MGMT - MGMT

[Pete for President]

A new self titled album by MGMT, stream it here:

The New MGMT Album + the Optimizer

I was already familiar with opening track "Alien Days", which I really like. But after listening to 2/3's of the album and skipping back through the songs I realized none of the other tracks stuck. In fact, the only thing I remembered about any of them was a certain level of "wtf"-factor. Problem being; every melody, lyric, chord progression, or any sound in general is so distorted, warped or echoed hardly any of it is recognizable.

Not to mention some of the songs are nothing more than the most cliche of chord progressions at the core (Introspection, Plenty of Girls in the Sea), while the rest dwells somewhere in between the realms of ambient soundscapes and actual songs. No-mans-land, really.

So that's a big disappointment on first listen. I really thought MGMT would reinvent themselves with powerful, quirky and spaced out tunes. Unfortunately only the space out part is true, but with nothing to stand on the result is out of grasp even for someone who loves psychedelic stuff as much as I do.

Thoughts?

[Pheesh]

I never really even listened to Congratulations, is it any good?

I loved Oracular Spectacular so I'll probably give this a go when eventually, your review definitely doesn't give me cause for hope though

[Pete for President]

Sorry to have destroyed your hope a bit but give it a try nonetheless, there's a cup of tea for everyone...

Congratulations' more poppy, 60's beat approach felt unoriginal at first, but the album has definitely grown on me. While the album is not as strong as Oracular Spectacular in the sense of innovative sound and consistency (songs like Someone's Missing and I Found A Whistle just don't seem to have a purpose), there are a few very powerful tracks to be found.

Opener "It's Working" gets you hyped immediately, and the 12-minute-long "Siberian Breaks" deserves special mention for having some very interesting twists and turns. The piece never grows dull and leads up to an awesome climax around the 8 minute mark before breaking down in just the right kind of abstractness like some Oracular songs did.

The album reminds me a bit of the band Hot Hot Heat, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It only backs up that Congratulations is not as innovative and strong as the ridiculously good and original Oracular.

Enjoy

[Pete for President]

Here's a new link for streaming the new album without having to sign up and all that (although all the text will be in Dutch): 3voor12 - MGMT - MGMT

[jaybraueir]

We have a date now, December 13th. It was confirmed on Jimmy Fallon tonight.