By Julia DiFiori
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Psychedelic music is known for its hallucinogenic sounds, characterized as being oddly mesmerizing; unfortunately, “MGMT” defies the generalizations of the genre and turns out to be closer to a bad trip than a mind-bending musical journey.
With its highly anticipated self-titled album, “MGMT” delivers its trademark psychedelic style, but disappointingly so in an understated, unassumingly mellow feel with fewer pop elements and ill-fit eclectic sounds.
Composed of Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden, the band released its first EP, “Time to Pretend,” in 2005. The full-length album “Oracular Spectacular,” came in 2007, followed by the “Congratulations” album in 2010, both complete hits with such chart-toppers as “Electric Feel” and “Congratulations.”
The pair scored a spot on the top ten “Artist to Watch” by Rolling Stone in 2008, placed ninth in the BBC’s Sound of 2008 Top Ten Poll and won a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Non-Classical Remixed Recording for the Justice remix of “Electric Feel.”
While the songs on “MGMT” are dishearteningly less polished than those of previous albums, the lyrics are slightly poetic enough to act as a focal point, partially salvaging what would otherwise be a series of boring tones.
Although the electronic effects are captivating in some regards, the sounds throughout the album don’t convey anything more than a sense of confusion stemming from the seemingly randomized mix of synthesized tones. In previous albums, such sounds worked to make abstract and alluring melodies that appealed to the masses but now seem to be lost in the translation of the band’s attempts at evolving.
However, the lyrics prove to be a quasi-blessing in an at-first glance nonsensical disguise for the jumbled album. The wording of the songs is superficially convoluted, but with a deeper, more engaged listen to tracks like “Mystery Disease,” MGMT’s true genius is revealed with its unexpected profundity.
It shouldn’t be taken as a grain of salt, though, that the treasure trove of lyrics featured in the album completely saves it, as the lyrical aspect of the tracks is only a small plus in the accompaniment of still oddly mixed sounds and computerized tones.
But, to say that “MGMT” is a complete flop would be wrong, as the album is not all terrible tone compilations, but unexpectedly features a few diamonds in the otherwise majorly rough set of tracks. One song on the album, “Alien Days,” especially stands out and unquestionably impresses. It features a beautifully dream-like instrumental introduction where child voices sing smooth, light tones and gradually fade into mature voices until the vocals are of a clearly much older male, making the sounds utterly stupefying and far more creative than any other artist in the same electronic pop genre.
Unfortunately, songs like “Alien Days” come very few and far between in “MGMT.” A perfect example of the album’s general mediocrity is the duo’s cover of Faine Jade’s 1968 psychedelic pop song “Introspection.” Disappointingly, their modern version offers only a slight electronic edge to the classic but not enough to make it successfully revamp the original, adding it to the list of unsatisfying tracks throughout the album.
In its self-titled album, MGMT produces generally flat music from a failure to compose interesting melodies. The band does, however, produce a couple of rare, outstanding tracks that combine quality lyrics with unique musical accents.
“MGMT” was released on Sept. 17 and is in stores now.
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