Richard Thompson albums are formulaic in the best sense. You expect virtuoso guitar, Jimi Hendrix with a Celtic tinge. You expect top-drawer songwriting – wry stories of soured romance and cruel fate, delivered in the 63-year-old's huffy, dour baritone. On Electric, you'll get what you came for. There are loads of Thompson's revved-up Strat, and the lost-love songs, like "Another Small Thing in Her Favour," are beautifully bleak. Producer Buddy Miller offers small surprises, bringing a primal gospel-blues stomp to "Stony Ground" and roping in bluegrass queen Alison Krauss, who adds harmony vocals on "The Snow Goose." The thrills are few, but the excellence is undeniable.

“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.”