Congratulations, MGMT!

SteveK thinks you can probably figure it out…–

MGMT: Congratulations

Back in 2008 I stumbled upon MGMT’s ‘Oracular Spectacular’ just in time to review it.  I was blown away by the album, and later that summer I got to interview Andrew and Ben at the Osheaga music festival, here in Montreal.  (You can read that interview in full by clicking here: http://www.confrontmagazine.com/web/2008/12/10/mgmt-2/)

Back then, Andrew and Ben confided in me that he was astounded by the almost overnight success the band had with their debut: “…it’s all bizarre to us, and we are always wondering how it happened.” Andrew said, “We’re still a bit confused,” Ben added, “We’re really happy that people like our music but we’ve always thought of ourselves as being very strange people, so to be accepted on a mainstream level like this is music to us.”

That culture shock and confusion became the overriding themes that inspired their work on ‘Congratulations’, their second album, just out this week.  As they struggled to come to terms with their newfound fame they used the crafting of the songs that became ‘Congratulations’ as a means of coping.

The result is an album far less carefree than ‘Oracular Spectacular’; there’s a noticeable ennui, a weight on this album’s shoulders, which MGMT attempts to work through across its 9 phenomenal tracks.  We sort of saw the beginnings of this gravitas on “Handshake” off of ‘Oracular Spectacular’.

Fortunately, the acid-rock vibe of the last album’s latter tracks is preserved here, tempered with a strong dose of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd influences.  The Acid Rock vibe works well here as counterpunch to the lyrical content, and the album falls somewhere between ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in terms of thematic execution.

High points of this album include “Congratulations”, which closes the album and gives an intimate expression of MGMT’s fish-out-of-water malaise with it all; “Brian Eno”, a tribute by MGMT to the Ambient Music icon and his influence on their sound; and “Siberian Breaks”, a 12 minute opus that sums up Ben and Andrew’s feelings through cryptic lyrical allegory.

As a work the sound here has evolved significantly from ‘Oracular Spectacular’, and yet the definitive MGMT sound is reinforced, despite sounding unlike their previous effort.  Well worth it for anyone who’s a fan of music that doesn’t conform to the homogenous megalith of commercial music.

MGMT: Congratulations

Columbia

Steve’s Rating: 10/10

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