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Song Stories

“Heart in Your Heartbreak”

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | 2010

"Heart in Your Heartbreak" is a pop song about getting dumped, but lead vocalist Kip Berman didn't linger on the downtrodden themes."But the song ultimately evolves in that you realize that there's no point in feeling bad about it because it wasn't that great in the first place," he said. Even though the music has a twee feel to it, Berman wanted the song to relate to teens and adults alike. "It's really important that our music doesn't exist solely on this purely sensational, 15-year-old level. Those feelings are legitimate, and I still feel the 15-year-old way, but it's also good to feel the young-adult way."

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

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.”

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