He's related to John Coltrane, he's tight with Thom Yorke, so it's fitting that L.A. hip-hop surrealist Steven Ellison is a restless experimenter with an ear for forlorn beauty. The shape-shifting tracks on his third disc incorporate braying dub-step beats, nature-film-soundtrack atmospherics, fern-bar R&B and free jazz, often on top of each other. There's some info overload, but Ellison is an ace with pacing, and a distracted soulfulness guides the frantic laptop science. When Yorke emerges to moan, "I need to know you're out there," on ". . . And the World Laughs With You," he offers what might be an epigram for the album.

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.