Kid Rock proves the power of perseverance, eventual excellent timing and a truckload of dumb luck. In these days of hypermarketed instant success, Rock's belated, massive victory with a banging, multiplatinum fourth album after three lousy flops goes against every music-biz trend, and for that alone he deserves props. But it didn't bode well that The History of Rock, the sequel to 1998's Devil Without a Cause, featured songs rerecorded from his early duds. Cocky also sounds like Rock's bad old material, but it's not. On "Forever," Rock boasts that he's "still the same 'cause I ain't changed nothin'." He's mostly right: "Forever" could be "Bawitdaba Pt. 2," while "Lonely Road of Faith" mimics "Only God Knows Why." But Devil's accidental freshness is gone; instead, Rock self-consciously builds on his badass-hick-with-a-heart-of-gold image. Sentiments like "We can make it through the winds of change," from "Lonely," are corny, but that's only a little problem. The execution — particularly on the many pseudo-country cuts from this Midwesterner — is really corny, and that's a big problem. Their novelty faded, Rock's AC/DC, Run-D.M.C. and Lynyrd Skynyrd tributes now come across as clunky imitation. This free bird flies high but never far from the nest.

“Time to Pretend”

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”