Once described as “experimental pop chameleons” by New Musical Express magazine, MGMT seems to have shrugged off that name with their new album Congratulations. While its first album, Oracular Spectacular, was voted as the 18th best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, Congratulations is a bit of a disappointment.
The album dives straight in with its opening track “It’s Working”. Upon first listen, lead singer Andrew VanWyngarden’s voice sounds similar to that of a teenage boy whose voice is infused with helium. The song gets better as it goes on and VanWyngarden sounds a little more like himself. The twanging guitars and lilting harpsichords make the song upbeat and catchy and is one of the highlights of an otherwise drab album.
Second track “Song for Dan Treacy” sounds oddly like the “Monster Mash” mixed in with a little bit of beach music. With its eerie noises in the background and creepy sounding voices piping up here and there, it makes for a rather weird song. Though MGMT is known for having eccentric songs, this one is just obnoxious.
“Someone’s Missing”, the third track of the album, gets no better. The lyrics sound like they’re being whispered until about halfway through when VanWyngarden sings of how “it feels like someone’s missing”, concluding the song with the repetition of that line over and over.
After feeble attempts at making some decent music, the album gets better with the fourth track and first single from the album, “Flash Delirium”. The song is reminiscent of the work done on their first release, Time to Pretend EP. It’s able to work in their sound from Oracular and twist it around to make it sound new and fresh for this album. Next track “I Found a Whistle” is able to maintain the good streak with “Flash Delirium”.
This song shines brightly on an album full of songs that sound like the stereotypical musings of an indie band. It’s a buoyant track full of hopeful melodies singing of finding “a whistle that works every time”. The mellow guitar combined with the high pitch synths in the background contribute to the airy tone of the song.
Unfortunately, their good streak runs out on “Siberian Breaks”; a 12 minute song that only gets more boring as it goes on. It’s like a book that drags on forever and is a pointless addition to an already subpar album.
The album is only nine tracks long and not one of the remaining three songs help to make the album any better. With titles like “Brian Eno” and “Lady Dada’s Nightmare”, the songs feel like joking B-sides that were thrown onto the album for no apparent reason other than to take up space. As far as a sophomore album goes, MGMT fell flat with this one.
In May, MGMT will be touring around the United States and Canada with a stop in Dallas on June 8th. For the sake of those attending, one can only hope that the album will sound better live than it did on CD.
