The past few months have been great for belligerent Irish guys: Joe Biden is still vice president, Notre Dame football had its best season in decades, and now we get a new LP from these Boston bruisers. The last one was a concept album about a fictional Irish-American; this one may be their most devil-may-care, mixing hardcore blitz, Pogues instrumentation and Thin Lizzy swing. It works best if you party at bars with names like Paddy O'Mcskullsmashies, but you don't have to be Irish to love the dysfunctional family Xmas anthem "The Season's Upon Us": "My sisters are wack jobs/I wish I had none/Their husbands are losers/And so are their sons."

“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.”