Not everyone can relate to what you and I appreciate, intones whinnying singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart on Niño Rojo. That line speaks volumes about Banhart, who, caustic, weird, absurd and poetic, challenges traditional musical notions. On this strikingly beautiful work, where he sounds like Donovan on LSD (well, on more LSD), Banhart weaves dreamy apparitions with his catchy folk guitar — sometimes even dabbling in Spanish-style picking — adding strange rhymes here and there. He can go from cryptic, minimalist lyricist to astute wordsmith ("My love is a so-long song gone forever more") in no time. And even if you get the feeling that DB's seemingly unselfconscious naturalist sounds (coughs, giggles, mutterings) are in fact calculated, it doesn't matter. They impart a humanness to the album, something rarely heard on today's polished recordings, and you find yourself straining to hear more of them.

“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.”