Fall Out Boy's second album, From Under the Cork Tree, is a peculiar mix of in-jokes ("Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued") and romantic dramas that post-adolescents are unlikely to care about. But thanks to a lot of taut grooves and dense hooks, these Chicago kids' near-emo is always kind of charming. The opening cut follows a joke about wrist-slitting with a lively group chorus, and the well-wrought refrain of "Dance, Dance" suggests a collaboration between Linda Perry and Thursday. Singer Patrick Stump's guts-spilling can be cloying. But From Under the Cork Tree is buoyed by its self-deprecating humor; the over-the-top screamo parody "I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me" proves that in the business of emotional bloodletting, a little misdirection can make a big difference.

“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.”