Peter Gabriel's Up could be subtitled "Fear and Loathing at Real World Studios." Ten years in the making, the album is full of primal imagery dealing with birth and death, and sometimes it sounds like Gabriel died a thousand deaths putting it together. Somber and self-serious, the songs are punctuated by bursts of disquieting noise ("Darkness") or bathed in eerie technothrob ("Growing Up"). But the inspired moments, such as the celebratory soul groove that momentarily transforms the elegiac "I Grieve," are muted by dirges such as "The Drop." Gabriel tries to pick up the tempo on the theatrical "Barry Williams Show," a seven-minute song about how daytime talk-show hosts are soulless exploiters of human misery. (No way!) Long one of rock's most innovative artists, Gabriel has never sounded more out of touch.

“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.