They say money can buy you friends, and it's bought thirty-eight-year-old LL Cool J age-defying hit collabos before. But, damn, this is just too much: Eight of thirteen tracks on Todd Smith qualify as slow-jam duets (the cavalcade of candy-ass co-stars including Ne-Yo, 112, Ginuwine and Jamie Foxx), and none of them has a sweat droplet of the appeal of 1987's LL-as-Lothario classic "I Need Love." "My flavor's unreal/Smooth but hard/Like wood grain on the wheel," he fibs rather fecklessly on "Favorite Flavor," while Mary J. Blige oohs ornamentally over what sounds like a fistful of wet-naps fed into a juicer. The motivation behind team-ups like "It's LL and Santana" — that's Juelz, not Carlos — feels equally transparent, leaving one wondering whatever happened to the immortal MC who could carry an album by himself without needing a breath.

“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.”