"Head like a hole/Black as your soul," bellows Trent Reznor on his debut, the first industrial singer-songwriter album. The sound of a studio janitor shouting down his enemies and baring his diseased soul over 1989 state-of-the-art noise, Pretty Hate Machine was sculpted by U2 producer Flood and hip-hop drummer Keith LeBlanc, who taught Reznor a lot. With this long-awaited remaster, the record never sounded scarier or funkier. Alas, there's but one bonus track: an extreme defilement of Queen's "Get Down, Make Love" that's also pretty sexy. Reznor can make even debasement seem inviting.

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“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.