Breakups tend to bring out the best and worst in singer-songwriters. Unfortunately, Sarah McLachlan's first disc since splitting from her husband, Ashwin Sood, feels scattered: The carefree single "Loving You Is Easy" feels out of place. The rest alternates between vulnerability and bitterness, using the same sighs and moans with which she used to convey ecstasy. Producer Pierre Marchand strips away the gauzy instrumental layers of her old discs, but without them, her heavy-handedness is exposed.

“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.