Seven seconds into the Jayhawks' ninth album – and first since 1995 to feature both founders, Gary Louris and Mark Olson – bear-hug harmonies envelop ringing guitars and strings: a striking echo of Tomorrow the Green Grass' shoulda-beena- hit, "Blue." Mockingbird Time is a cheeky title for a band of inspired borrowers: from the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, from CSNY, and from themselves. But the Jayhawks made their mix a signature long ago; though they stretch out with surprising hooks, the tunes are branded like calves – soaring singalongs full of bad weather, emotional and meteorological. They're Minnesotan to the bone.

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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.