Evaluation Thursday: New MGMT Album

MGMT: Congratulations

Yes, that's the album cover.

Howdy folks. Got my hands on the new MGMT album and figured I'd post my thoughts on it. Some stuff to make note of before reading:

1. I've only given the album one real good, in-depth listen. So anything I write down can be considered just my initial response.

2. I love the idea of rating stuff so I'll be using a 10 pt scale. I'll do my best not to sink to the level of pretentiousness that Pitchfork sometimes does.

3. Hopefully I'll turn this into a weekly thing.

Alright, onto the evaluation!

Before I begin, I need to let you guys know something: I wasn't exactly enthused about Congratulations. This is mainly because unlike some (Rolling Stone), I wasn't the biggest fan of Oracular Spectacular. I think I probably enjoyed about (roughly) 62% of it, namely the big stuff that everybody got into: "Kids," "Time to Pretend," and especially the Bee Gees-esque "Electric Feel." But other than those standout tracks I felt that the rest of the album lacked cohesion; there were just too many different parts thrown in from too many different genres that created a mishmash of...well, I'm not sure exactly. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for mishmashes--it's just a lot harder for me to get into them when there isn't a good melody or monster riff accompanying them. I need something that I can hold onto as a frame of reference.

Prior to listening to the record I was wondering to myself which MGMT I'd be listening to on Congratulations. Would it be the sonic daydreamers who dished out dancey, pop-friendly hits? Or the revivalist genre mish-mashers that oftentimes should have mashed when they mished? Maybe some sort of weird hybrid of the two? Welp, after giving the album one run-through, I'm inclined to say that Congratulations doesn't have any tracks that can give you the sort of instant gratification that a song like "Kids." On the whole the album seems to be lacking the sort of big, sing-along hooks that propelled their previous work. So I guess you could say that I'm going with the second option...per se.

That's not to say that the album isn't enjoyable. It's different, yeah, but it's still MGMT, so while the casual MGMT fan might fret over the lack of radio hits, if you were a big fan of their first album then you'll probably find stuff you can enjoy here. Many of the "live fast and die young" themes are still present, as is their psychedelic, acid circus sound. Songs like "Dan Treacy" and "Flash Delirium" are peppy, space-rock jams that alternate between mimicking the vocal styles of 60's group The Zombies and those of David Bowie. "Someone's Missing" starts off like a filler track before buoyantly exploding into a freaky pop tune that kind of sounds like the theme song from Laverne and Shirley. Also, this might also be the kinkiest album I've heard in a while...in the sense that their sound verges well into Kinks territory (in ways both good and bad).

Congratulations' problems, however, are perhaps best exemplified in "Siberian Breaks," the album's epic 12-minute centerpiece. It starts off with some acoustic guitar strumming and airy vocals before suddenly jolting into booming snare, electro-tint, and choral vocals around the five-minute mark. This jolt lasts roughly a minute before the song diverts paths again into the realm of easy-listening. And then it changes again. And again. Before we know it the song is closing with some robot space opera music, at which point you're kind of just like "wtf?" To me the song never really goes anywhere. It meanders through different genres and styles and comes off as bloated more than anything else. I think there's a word for this... Oh, right. Mishmash.

So, yeah, the initial results were mixed for me. It's by no means a bad album. Parts of it sound great and are a lot of fun to listen to. On the whole, though, the album seems to wander and definitely suffers from not having some of those huge tracks that made Oracular Spectacular so popular. I think the problem for a lot of breakout artists is that they get this label tacked onto them that they're only as good as their singles, so when it comes time to make their next album they get this "WE'LL SHOW YOU!!!" attitude and don't include any singles. This tactic never works and I'm pretty sure Weezer and Oasis would be able to back me up on this one.

Congratulations is an ambitious work with several enjoyable moments but ultimately falls flat. Although I can't be 100% certain since the it won't be released until mid-April, I will not be surprised if it's viewed by most as a "sophomore slump."

Initial Gut-level Evaluation: 6 out of 10.