Sara Bareilles

On her breakthrough single a couple of years ago, Sara Bareilles insisted she wasn't going to write us a love song. So what does she go and do on her new album, Kaleidoscope Heart? Yep, you guessed it: She writes a love song. A bunch of them, in fact. But the 30-year-old singer-songwriter finds ways to turn most of the cuts into three-minute explosions of candy-colored pop, with swirling strings and occasional vocal aerobics guiding the way. But she's still best with a little bite. Heart's most mixtape-worthy song, "King of Anything," straddles the line much like "Love Song": It could be about her boyfriend, or it could be about her record company. Either way, it's all piano-pop sunshine, with only the slightest chance of clouds.