Jukebox Jury

Photo by Michael Schmelling

In addition to their awesome 'fros, our esteemed jurors had something else in common this year: Both took cautious steps away from the outfits that made them famous. Andy Samberg -- fresh off his unlikely Emmy win for "Dick in a Box" -- tried to ride Hot Rod toward leading-man status, even as his ubiquitous Saturday Night Live digital shorts remained Monday-morning in-box staples. Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. strayed from the currently dormant Strokes with his tuneful solo debut, Yours to Keep (and has another he hopes to release in '08). The verdicts are in -- what say you, dudes?

The White Stripes
"Icky Thump"
Jack White grinds out four minutes of filthy garage blues whose title became a dirty euphemism after a fake Meg White sex tape surfaced.

HAMMOND: I haven't heard this. It's hard to judge.
SAMBERG: It's playing right now. Just say you like it. Everything's good!
HAMMOND: I think he's an amazing guitar player. When you're around him, his personality is huge. He's also literally big. He could kick my ass.
SAMBERG: He's on record kicking the shit out of people. He fucking terrorizes the guitar. He's, like, the best-case scenario of the dude in high school who made you sit there and listen to him play guitar.

T-Pain
"Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')"
R&B loverboy croons like a cyborg about plying his lady friends with spirits.

SAMBERG: T-Pain fell in love with a stripper, right? Or was that Akon? How much of his voice is affected by the computer?
SPIN: Pretty much all of it.
SAMBERG: He's like the Peter Frampton of R&B. I'd like to see a collaboration record between T-Pain and Peter Frampton. It'd be sick if we found out that T-Pain actually was Peter Frampton.
HAMMOND: I'd let him buy me a drank.
SAMBERG: There's no reason not to!

Britney Spears
"Gimme More"
Pop's most under-the-radar wallflower mounts a comeback with a hook-free dance song that became a hit anyway.

HAMMOND: Could you just leave my response completely blank? How can you even judge it? I mean, a writer wrote the song, the producer produced it. I guess she's singing, but she sounds like a robot.
SAMBERG: Maybe Peter Frampton is Britney Spears.
HAMMOND: There's really nothing left to say about her. "This song is great when you're dancing in the club. It takes away all my worries!"
SAMBERG: "When my boss is getting me down, I can just cut loose!"