MGMT - Congratulations

(5.5)

I couldn't wait to bash this album . The first time I heard it, it sounded so messy and random, in a bad way. But I just spent my hour long train ride home sitting down and giving it my full attention, just to be fair. It wasn't bad, it was actually a lot better than I was expecting.

I first heard MGMT back when the first EP came out, Time to Pretend, the one with the earth on the cover , with the original version of Kids, which is a lot better than the one on the LP. Boogie Down was cool, and then I heard Electric Feel and Of Birds, Moons and Mosters which became my two favorite song for all of 2006, waaaaay before anyone knew about them. I'd show people it and they would just dismiss it for trash, then once one of their songs was in a trailer for some lame movie, it became the biggest thing. Same thing happened with M.I.A but I digress. MGMT simply just became so old quick, in a gimmicky way, just like Neon Indian this year.

So when Congratulations came out this month, I wasn't even interested in listening to it at all. I expected it to be all 'psychedelic' in their post-queen way, messy and annoying. But it turned out to be not bad, and the further the album progressed, the better it got better. It actually does sound like I imaged, post-queen pop psychedelic, and a lot less radio friendly and pop as the first LP. It actually kind of sounds like it should be on Elephant 6. But what I was NOT expecting was how well it flows. It's not annoying and messy at all. The music is well written. It's so mellow, not chaotic, which saved it for me.

The 12 minute medley Siberian Breaks acts as the center piece. Every section it goes into is great, and the ending reminds me of the ending to Of Birds, Moons and Monsters, which is the greatest two minutes of music MGMT has ever created. One of my favorites.

The other great song is Congratulations, an good way to end the album. I would guessed they would have done so overly self indulgent weird annoying thing. But this is so down to earth and peaceful.

I just felt like I needed to justify this. I don't like MGMT, and this album isn't great. But it's definitely not terrible. Also if they were to substitute half of the synths for organs, I'd like it a lot more.

Sounds Like

Later Beatles + Queen - the self indulgence