You'd expect an album involving Nigel Godrich, the Radiohead collaborator-superproducer, and Joey Waronker, drummer for Beck, R.E.M. and many others, to be full of dazzling arrangements and killer beats. And so it is. Memorable songs? Not so much. But Laura Bettinson's vocals bounce around prettily, another cool ingredient in a krautrock-Afrobeat stew that sounds better each time you notch up the volume.

Listen to "Bad Insect":

“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.”