MGMT’s third studio album finds the duo moving even further from the sound that brought them their initial success.
Their first album was loved for its weird, instantly catchy and danceable singles like “Kids” and “Electric Feel.” But their sophomore release saw the band moving away from the single ready songs that were scattered across Oracular Spectacular. With their new album, simply titled MGMT, it’s clear that the duo is attempting to dive head first into the realm of art, psychedelic and prog indie rock.
The album opener, “Alien Days,” shows that MGMT can still build a great pop song while retaining their desire to become something more than a single machine. The song falls nicely between where MGMT has been and where MGMT is going.
The next two tracks, “Cool Song No. 2” and “Mystery Disease,” delve deeper in to the more psychedelic and progressive side of the band. “Cool Song No. 2” throws more sound into the mix than is probably necessary, but it works for the song by adding to the panicked feeling of the lyrics. “Mystery Disease,” possibly my favorite song on the album, feels like Andrew Van Wyngarden, the bands head vocalist, is slowly drifting away. Himself becoming a victim of the “Mystery Disease.”
“Introspection,” “A Good Sadness,” “Astro-Mancy” and “An Orphan of Fortune” on the other hand, feel completely dialed in. The songs sound like what someone would write if they were told to imitate “art rock.” It left me feeling like MGMT is trying too hard to move away from the music of their first album. Being different for the sake of being different, not different because it works for the song. While the songs aren’t bad by any means, except for “Astro-Mancy,” they’re just somewhere between good and over drawn.
“Your Life is a Lie” is a good example of a song that should have served as a short intermission, but out stays its welcome. Which is saying something considering the song is just barely over two minutes in length.
With “I Love You Too, Death” the duo show that they can write a song that earns the “art rock” moniker that they are trying to achieve. The song works wonderfully at slowly and softly building upon itself, like a realization of someone would need to achieve true happiness.
“Plenty of Girls in the Sea,” the most “fun” song on the album, ended up being one of my favorite tracks. It was a great break from the more psychedelic overtones found on the rest of the album. The lyric “Keep it short, simple and sweet” serves as a perfect, self-referential description of the song.
While MGMT does stumble along the way, the song “Astro-Mancy” sounds as if someone gave a toddler a soundboard while Van Wyngarden whispered into a microphone, I found it to be an over all enjoyable record that just can’t seem to build up to anything truly gratifying.
6 out of 10
