Friday, April 9, 2010
By Rose Graner
Entertainment Editor
The only thing more tragic than a talented band never becoming successful is a talented band becoming a one- or two-hit wonder because of a track that doesn’t properly represent its musical depth.
MGMT fell into this sticky trap due to the success of their singles “Kids” and “Electric Feel,” but have managed to pull themselves out (at least creatively speaking, if not commercially) with their new album “Congratulations.”
“Oracular Spectacular,” the first full-length album that MGMT released as MGMT (they formerly called themselves The Management), wasn’t exactly a typical indie underground hit (think side notes in Rolling Stone and mentions in Pitchfork).
Instead, it was a vehicle for the release of some of the most singular, well, singles to make it onto the mainstream music scene in ages.
And make it to the mainstream they did. The singles “Kids,” “Time to Pretend,” and “Electric Feel” were used in countless primetime television dramas, numerous feature films and a large handful of video games. Even a poker championship got in on the action.
It comes as no surprise, then, that MGMT would want to use their next album to distance themselves, creatively speaking, from the sound of “Oracular Spectacular,” lest they become pigeonholed into churning out indie-electro pop hits year after year. This is exactly what the band was sure to do on “Congratulations.”
About as far from “Oracular Spectacular” as MGMT could possibly have gone while remaining recognizable, “Congratulations” makes almost no use of the garden-variety computer-and-synthesizer setup with which MGMT produced most of their previous works. In fact, excepting some amped-up organ tones, the album eschews the use of electronic music production methods almost entirely.
Make no mistake, though—“Congratulations” is in no way “Oracular Spectacular Goes Acoustic.” Most of the tracks on “Congratulations,” while unmistakably products of the creative force that is MGMT, sound more like throwbacks to 1960s surf rock (see the track “It’s Working”) than they do MGMT’s attempts to become an Iron and Wine-esque duo.
MGMT have maintained the quirky sensibilities that put them in the same league as (and on tour with) bands like indie giant Of Montreal. On “Congratulations,” though, they reveal a sensitivity and vulnerability with soft, slow ballads like “Someone’s Missing” and “I Found A Whistle” that they had previously only hinted at lyrically.
“Congratulations” is by no means flawless, of course. Throughout the album, listeners get the sense that MGMT are selling themselves short by pulling their musical punches, so to speak.
In an effort to avoid sounding ultra-poppy and overdeveloped, the band falls into the typical indie trap of lowering production quality in favor of seemingly endless choruses, underdeveloped hooks and unresolved melodies, all of which mar many otherwise excellent tracks.
Perhaps the most telling track on the album is “Brian Eno,” in which the band pokes gentle fun at ambient music pioneer-turned-producer Brian Eno. The track’s lyrics both question his supposed expertise in regards to the music industry by asking, “What does he know?” and celebrate it by admitting: “We’re always one step behind him, he’s Brian Eno!”
It’s obvious that MGMT aren’t merely the denizens of the dirty-hipster scene they were taken for two years ago. Nor are they its bratty, rebellious teenage children. Rather, they’ve evolved into what could be more correctly defined as the mature twentysomethings of the music world: they may not have fully found themselves yet, but they’re on the right track and producing some excellent stuff in the process.
“Congratulations” is available on iTunes and at most music retailers.
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