Gasp.
For some reason, there’s so much critical backlash for MGMT’s sophomore album, Congratulations, and frankly I don’t see why. Review after review pans the band for alienating fans or straying too far from their original sound. If I had a dime for every time I read one of those two phrases in a review…well, I guess I still wouldn’t be rich…
News flash world. "Kids" is not MGMT’s “sound.” Both that song and "Time To Pretend" (which is still my favorite just because it empowers me) were written when founding members Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser were in college. In the early 2000’s. Several years ago. A lot of things can change in the process of one year let alone about five from when early versions of TTP and Kids were released on their first EP in 2005. Those two songs and "Electric Feel" as well were almost fluke hits. I honestly don’t even understand the process in which music becomes popular, but by some occurrence of pop culture, MGMT became a well-known band based on those three songs. And that is how most people know them. So all the fair-weather fans who walked into the psychedelic pop-art wave of Congratulations’ album artwork went in expecting more dance hits to play at their dorm parties to make them look “hip.”
And that’s not what they found. Instead they encountered a complex amalgam of an album that can be a bit off-putting and intimidating at first listen. A quick confession, I listened to Congratulations in its entirety before Oracular Spectacular. I saw online when the album leaked and figured I’d listen to it. I mean, I liked MGMT. Might as well listen to their new stuff. And at first listen, I liked it. I mean, I wasn’t completely blown away, but I enjoyed it and would listen to it while aimlessly surfing the net in my dorm.
But then I listened to it again, and again and slowly but surely, it grew on me. And now, I’m totally in love with it. As an album, it is much more coherent and comprehensive than Oracular Spectacular. In Congratulations, they picked a sound and stuck with it whereas OS was a bit all over the place. There were the big thumping dance hits ("Time To Pretend" and "Kids"), acoustic, echoing tunes ("Pieces of What", "Weekend Wars") and then the trippier psychedelic stuff that would become the basis of Congratulations ("Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters", "4th Dimensional Transition"). Which is why it confuses me that people don’t understand where Congratulations “came from.” If they really loved Oracular Spectacular and listened to the whole album, they’d see that the guys were already dabbling in the spaced out sonic landscapes that invade Congratulations.
With help from producer Sonic Boom, of Spacemen 3 fame, the guys of MGMT create an aural world that once you’ve truly stepped into it, you won’t want to leave. The album leaves you feeling much like the confused little cartoon on the album artwork, engulfed in a wave that you can’t control, but something about it still feels so right. From the loud surf-rock open of "It’s Working" to the subdued applause neatly wrapping up the end of "Congratulations" (both the song and the album), it’s quite the journey if you’re willing to submit yourself to it. There’s quite the variety of songs, from the reverb-filled mystical "Someone’s Missing" that starts slow but builds up to a booming crescendo to the weird instrumental "Lady Dada’s Nightmare" which combines the sounds of organs, guitars, pianos and pained screaming which all combine to create a sound which is so bizarre and unsettling, but yet you find yourself still listening. Andrew VanWyngarden has described the song as what it would sound like if you had sex with Lady Gaga. Well, it’s definitely an interesting notion…
The first taste listeners got of Congratulations was "Flash Delirium," which, even for MGMT’s standards, is a strange song. It takes a few listens to orient yourself with the insanity of the track. It’s a complex and layered song with many things happening at once. On paper it lyrically looks like a tangled web of confusion, but when all combined, it somehow forms the outline of a coherent thought. It uses a lot of post apocalyptic imagery, “even if this hall collapses/ I can stand by my pillar of hope/it’s just a case of flash delirium,” “my earthbound heart is heavy, your heartbeat keeps things light, with the violence forever threatening the night.” And by the end all hell breaks loose with VanWyngarden channeling his inner heavy metal star screaming nonsense combinations of words and then the end. You’re left, head spinning, confused, but hey you have to admit it was a fun trip.
I would give a song by song analysis, and believe me, I could, but I need to talk about my personal favorite, "Siberian Breaks." The 12 minute “pop surf opera” behemoth of a song. First let me say this song is incredibly epic live. My friend Clare who went with me started to film it not knowing it was 12 minutes long; at around 6 minutes she asked “Is this still even the same song?” I guess I should have warned her ahead of time. But honestly, this song is a journey. Lyrically, it is the most developed with so many thoughts piled into it that make me stop for a moment and really think, “It’s not the life lesson you’d’ve guessed/ if you’re conscious you must be depressed/ or at least cynical.” The song moves in waves, carrying you along the frozen soundscape they are creating. It opens with the strumming of an acoustic guitar, travels through levels of echoing, vast aural landscapes, and ends with two full minutes of synthed out bliss. I’ve heard synths called “sparkling” before, and I never understood what that really meant until I heard that song. Beautiful.
MGMT name drops some of their influences in the brash and fun "Brian Eno" and the bouncing "Song for Dan Treacy," about the singer of the band Television Personalities. In all honesty, it’s helped introduce me to new music since it piqued my curiosity about those two artists. VanWyngarden and Goldwasser have said in interviews that they never planned to make an album about fame, but it kind of happened anyway. I guess it’s hard not to when it comes out of nowhere; it must be hard to get a bearing on what is happening. "Congratulations," the song, is a thesis on fame that laments the superficial aspects of it, but basks in the glories of it as well “I’ve got someone to make reports that tell me how my money’s spent/ to book my stays and draw my blinds so I can’t tell what’s really there.” Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Who knows, for “all I need’s a great big congratulations.”
Well, congratulations MGMT. I genuinely mean that. This album deserves a lot more credit than people are willing to give it, but those who do appreciate it will hold onto it as a little gem. I know I will.
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