Sufjan Stevens is a restless man. Weeks after dropping the All Delighted People EP, Stevens returns with The Age of Adz, which conjures a peyote ritual with Aphex Twin and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It's a semiconcept record, using work by the artist Royal Robertson as a springboard for music that evokes a visionary psyche. Amid the storm of electronics, brass and spirit voices, melodies surface. On "Impossible Soul," Stevens rocks an Auto-Tuned falsetto; elsewhere, he chants, "I'm not fucking around!" Be assured: He's not.

“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.”