Forget the rulebook. This is art, man. If there’s one thing you can say about MGMT with absolute certainty, it’s that they’ve got the guts to do what they want. Their third album, and follow-up to the much-maligned ‘Congratulations’, is wilfully difficult and arrives shrouded in murky synths.
The corpse of ‘Oracular Spectacular’ has stopped twitching, its accessible hits Time To Pretend and Kids now locked away in some dusty filing cabinet. MGMT have indulged their deepest passions for psychedelic mischief here, with any hints of a quick pop fix snuffed out with barrages of awkward instrumentation and background squeaks.
During the build-up to this release, Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden have been admirably up front about its content. There has been no sugar-coating, no promises that there are tasty nuggets within for fans of their early material, and with good reason.
The closest ‘MGMT’ gets to a radio hit is the middle section of its opening track, Alien Days, or a cover of Faine Jade’s Introspection, which is charming in a tripped out kind of way.
Your Life Is A Lie and Plenty Of Girls In The Sea also provide highlights, the latter’s jaunty step particularly effective after the indulgent mess left behind by A Good Sadness, Astro-Mancy and I Love You Too, Death.
‘MGMT’ misses more than it hits, but buried beneath the waves of experimentation there remain a few rough diamonds. It’s hard to imagine MGMT ever scaling the commercial heights that they did on their debut again but now they’ve cut that part of their story adrift, maybe a new fanbase awaits.
Sat October 12th 2013 - GLASGOW O2 ABC Glasgow
Sun October 13th 2013 - WOLVERHAMPTON Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Mon October 14th 2013 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo Manchester
Wed October 16th 2013 - LONDON The Forum
Thu October 17th 2013 - LONDON Forum
Sat October 19th 2013 - DUBLIN Olympia
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