Album Reviews

To gain an in depth understanding into the reception of the bands music, we looked at numerous reviews posted by leading critics. The first review of MGMT's debut album Oracular Spectacular was composed by Damian Jones and posted on the BBC Music webpage.

''We make pop music, but pop music that isn't comfortable'', declares MGMT leader Andrew Vanwyngarden. You can say that again. Talk about eclectic. This Brooklyn duo have got more tricks up their sleeve than Pete Doherty has court appearances. But first some background: For those unfamiliar with New York's latest synth-sters basically all you need to know is that both Vanwyngarden and keyboardist Ben Goldwasser first bonded over their love for My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen 3 at Connecticut's Wesleyan University back in 2002. Since then they have signed a whopping record deal with Columbia thanks to legendary U2 producer Steve Lillywhite and they're currently making huge waves across the States. Their debut album, Oracular Spectacular, has been constructed or in their case de-constructed by The Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann and their lyrics are inspired by The Mayan Prophecies and conspiracy websites.



Now back to the issue of uncomfortable pop music. Undoubtedly there are times when Vanwyngarden and Goldwasser stretch the boundaries of pop to breaking point on Oracular. But synth-drenched opener Time To Pretend ain't one of them. If anything MGMT's spine tingling lead off track couldn't be easier on the ear if it tried, as the pair poke fun at rock star dreams about marrying models, scoring drugs, "living fast and dying young".


Next up is Weekend Wars, a psychedelic pop ditty smattered with acoustic strings and Vanwyngarden’s Jagger-esque vocals. Elsewhere, Electric Feel comes on like Prince holding a gun to the heads of French funksters Daft Punk while Vanwyngarden and Goldwasser seductively croon: “Ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel/Baby girl/Turn me on with your electric feel”.


Then comes the uncomfortable second half. Gone are the synth driven bass lines and disco beats and in come surf guitars and quivering vocals. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Indeed this works to MGMT's advantage at times particularly on the galloping 4th Dimensional Transition. But when the Brooklyn wizards delve into space folk territory (The Handshake, Future Reflections) towards the end of the album, their uncomfortable pop template sounds forced.


Even so in Oracular Spectacular MGMT have delivered a debut which is both intriguing and exciting if a little uncomfortable.

(Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/nv3n)

BBC Music also conducted a review for MGMT's second album Congratualations:

There is a stock interview quote given by artists following up a wildly successful album, explaining the new direction they’ve taken. “It would have been so easy for us to write another (insert name of hit record),” they say, “but that doesn’t interest us.”


The truth is, though, that it’s anything but easy to reproduce the formula of a successful album. That is especially true for the men who are expected to emulate the effortless pop charms of MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular. After the whirlwind of attention they received off the back of it, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser are evidently no longer the same happy-go-lucky duo that dreamt up the goofy keyboard hooks that made Time to Pretend and Kids so irresistible. So on Congratulations they haven’t even tried to write any hits, taking refuge in druggy experimentalism.


Opinion is sure to be divided as to whether that represents bravery or cowardice. They’ve certainly woven a dizzying tapestry of tunes. The stop-start tempo, wrong-footing chord changes and childlike vocals of It’s Working set the trippy template and the wired, Wurlitzer-filled Song For Dan Treacy gives off heavy whiffs of 60s British acid pop, even if the likeable Syd Barrett-isms are offset by echoes of Spinal Tap’s (Listen to the) Flower People.


Such wilful wackiness would work better if it was sandwiched, like the more outré moments of Oracular Spectacular, between more accessible riffs and hooks, but they offer such vulgar pleasures with tantalising irregularity. Someone’s Missing briefly breaks into a soulful falsetto chorus but then fades out before it can take up residence in our heads. Likewise, the initial mellow meanderings of Siberian Breaks build into a gorgeous melodic swell, but it only appears once within a 12-minute prog-pop sprawl. Flash Delirium also features slivers of delightfully frazzled surrealist pop, but any fans hoping for more indie anthems and festival sing-alongs are going to be sorely disappointed.


Still, you sense MGMT won’t be too bothered. The in-jokey psych-punk ditty Brian Eno is more evidence that they’re not really aiming to entertain anyone but themselves. And what emerges from such silliness is the pleasing sense that the duo had a blast making this record. Listening to it is also fun at times, but just as often it’s damned hard work.
(Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fqcg)

However, not all of Congratulations reviews were as positive. Because of it's experimental attitude and the massive difference between that and its predecessor, some of MGMT's previous fans were not as fond of the second album as it wasn't their style of music. This review from The Telegraph's website is one of the many not as positive reviews.

At times, Congratulations sounds like Flight of the Conchords attempting a seventies concept album. Yet it is also full of bold strokes of mad musical colour, so crammed with ideas it takes several spins just to get a grip on its sprawling contours. Like fellow travellers in new psychedelia the Flaming Lips, MGMT treat the studio like a children's toybox and never use one instrument where they can squeeze in four. They delight in arrangements that defy convention, tossing a lusty tuba solo in among the harpsichords, spooky synths and choral vocals. Such is thei innate sense of melody and supple grooviness, the songs seem to change shape on repeated listens, the best of them (It's Working, Someone's Missing and I Found A Whistle) gradually revealing a hidden seriousness of purpose. MGMT's desire to aviod the obvious may be admirable but you abandon pop hooks at your peril. Fans will find plenty to sustain them but Congratulations sounds like a deliberate attempt to shake off casual listeners and avoid the rock stradom their hits have granted them.

(Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/7563895/MGMT-Congratulations-CD-review.html)

The song that we have chosen, 'Kids', is taken from their debut album Oracular Spectacular, which as we've seen has been given the better reviews of their released albums. This creates a more positive image of the band and allows us to show off some of the bands greater, less controversial talent.

That MGMT might be uncomfortable with the limelight should have been obvious from their breakthrough 2009 single Time To Pretend, a sneaky satire in which the world of rock stardom is viewed from the wistful perspective of fantasists who know it will never be theirs. Except it became a zeitgeist anthem and the accompanying album, Oracular Spectacular, shifted more than a million copies. The follow-up might not exactly be an act of self-sabotage, but it veers perilously close in its aura of self-indulgence and self-amusement.Ben Goldwasser, one half of the New York duo, has taken the unusual step of apologising for the group’s new musical direction after fans reacted badly to the lead track, Flash Delerium, an ecstasy comedown anthem that sounds like the Cars on a bad trip and includes a short cack-handed flute solo.Goldwasser rather lamely explained that when he and partner Andrew VanWyngarden recorded it: “We were laughing so hard, we thought it was the funniest thing we ever heard.” Indeed, a lot of Congratulations sounds like a band laughing at their own jokes. There are witty but thin homages to musical heroes Dan Treacy of Television Personalities and Brian Eno (“You can tell that he’s kind of smug, what does he know? We’re always one step behind him – Brian Eno!”), a truly embarrassing prog rock instrumental pastiche Lady Dada’s Nightmare and a 12-minute multi-section acoustic-electro epic, Siberian Breaks, that apparently deliberately evokes the worst traits of Pink Floyd, from Syd Barret whimsy to pompous grandeur.