Potent distillation of indie rockers' huge discographyfew bands are as desperately in need of a greatest-hits as Guided by Voices, whose megaprolific leader, Robert Pollard, is legendary for his apparent inability to tell the difference between his two-minute guitar-pop masterpieces and his feeble practice tapes. Human Amusements skims thirty-two songs' worth of cream from GBV's mammoth catalog, mixing up sloppy marvels from the one-take/no-tuning early years, strutting mid-career singles such as "Bulldog Skin" and slicker, punchier tracks as recent as this August's Earthquake Glue. It's haphazardly organized, but the fun of digging through chaos is part of what you're paying for with a GBV record. The bigger part, though, is Pollard's songwriting gifts: His best lyrics ("Teenage FBI," "Echos Myron") are evocatively surreal, and his best melodies are so unshakable you could swear you've been hearing them on classic-rock radio all your life.

“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.