“Congratulations” to MGMT

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April 26, 2010 • written by Macy Linton  
Filed under Reviews

MGMT Congratulations For Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT, the success of their first album, “Oracular Spectacular” (including hit songs “Time to Pretend” and “Kids”), must have been a little hard to try to live up to when making their new album, “Congratulations.”

So they didn’t try.

Instead, the band forgoes catchy anthems for a stream of psychedelic-tinted songs.

While some profess otherwise, to say that MGMT has gone truly psychedelic would be incorrect. The word “psychedelic” implies mind-boggling, hour-long, lyric-less synth sounds set on loop, designed by so-called musicians appealing to a very small subgroup of listeners who enjoy being reduced to tears of boredom. Yet MGMT’s self-professed “psychedelic” album is nothing like that.

However, MGMT does go for a psychedelic feel with most of their new music–they take a step in the right direction by taking a leaf from the books of bands like Of Montreal and Pink Floyd, two groups that managed to do some extraordinarily weird things while maintaining a wide audience. Rather than attack the listener with a full on drone-fest, they tone down the psychedelia just enough so that it’s perceptible, throw in some unconventional lyrics, and then have their pop sensibilities and ear for melody take center stage. The result includes songs like “Congratulations,” the very chill title track that has just a few psychedelic overtones, and instrumental “Lady Dada’s Nightmare,” which, with it’s haunting keyboards and whispery screams, is the most blatantly psychedelic song on the album.

Yes, the band places more emphasis on synth sounds and less on lyrics; but just like “Time to Pretend,” the lyrics are still worth listening to, even if just for the barefaced artiness (as in “Congratulations”: “Dead in the water, it’s not a paid vacation/ The sons and daughters of city officials/ Attend demonstrations/ It’s hardly a sink or swim/ When all is well if the tickets sell.”)

MGMT isn’t quite the same without a summer anthem riding the airwaves, but by taking a step towards musical growth, they obtain a whole new depth.