I'm a huge fan of their singles, Kids in particular. However, I cant take too much of the band. Its a promising debut, though.

For some reason, I really like this song...

Indie Rokkers

[bit.ly] MGMT covers Closer... and it is very creepy but good!

pask posted:

i dig their time to pretend ep & oracular album, but the production of the album is horrendous like most new ones. all the depth, bass and dynamic range is ripped out and replaced with voluuuuume!

they have a great sound, but their album's sound takes all that away. i'd love to hear the album engineered and mastered by someone who knows what they're doing. the songs themselves though are great for the most part. haven't seen them live yet... i should check out the other ep's too...

I agree with this, really good band though.

indeed. not the most original interpretation, but fucking cool nonetheless

nothingnowhere posted:

I remember buying Oracular Spectacular early last summer, when the single 'Time To Pretend' had just come out. I was with my friends at the time and after taking a look at the album cover, they said it looked fucking retarded. A few months later, 'Kids' comes out and they're huuuuge fans. =P

And I adore their cover of Closer. It's the only good NIN cover I've heard. "I wanna fuck you like a dinosaur?" How can you not love that?

In the summer? I got that as the free single of the week, and that was january?
Just saw closer, awesome! 0_0 They owned maroon 5's ass so much.

I like MGMT. I just saw the video for "The Youth". Eric Warheim, from Tim & Eric, directed it. It shows in a good way.

I heard Congradulations on their webiste. Entire thing. Its pretty terrible. Psychedelic goop. Unfortunate, because these guys can write a great pop song. Seems they're starting to feel like The Pixies felt about Here Comes Your Man or Nirvana felt about Smells Like Teen Spirit, if I'm reading the interviews correctly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2010 07:45PM by Kid IRA1.

Yeah the new album is terrible. They should of stuck with their guns. Their pseudo-psychedelic pop is just boring and is nothing special. They stood out with their singles "Kids, Time to Pretend, Electric Feel"

heatherette333 posted:

I hear "Kids" almost every time i go out, with out fail.

I'm glad Andrew Wood hasn't been forgotten. I'll be picking up the new album this week for sure.

Here are two reviews, a so-so one from ROLLING STONE and a more favorable one from the AMG.

[www.rollingstone.com]

3 stars (of 5)

On their best songs — "Time to Pretend," "Kids" and the new "Someone's Missing" — you don't know if MGMT are goofing or sincere or both. "I'm cut and I'm weeping like a rubber tree," sings Andrew VanWyngarden on the new track, which seems to be about death — until the 1:45 mark, when, amid upward-spiraling synths and harp arpeggios, it transforms into what sounds like a Jackson 5 tune. Is it a piss take on existential indie rock? A requiem for Michael? Or an attempt to vanquish grown-up sadness with giddy kiddie rock?

One of MGMT's great attributes is how — in this Daily Show-fueled, we've-seen-it-all- before cultural moment — they keep you guessing. Most rock bands save their coping-with-fame opus for the second or third record. VanWyngarden and partner Ben Goldwasser released it as their first proper LP, 2008's Oracular Spectacular, on which they sang about cocaine and model wives like two trippin'-balls hippie gangstas. They were kinda joking, kinda not: An indie-rock-style duo with a taste for Bowie glam and druggy synth pop but also for head-colonizing hooks, they signed a major-label deal in 2006. What followed was self-fulfilling prophecy: opening gigs for Radiohead and Paul McCartney, collaborations with the Flaming Lips (Embryonic), some Grammy noms (one win) and, apparently, shitloads of rock-star partying.

With Congratulations, the knowing smartasses of Oracular Spectacular seem confused about what's next. The result is a hazy, hit-and-miss album that will likely alienate some fans of the debut, but one that also testifies to MGMT's restlessness as songwriters and human beings. "It's Working," a song VanWyngarden describes as about the drug Ecstasy, mixes surf guitars, harpsichord glitter and bong patters with some less-than-ecstatic lyrics: "I see the signs of aging/But if I try to feel at all, I am deceived," VanWyngarden sings.

Drugs are a theme here, and so is the pop history MGMT are now a part of. "Song for Dan Treacy" pays tribute to the man who led the Eighties U.K. post-punk experimentalists Television Personalities before becoming a drug casualty. All snappy beats, Munchkin choirs and neon-flashing electronics, it's funny until you realize the story, about a dude wandering the streets "frozen in time," is pretty sad.

For the MGMT of Congratulations, stretching out sometimes means losing your way. The 12-minute "Siberian Breaks" is a prog epic with some baked riffs on Leonard Cohen existentialism ("Oh, Marianne, pass me the joint"; ditto "Lady Dada's Nightmare," a mix of cheesy Sixties-soundtrack moves and bits of slasher-flick screams that could use some "Poker Face" drama.

The set closes with the title track, a spangled folk rocker about the weight of success that rides a bass line recalling the Band's "The Weight" (get it?). "I save my grace with half-assed guilt," croons VanWyngarden, interrogating his own skepticism in what seems a sincere attempt to — well, to be sincere, to wrap his head around all that's happened. With one record, MGMT made it into the pantheon. With Congratulations, they attempt to not just keep it weird — which they've done — but to figure out how they can be in it for the long haul. It's a solid start.

[www.allmusic.com]
After the smashing success of Oracular Spectacular, it was clear that MGMT were going to be a bit of a crossroads when it came time to follow up. Would they try to simply re-create their single-rich debut and pray that they avoided the sophomore slump, or would they continue to evolve? Fortunately for the listening public at large, they opted for the latter, delivering a follow-up album that matches, if not triumphs over, their earlier work. Always moving forward, the band has stepped out from the shadow of sonic auteur Dave Fridmann, producing the album themselves with the help of Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom. The end product is a sound that owes more to Phil Spector than the Flaming Lips, managing to be atmospheric without necessarily being spacious. It also feels like MGMT have taken a more dynamic to songwriting on this album, tossing aside the dancing thump of “Electric Feel” and “Kids” in favor of songs that build in a more deliberate and satisfying way. “Flash Delirium” folds upon itself again and again, ramping up to a Wall of Sound chorus before letting loose with a big, glam/garage finish, as if to vent off any excess musical pressure before heading into the more subdued “I Found a Whistle.” This kind of careful songwriting tracks all throughout the album, giving the Congratulations more cohesive feeling. While this kind of musical vision means there isn’t really a clear-cut single, it does make for an all around better album. MGMT has matured as a band, and to show that off, they’ve returned by making the album that they wanted to make rather than the collection of loosely related singles that was expected from them. From the opening moments of the sublime “It’s Working” all the way to the titular closer, Congratulations is an incredible follow-up from a band that is still maturing into some unknown entity.

Its grown on me. The direction isnt necessarily a bad one, just needs more practice I suppose? Anyhow, Brian Eno is the sleeper hit of the album.

Yeah, not too impressed with "Congratulations"

I don't care what people say but I like Congratulations.

some of my friends are obsessed with them. they're okay. i'm really only familiar with a few of their songs. i know i said i heard "Kids" every time I go out- and it's still true, kind of. but now i hear "Time to Pretend" more than kids, it's a good song but very weird to dance to.

I thought Congratulations was better than Oracular Spectacular. It was more consistent, whereas Oracular Spectacular seemed to lack direction and half the album consisted of good songs while the other half didn't. I love Time To Pretend, Weekend Wars, Kids, The Youth and Electric Feel; i.e. the good half.