Getting the newest edition of Jane's Addiction off the ground hasn't been easy: Former Guns n' Roses bassist Duff McKagan recently quit the band after just six months. He was replaced by TV on the Radio sound whiz Dave Sitek, whose art-dude mitts are all over the first track from the band's first album in eight years. Over a sleek bass line and shards of post-punk guitar noise, Perry Farrell fights to relocate his Eighties-shaman form, singing, "You only become more like yourself," and nearly proving it.

Listen to "End to the Lies":

Photos: A Brief History of Jane's Addiction

“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.