Congratulations by MGMT

We live in a precarious time for album-makers. When I say album makers, I don’t mean all music artists. I don’t mean Lady Gaga or Jay-Z, because even though they are capable of making well-balanced, artistic albums, their records are usually nothing more than a well-sequenced collection of prospective singles and enjoyable filler. MGMT are real album-makers, the kind who know that hits like their synth-poppy “Kids” don’t mean the same thing when you place them along side freak-folk ballads like “Pieces of What” (both off their debut, Oracular Spectacular). On said debut, the band made a clear artistic statement that they wanted to be considered album makers like retro-heroes Pink Floyd or neo-retro-heroes The Flaming Lips. But I doubt most people who heard “Kids” have ever heard “Pieces of What”, because albums are in low demand these days.

On their sophomore attempt, Congratulations, MGMT make a retroactive attempt at sonic unity which they hope will revive interest in the medium of the album as artwork. For that reason they haven’t released any singles, and after hearing the record, none of the 9 tracks seem plausible as singles. They are all amalgams of psychedelic confusion, Andrew VanWyngarden’s notoriously cryptic lyrics, and an attempt at pop breeziness that comes out like a muddled and confused trip. Although anthems remain absent from the setlist, the album does not entice. The opener is a surf-rock odyssey meditation on the difference between drugs and love and the epic “Flash Delirium” trades newfound fame for existential panic. The interplay of these two themes, the difference between the real and the fake, the synthetic and the organic provide the thematic backbone against which these Wesleyan grads throw a mixture of 60’s retro-fitted ideas. What’s amazing is that it often sticks, and they come across as truly genuine fanboys of an era gone by, evoking a nostalgia for the idealistic records of the Beatles and Beach Boys while maintain the indie, hyper-modern sound that made them stars among the youth. This album has a soothing, natural pace that often overrides the shortcoming of tunes like the instrumental “Lady Dada’s Nightmare” which would be unbearable in different context, but in the weird stream-of-consciousness of Congratulations gets by on a cutely humorous title and peaceful dreaminess. You won’t whistle the tunes here and you certainly won’t decipher most of the lyrics, but this record is a sonic blanket in which you can lose yourself for awhile. MGMT retreat into that sonic oblivion in order to reach new listeners, a move that is surely doomed to fail, but for that reason is tinged with the dramatic scope which makes this strange journey worth taking. 4/5