German producers Mouse on Mars have a gift for making electronic bleeps and buzzes sound like tangible objects that bounce, bend and collide in physical space. Parastrophics, their tenth studio album if you're not counting a side project with the Fall's Mark E. Smith, is a surreal pop record that gleefully warps the tones and inflections of modern radio tunes into funhouse mirror abstractions. It's disorienting stuff, but pleasantly so, particularly as they stretch a Jam and Lewis-era Janet Jackson hook like taffy in "Polaroyced," smear vocals into a ear-catching blur on the frantically funky "They Know Your Name" and drop hyperkinetic hip-hop beats on "Baku Hipster."

Listen to "Polaroyced":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”