A soul scream gives way to a sound like an alarm clock and a synthetic stomp in this one-off single. As Beck has been telling us for some time now, things are bad, getting worse. And as he's been doing for some time now, he delivers this news over a mash-up of digital overload and melodic know-how. Good, but Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do better almost every night.

“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.”