Rjd2 threatened to make his second CD sound like Blue Cheer just to avoid all those pesky DJ Shadow comparisons, but on "Through the Walls" he strikes a logical compromise: Rick Springfield. Here, clipped and palm-muted guitar chords are pure "Jessie's Girl", and lovelorn-geek-done-wrong-but-somehow-happy-about-it lyrical melodrama is pure, well... Ric Ocasek. Originally a corny but weirdly thrilling highlight of Rj's spring sophomore disc Since We Last Spoke, "Walls" has resurfaced as an iTunes-only single replacing his own vocals (not bad, not too exciting) with the venerable Cars frontman's. Cute idea, but the rest of the tune is repeated verbatim. So it's iKaraoke, then.

Still, it's bizarre to hear Ric chew the aural scenery in that iconic deadpan-cool monotone of his, and everything you (hypothetically) dug about the original-- the grand-piano-rumbling-down-the-stairs breakdown that serves as a chorus, the hokey 80s metal guitar solo that serves as a climax-- deserves a second look. For anyone who still spins Heartbeat City every now and then ("Magic" still kills), this is essentially what a new Cars single might sound like in the mashed-up environs of 2004. But while we're just swapping in new vocal tracks, how about Lil Jon? Dizzee Rascal? William Shatner?