This month’s MMMM challenged solvers to find a well-known pop duo.

The key, hinted at by the title “Break Up the Band,” is to notice that seven columns contain a pair of separated entries that, when pronounced in order, sound like a famous band. For example, in the first column, NERVE + ANNA = NIRVANA. Each pair of words is broken up by a third word, as detailed below:

The first letters of the words separating the homophonic pairs spell out ROCK SET, which is a homophone of the Swedish pop duo Roxette, this month’s meta answer!

Meta Song:

We learned and recorded this classic in Santa Barbara last week with Lindsey Marie, Taylor Tote and a very talented band. Enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments: (Thank you!)

rvkal   Took me several days to spot the hidden bands, but it was worth the wait. Brilliant construction!

AWise   Fabulously clever!

bergie   Wow. Really great meta. Hard to believe you could fit all that in so cleanly. Awesome.

BenChen71   I love Roxette! They are my guilty pleasure!!

Zoltar   Clever, veeerrrry clever! Never heard of this duo, but they appeared on a list via a Google search.

thanman2  This mechanism just tickled me to no end. Well done!

Alternative Music Clues:

Stribbs suggests cluing SOY as [Bad Bunny song “___ Peor”].

Evan suggests cluing ABE as [Lincoln the trombonist (not the president)], NERVE as [“___ Net” (1992 Brian Eno album)], and MYTH as [The idea that KISS’s band name is an acronym for Knights in Satan’s Service, e.g.].

pbfrommn suggests cluing SETH as [___ MacFarlane, voice actor for an animated mouse who earns a standing ovation after performing “My Way” in the movie “Sing”], ODDS as [Canadian band with the 1996 hit “Someone Who’s Cool”], and BROCCOLI as [“And my lady, she went downtown / She bought some ___ / She brought it home / She’s choppin’ ___” (lyrics from a song ad-libbed by “Derek Stevens” (Dana Carvey) in a famous “Saturday Night Live” skit)].

Chris Popp suggests cluing OLDE as [Ye ___ Records (indie label founded by Juliana Hatfield)].

Jwaan suggests cluing MENTOS as [Candy once regularly thrown at the Foo Fighters].

Groaners:

Cindy N   It’s a puzzle I struggled to love, but it’s over now.

HPetriJr  No Joyride for me on this one!

KayW  I had to LOOK SHARP because I never heard of them, but GOOD KARMA on the web brought up their name when I googled “ROCKSET POP DUO”. Nicely done! Thanks for another fantastic year.

Norm H  Perhaps my favorite MMMM ever! Concept and construction are (ahem) sublime; the PICK SEIZE could not have done better!

michaelm  How Do You Do (It)?

Danny K Bernstein  Brightened my day, sent it to friends. That’s how I “Sunny and Share.”

Totals this month:

186 correct, 27 incorrect

Rating: 4.66 out of 5 stars (highest this year!)

Difficulty: 3.47 out of 5

Monthly mug winner: Mark Russell from Taft, CA

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!