MGMT - Congratulations

The preamble to MGMT's second album 'Congratulations', has been firmly centred around it being a deeply un-commercial album with 'no singles'. Claims by band members Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyndgarden that the album represented their true personalities, lead you to believe that a Television Personalities inspired Spaceman 3 produced psychedelic adventure awaits those seduced by the club-pop anthems of 'Kids' and 'Electric Feel'. Such disparity and friction creates a good story and thus a hype is created. The truth is that MGMT certainly have ditched the sound that made them famous however they haven't quite jumped in at the deep end in the way you might think.

Anyone who caught MGMT live during the touring process of their first album 'Oracular Spectacular' should not be surprised by the bands decision to ditch the short, pop melodies for noodling, extended jam sessions and forays into the high art of patience testing. One of the most indulgent live acts around it always felt that their truth lay in album tracks such as '4th Dimension Transition' as opposed to the arm waving, chest bellowing pop gems like 'Time To Pretend'. The very fact that 'Kids' was used as a one track encore played karaoke style over a pre-recorded backing track should have made people aware that MGMT were a band reticent to be the indie idols the fans and media made them out to be.

With the pre album hype combined with a long held suspicion then it is no shock to discover that 'Congratulations' is no walk in the park. If anything it's a kidnapped and blindfolded, spun around a hundred times and set free walk – lacking direction and making you feel a bit queasy. Take 'Flash Delirium' for example. Currently being used as the single to promote 'Congratulations' (Radio play and a high-budget single somewhat flying in the face of the bands claims to have no singles). The song embodies the spirit of the album in four demented minutes. Starting out like a Flight Of The Conchords spoof it then skips its way through pan pipe solo's, dreamy space rock and an eccentric pop-stomp before descending into a paranoid rant reminiscent of The Coral wigging out on 'Skeleton Key'. It's an infectious slice of madness and one that you suspect may be the blueprint for all future MGMT releases. Much of Congratulations follows in a similar vein, eyeing the obvious route and veering as far away from it as possible. When it works MGMT sound like everything the promised on their début and more. Where Oracular Spectacular was a glossy, inner city tale of freedom and hedonism, 'Congratulations' is draped in sepia tones and hazy smoke. The ideas are less bold and bright but still hint at the workings of a pair of magically warped brains. 'It's Working', 'Dan Treacy' and 'I Found A Whistle' all display a band who can write fantastic songs whilst 'Brian Eno' will surely be the crowd sung nail in the 'No Singles on this album' coffin.

However, for every moment of stoner pop majesty there is a drab foray into the unknown to bring things crashing down. The album is riddled with them but as if to compound the misery MGMT bring us Siberian Breaks ,a twelve minute example of why they are such a frustrating band. You suspect that this is how the band see themselves when they look in the mirror, wildly experimental kaleidoscopic pop adventurers. In reality it's a song that the skip button was designed for, a song that will herald huge queues at the bar whenever they play at a gig or festival for the next eighteen months.

'Congratulations' is by no means a definitive statement of who MGMT are. It plays through like the musings of a band wanting to put two fingers up at what they achieved first time around, a self-knowing act of rebellion masked by a love of English prog bands from the Eighties. If, as suspected, MGMT fall off the commercial radar then they will be able to look inside themselves and make a record that sounds believable and true because all we have at the moment are phoney odes to former glories.

5/10

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MGMT - Flash Delirium

I don't forgive you for subjecting me to two of the most tedious and indulgent gigs ever but for now MGMT I admire your sense of the ridiculous and pity whoever it is that will be caring for you and your acid frazzled brains in fourty years time.

MP3: MGMT - Flash Delirium

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News Round 17/02/10

I'm ill hence the lack of anything good on the blog this week (honestly that Little Girls post = worst.thing.ever). Besides regretting my decision to enter the germ pit that was a dental hospital on Monday I wish I was seeing Hole tonight. Instead I'm watching football and listening to Quasi. Just thought I'd rear my head and post a few things I've seen worth mentioning.

The new MGMT album cover (Pictured) is hilarious/ ridiculous. Given how horribly indulgent that band are I can only imagine what the new album will be like.

I managed to grab 2 tickets to see Rage Against The Machine at Finsbury Park in June this morning. Hopefully this time I will remember more than when I saw them drunk in 2008 and an errant mosher broke my phone.

The BRIT's was an unmitigated disaster saved only by Jay Z and Alicia Keys. Peter Kay called Liam Gallgher a 'knobhead', Liam tweeted his respone thusly,

Liam, you've lived in a part of London reserved for millionaires for well over ten years now. You're married to an All Saint and divorced from Patsy Kensit. Your 'real' Northern credentials are buried deep beneath your Selfridges stocked clothing line.

