Spoek Mathambo, from South Africa, is willing to try just about anything. On first album for Sub Pop, Mathambo raps and sings; he dabbles in post-punk, dub, electro; there are township jive-style guitars and grime-style beat-bursts; there are protests against the blood-diamond trade ("Put Some Red On It") and laments about what a bummer it is to have to work for a living ("We Can Work"). It's an admirably energetic hodgepodge which, at its best — in the skittering "Venison Fingers" and the synth-smeared title track — manages to be both danceable and eerie. But Mathambo is at best a serviceable singer-rapper, and the record is so all over the place, so mercurial from song to song and even bar to bar, a listener never gets a chance to settle in and grab hold.

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• Photos: Random Notes

“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.”