"Here's my song for the free/No, it's not about praise and publicity," Serj Tankian sings. He ain't kidding: Serj Tankian is beholden to no master beyond his own outsize ambitions. The System of a Down frontman's second solo disc sets lefty harangues ("Corporate-ocrasy, what a hypocrisy!") to symphonic, electronica-tinged prog-rock that makes SOAD's wildest metal moments seem almost Bieber-esque. Tankian's constant (and erratic) genre-busting can be tiring. But his happily maniacal, syllable-drunk delivery gives songs like "Left of Center" a harried urgency, as do filaments of Armenian folk, which evoke the singer's embattled ethnic heritage. On Imperfect Harmonies, that frenetic sense of border-crossing is the clearest connection between Tankian's beloved band and his strange new freedom.

 
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“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.