True Panther Records (Girls, Magic Kids etc) have curated Bento #7 and also given a load of stuff away on the NME Radar blog.

Silver Columns have been unveiled as Adem and Johnny Lynch. When I was told that it was 'household' names behind SC I wasn't aware they meant Adem's Mum and Dad's house...

Wild Beasts have gone disco

Normal service should resume tomorrow and I've got stuff from Gorillaz, Perfume Genius, Blood Red Shoes, Holly Miranda, Soft Pack, Field Music, Errors, Lightspeed Champion, She and Him, Wilder, Keepaway and the NME tour finale to come.

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Single Of The Year #6- MGMT: Kids

MGMT LIVE REVIEW
MGMT are a band of contrasts, no doubt about it. Stemming from the Brooklyn scene alongside the likes of Yeasayer and Chairlift they are the acid fried, perma-baked art school musos. Their shambolic live shows reflect this and left me wanting to rip off my ears twice this year. However, and it's a big one, they know how to write an amazing pop song. I could quite happily put Kids, Electric Feel and the huge hit Time To Pretend in the top ten tracks of the year. Kids is my personal favourite though, it's a big day-glo party anthem that has a bit more fun about it than the nihilistic Time To Pretend. The album 'Oracular Spectacular' failed to fully grab me but 'Kids' is still a great contribution to the year.

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Singles- October 13th

Wild Beasts- Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants-
One of THE bands of the year release one of THE singles of the year, only surpassed by their previous effort 'Devil's Crayon'. Bad Sneakers have come up trumps with Wild Beasts- a one off, eccentric and innately English band. In lineage with The Smiths in terms of literate and intelligent mentally challenging pop music Wild Beasts are a joy to the ears. 'Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants' is trademark Beasts with Hayden Thorpes extraordinary vocals claiming all the credit. It soars and swells in equal measure, disappearing down rabbit holes and emerging with a grin. Wonderful.

MGMT- Kids-
And you thought 'Time To Pretend' was the hit? MGMT come up trumps with this electro tinged smash. Possibly the most frustratingly 'almost incredible' bands of recent years MGMT show here that when they stop being daydreaming self-indulgers they write incredible pop songs. Alongside 'Time To Pretend' and 'Electric Feel' the band have produced some of 2008's finest singles. Now if I can just erase all memories of their gigs....

The Last Shadow Puppets- My Mistakes Were Made For You-
A third fine single from the Arctic/ Rascals offshoot. Alex Turner takes the lead here telling a tale of a relationship torn apart (By "innocence and arrogance entwined"). Much is said of the Scott Walker influence in LSP work and his presence undoubtedly looms large over songs like this. Having said that this is as lush and classic as either Turner or Miles Kane's previous output.

M.I.A- Paper Planes-
Only M.I.A could make a song about immigration and make it into the smash 'Paper Planes' is. Having seemingly been around for ages ('Kala' was released in August 2007) the song has had a re-invigoration of interest being on soundtrack to the Seth Rogen film 'Pineapple Express'. The gun Shots and cash registers are still as attention grabbing as ever (and poignantly drown out the childrens voices too). A great song from a great talent.

A Place To Bury Strangers- I Know I'll See You-
Another fine slab of industrial gloom from the New York duo. It may be less abarasive than previous singles but 'I Know I'll See You' still loses none of APTBS intense darkness. Oliver Ackermann's nonplussed vocals sit well with the metronomic sonic swoops developing in the background. It's not as instant as 'To Fix The Gash In Your Head' was but this shows the depth of the band. Catch them supporting on the upcoming MGMT tour/ borefest.

Times New Viking- Call & Respond-
Currently shredding their faces alongside No Age and Los Campesinos on the Dis approved tour Times New Viking unleash 'Call And Respond'. A typically lo-fi affair it pitches somewhere between Moldy Peaches esque off key vocals twinned with Seattle style distorted guitars. A nagging incessant refrain permeates throughout clawing it's way into the listeners mind and making this more accesiable than you assume the band want it to be.

The Cool Kids- Mikey Rocks-
The Hip-hop duo from Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan release 'Mikey Rocks' named after group member Antoine Reed. A slow hypnotic beat is the bed for this track with Reed and Even Ingersolls raps taking on a similarly lethargic nature. Whilst not bad it's hardly single material and would probably be better left on 'The Bake Sale' as part of an ensemble.

Snow Patrol- Take Back The City-
That band from X Factor? Chasing Cars? Yeah I love that song. They have a new single? Urgh, power chords? Yuck. This can't be played over karaoke singers crying over dead relatives. Next!

The Decemberists- Valerie Plame-
Colin Meloy et al return with two minutes of plodding sub Ben Folds gumpf followed by a more uplifting second half reminiscent of The Polyphonic Spree. Nothing special on show here.

