The duo responsible for this century's most wacked-out and visionary party music is back with two songs from Elliott's upcoming first album in seven years – but the mood is not quite celebratory. Timbaland's beats (his finest in some time) have a dark cast, with classical flourishes brooding over minor keys and the usual woozy, oddly accented beats and blips. The lyrics find Missy in a defensive crouch: "Thought I fell off?/Ain't quite finished," she raps in "9th Inning." In the moderately more upbeat "Triple Threat," we get a hint of the old goofy braggart: "I'm a pretty diva/Call me señorita..../Hits like Venus and Serena."

Listen to "9th Inning":

“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.