Korn have intellectualized their splenic new-metal as they've declined commercially. But their ninth disc jettisons layered samples and pointy-headed craft for a live-band blitz, mutating the bleakest aspects of rap, rock, funk and industrial into a molten attack. "I'm such a stupid fuck/Listening to my head and not my gut," Jonathan Davis chides on "Let the Guilt Go," typifying the album's aggro-Zen attitude. New drummer Ray Luzier contributes some disco swing. But the draw is Davis, who spits scarred-teen scat like a guy whose parents just signed him up for military school. Not easy when you're pushing 40.

“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.