Rock photo guru Anton Corbijn hits all the right notes in his remarkable feature-directing debut. His muse is Ian Curtis (a knockout Sam Riley), the epileptic lead singer of the Brit punk band Joy Division, who hanged himself in 1980 at twenty-three. Samantha Morton plays the wife who helped him fight his demons, and Tony Kebbell excels as the band manager. But it's Corbijn, shooting with a poet's eye in a harshly stunning black-and-white, who cuts to the soul of Ian's life and music. You don't watch this movie, you live it.

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.