MGMT - MGMT

Release Date: 17 September
Label: Colombia Records
Rating: 5.0 / 10

From the first time I saw lead singer Andrew VanWyngarden riding a kitten in the 'Time To Pretend' video, I was a sold fan. 'Oracular Spectacular' featured heavily in my album rotations in 2008 and actually continues to be an album I appreciate and can still enjoy. The same can be said of their almost universally panned 'Congratulations'. Sometimes critics can be so boring. MGMT are one of those bands that effectively capture and evoke moods, atmospheres and ideas, as opposed to well developed and polished singles and tracks. Their albums will always be conceptual, because they are a conceptual band. Nothing wrong with that so long as you have guts and talent. Something they have proved, up until now, to possess.

That being said, new eponymous album 'MGMT' misses the mark in so many ways. To begin with, it sounds barely finished. Whilst it could be argued that 'Congratulations' saw an overproduction and an explosion of simply too much inspiration, MGMT is, in that case, the complete opposite. For the most part it borders on boring. Strange, yes. Unusual, no. Bands like Of Montreal, Animal Collective, Grimes and even Cocorosie are creating remarkably similar alien soundscapes, and doing it better. If this was meant to a unique voyage into the fifth dimension, they shouldn't have bothered. We've been there already. In many more exciting ways. It's unfortunate because the band holds so much promise.

Blow by blow defense:

01: Alien Days - An incredibly strong opener. At once catchy, likeable and strange. A synth soaked, multi-layered singalong  song, dropped into a suburban garden by some friendly martian. This is the MGMT we know and love isn't it? This is bound to be an amazing album isn't it?...

02: Cool Song No.2 - Things go from sunshine and synths to subterranean and stark. The lyrics are as unintelligible as ever and a piano joins the chorus along with monkey sounds and a tambourine. OK..this is genuinely interesting...

03: Mystery Disease - Vocals become drowned in vocoders and filters. Something about a disease picked up from outer space. Maybe those martian rapings are taking effect. This sounds worse than the flu. Things are getting effed up. It's still quite interesting though. Unusual. It retains the 1960's likability. Similar to the band The Electric Prunes.

04: Introspection - The smoke clears somewhat. Vocals and lyrics become audible as the band drone on in a robotic way about looking into oneself. "What am I really like inside?". Well, given your mechanical delivery, I'm guessing you're made of nuts and bolts. The jangly, pop-hook sound on the chorus makes this one of the more accessible tracks on the album. This is a good note.

05: Your Life Is A Lie - Struck out from the left field, this two chord wonder of a song lifts and grounds the progression of the entire album. Who would have thought that a monotone, 2 minute track could do that. The band sound so cheerful as they tell you that everything you know is a lie and you have no friends. You can join in the chorus and agree with them quite cheerfully. Unfortunately this is the last light note on the album as the spaceship crashes immediately after this track.

06: A Good Sadness - A track title probably more appropriate for the previous single, it takes 47 seconds for this track to come into some kind of focus. When it does, an electronic pulsing indicates it is definitely an unfamiliar planet you have crash landed on. A song that probably sounds phenomenal at three in the morning (tripping on a certain amount of acid), 'A Good Sadness' is not particularly sad, nor is it particularly good. "It's alright", as the lyrics explain. You are doomed to wander aimlessly on this dreary planet as the band trip on some kind of space mushroom, enjoying a party for two. You are clearly not invited.

07: Astro-mancy - A clever play on words is about all there is to like on this track. 5.11 minutes of electronic drum patterns and more jittery, mumbled vocals. You kind of don't care what it's about at this point, as you impatiently wait for the band to take you back to your home planet in time for you work alarm.

08: I Love You Too, Death - But wait! There's more! This time it's 5.5o minutes of mumbled, unintelligible vocals. The only thing of interest here is the vague oriental wind instruments, buried under layers of nothingness. That and the occasional bell toll. Somebody save us from this tedium!!! Both this and the previous track do pick up somewhere about the four minute mark, but at this point, you just don't care anymore.

09: Plenty Of Girls In The Sea - Finally come to their sense, the band is homeward bound. Riding on yet more corny plays on words, they churn out a neat little ditty here, retaining their spacy synths, with the oriental winds coming into clearer focus. Earth is in sight! We make it home with a strong finish! Hold on!....

10: An Orphan Of Fortune - Oh crap. Didn't quite get there. At the very last track, the band return to the empty netherspace to try their hand, one last time, at creating a soundscape that is both atmospheric and unusual. The result, yet again, is a dull, vapid reedy black hole of a sound. With all of the quirks and robustness sucked out of them, MGMT catch the orbit of the coldest planet and drift into blackness, fading into anonymity.


There is nothing wrong with weird or synthy or aliens. But where bands like Tame Impala, Melody's Chambers and Washed Out manage to create electronic soundscapes that are warm and inviting, MGMT did not quite manage to do the same. Stripped of all hooks and accessibility, they simply are another neo-psyche band who failed at garnering interest let alone the epicness for which they aimed. I hope they are not lost in orbit forever. I already miss them. Come back home! I'm sure there are plenty of kittens to ride and dolphins to arrow.
WVS.