Sia- Soon We'll Be Found-
Post- Tori Amos self aware quirk. The press quotes on her jump from superlative to superlative but to these ears there is nothing more than bog-standard Radio 2 B List material. Bat For Lashes does this ten times better.

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MGMT/ Florence & The Machine- Live

http://www.drownedinsound.com/event/view/35944

MGMT/ Florence & The Machine
Manchester Academy 2
Tuesday May 20th.


It’s a testament to the popularity of MGMT’s breakthrough single ‘Time To Pretend’ that just under three months ago the New York collective played in Manchester at the much smaller Night & Day café. That gig, like tonight’s in the considerably larger Academy 2 sold out and with festival season approaching MGMT’s star is most certainly in ascendance. The question remains however, besides that song what exactly do MGMT have to offer?

First up however is the effervescent and charming Florence & The Machine. Having bubbled away on the edges of the radar the stars seem to be aligning for Florence at the moment and a high profile support slot on this tour is only going to send her higher and higher. A short and sweet set is started with a cover of Cold War Kids single ‘Hospital Bed’; strange to start a show with a cover but it is the first introduction to Florence’s breathtaking voice. A voice that pierces, soars and fly’s it is the highlight of tonight’s show- the voice takes songs like ‘Birdsong’ and ‘Girl With 1 Eye’ to a different stratosphere. However despite boasting a voice so strong melody does not seem to be pivotal to Florence’s songs, too many times where slight restraint would be more beneficial she opts to really belt it out. One assumes that maturity and a good album producer will curb this urge and see Florence mature into the talent she clearly has is buckets. Set highlight is new Moshi Moshi single ‘Kiss With A Fist’ that is as punchy as it is sweet, this time next year she could, nay should be massive.

MGMT’s ‘Oracular Spectacular’ may well flirt with the ‘Best Of’ lists at the end of the year but if there was a ‘Most eclectic’ list then it would surely be a dead certainty for number one. Probably best described as sounding like Scissor Sisters covering The Rolling Stones on LSD the album veers from out and out pop to psychedelic meanderings via electronic club smashes. The live show is a similarly hit and miss affair.

The two piece (Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden) photographed on the bands album cover are boosted by three extra member for the show with a second guitarist, bassist and a drummer. The drummer, for no apparent reason is sat behind an unfeasible large drum kit, you half expect it to start twisting and flaming a la Joey Jordison or Tommy Lee at any moment. Lead singer VanWyngarden is the main emphasis for tonight, partly because he is singing all the songs; mainly because he has arrived on stage in a floral dress. The show starts on a really impressive roll; kicking off with an instrumental flight of folly ‘Weekend Wars’ soon permeates it’s way through the skin and it’s off kilter dreamy pop stylings see the crowd swaying and seduced. ‘Electric Feel’ follows suit, taking a more Glam approach to the much-documented Mercury Rev similarities, a second hit if ever there was one. The three-headed opener is completed by album highlight ‘The Youth’ an ethereal and heavenly slice of pop perfection. Having started so well MGMT set the bar very high for themselves and sadly from here on in they tried in vain but simply could not clear the jump.

Three quarters of tonight’s gig was self indulgent, bloated and boring. Too many songs wandered away from the already loose album recordings with extended jam sections spoiling the likes of ‘Pieces Of What’ and ‘The Handshake’. You could see the crowds attention was wandering and not just because they were itching to hear ‘Time To Pretend’. Obviously a gig by a supposed ‘One Hit Wonder’ band is going to be a frustrating affair. It would be naïve to assume that 75% of people were here for anything besides the song and the only time MGMT engage the whole room is during said four and a half minutes. Having played ‘the hit’ the room predictably begins to empty, playing a ‘Future Reflections’ and a little known Kinks cover do little to keep feet from the door.

If the second half of the main set was hard work then the encore feels slightly like a joke. A fourteen minute histrionic and pointless first track is dragged out until the tedious end before the natural show stopper ‘Kids’ is wheeled out. Bizarrely the band opts not to actually play this, instead VanWyngrden and Goldwasser sing over a backing track. The crowd go wild nonetheless though and it looks like MGMT have rescued the gig with a brilliant show stopper. However this is not the case and as VanWyngarden says “This is our last song, we are just going to improvise some stuff, see what happens’ the room quickly empties. Patience has been tested and broken.

In a shorter, hit laden festival set MGMT will be outstanding, however given time and space to roam they simply do not have the charisma or inventiveness to carry off an hour plus set at this point in their career. Sadly on tonight’s display it seems MGMT are far more filler than they are killer.


Florence & The Machine 7/10
MGMT 5/10

'Time To Pretend' (Live on Letterman)

MGMT - Time to Pretend (David Letterman)
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