeezus‘ brooding synths. The rhymes are nimble and quotable — look for Sade to get a fan-boy sales bump. –Alex Gale
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Zedd Featuring Selena Gomez
“I Want You To Know”
Interscope
Dance-pop often works best when it’s filled with ecstatic payoffs, but the debut collaboration between rumored lovebirds Gomez and DJ-producer wunderkind Zedd fails to offer anything that satiates. “I Want You to Know” never finds its footing, and never rises above the cliched EDM formula it follows to a T. –Dan Hyman
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Kacey Musgraves
“Biscuits”
Mercury Records Nashville
Honey-voiced country straight-shooter Musgraves doesn’t stray from her tell-it-like-it-is formula on “Biscuits,” the first single off her upcoming LP. A pseudo sequel to “Follow Your Arrow,” the jangly song encourages listeners to keep negativity to themselves: “Mind your own biscuits, and life will be gravy.” Luckily, there’s little to criticize about this peppy instructional. –Steven J. Horowitz
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Carly Rae Jepsen
“I Really Like You”
Schoolboy/Interscope
Following up the cultural ubiquity of “Call Me Maybe” is no easy task: Just look at the poor commercial performance of its 2012 parent album, the sorely underrated Kiss. But Jepsen comes close with “I Really Like You,” co-written by The Cardigans’ Peter Svensson and J. Kash. With a sugary, fluorescent ’80s sheen similar to that which coated Taylor Swift’s 1989, the song explodes into another instantly memorable chorus. One-hit wonder? Maybe not much longer. –Steven J. Horowitz
This story originally appeared in the March 14 issue of Billboard.