Never mind the artwork or the title, the chief concern of Iron Maiden's 15th album is Earth — specifically, the end of it: "There will be a catastrophe the like we've never seen," warns Bruce Dickinson on the album's 11-minute closing track, and by the time we get there, we've seen rivers flowing with blood, ominous comets and unhappy phantoms. The music that accompanies these visions is suitably apocalyptic: The riffs on "El Dorado" gallop like the Four Horsemen, and grim war saga "Mother of Mercy" is built on stark, wailing guitars. Maiden have long had a knack for the lung-busting chorus, but what impresses here are the complicated arrangements. "The Talisman" takes a full nine minutes to unfold, elegiac synths giving way to hammering chords. So much for the world ending with a whimper.

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.