Around 2006, prolific, hard-drugging singer-songwriter Ryan Adams cleaned up and began spitting out even more music. III/IV is 21 songs from 2007's Easy Tiger sessions, supplanting that album's wired folk rock with a blend of punk head rush, New Wave twitch, metal crunch and hippie noodling. "The Crystal Skull" is Morrissey with a girlfriend; "Ultraviolet Light" posits Ian Curtis fronting the Byrds. Does it cohere? Please. Just tighten your scarf and savor the storm.

Keep up with rock's hottest photos in Random Notes.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.