Sonic Youth have always had a classier side, but they usually show it on avant-noise collaborations with guys like John Cage or Steve Reich. On his fourth solo disc, SY main man Thurston Moore pursues a softer sort of refinement. Produced by Beck, this is string-laden, serenely pretty chamber folk that can be politely ruminative or drone like Sonic Youth doing an unplugged set. On "Circulation," Moore brings front-porch thunder in an ode to playing old records, as if the new setting has him rediscovering music itself.

Listen to "Circulation":

100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Number 34: Thurston Moore

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.