MGMT – Congratulations (2010)

As a young adult when I was studying in the University of Helsinki, I was a DJ in many student parties playing indie tunes for drunk students. In these parties, the crowd was really difficult to please, because about half of the people wanted to hear normal pop tunes that they would've heard in normal commercial discos, while about half of the people wanted to hear more critically acclaimed indie music that they normally couldn't hear in Helsinki's nightclubs. I was known as the indie DJ, who the other half loved to have play records, while the other half hated. For the indie kids, MGMT's debut album was one of the must-play albums. I would play the song Kids almost every night since the release of the album. This second album of theirs is not filled with danceable indie hits, but with psychedelic and strange indie pop.



In a way I really like this album, because it's so crazy and unique. On the other hand, I think it's bit of a shame that MGMT couldn't write as catchy hit songs for this album as they could for their first one. This is not the kind of album that I would've necessarily played in indie discos, but I would more likely have played this at a pub where I was playing background indie tunes for people. There are quite strong retro vibes with this album, but still, something makes it clear that it's a brand new album and not from the 60's or early 70's. Maybe it's the production.

The album starts with an uptempo psychedelic hit song It's Working. This song sounds like it would work perfectly live. There are some electronic cembalo sounds and echoey vocals that make it sound a bit like baroque pop. Song for Dan Treacy starts off as a more typical guitar-driven indie rock song, but the tone changes when the crazy psychedelia hits in in the middle of the song. Someone's Missing is a strange ballad with echoey sounds and kind of lo-fi feel to it. Flash Delirium has a catchy melody and a rhythm that makes you nod your head along. That makes the song one of the best ones on the album. There are clear similarities to late-60's psychedelic pop rock scene. I Found a Whistle has some acoustic guitars and echoey psychedelic vocals that remind me of some strange crossover between early Pink Floyd and Velvet Underground. Siberian Breaks has nice pop sounds, but the melody continues the progressive and psychedelic styles of the album. Brian Eno has a high tempo that makes the song most rock-orientated on the album. I think this was one of the biggest hits from the album. There are some great melodic parts where everyone in the band is playing in unison. Lady Dada's Nightmare is a psychedelic piece with fairytale-like string arrangements and nightmarish noise parts. The title-track Congratulations sounds most like the previous album. The composition is quite straightforward, which makes this song more approachable than the rest of the album. The album ends with a strange noise song Inbetween the Liners, which is filled with experimental sounds and spoken-word nonsense filled with pop-music references.

The music video for Flash Delirium shows the band duo in most hipstery outfits you could find back in 2010 attend a strange party in a mansion somewhere in the countryside with some military men and classy upper classes. There are some super psychedelic scenes in the music video, like when one of MGMT's guys opens his throat and the hole forms a small mouth that sings along to the song. The song ends with some pig-like creature being born from a sci-fi machine that could've been in the film Rocky Horror Picture Show. This video is definitely appropriate for the craziness of the music.

I'm not a huge fan of MGMT, but I think their first two albums at least have their place in the history of pop music. They enabled to make new sounding music almost merely by circulating retro sounds but mixing them differently than before. And I feel like this influenced lots of other bands who have gone fully into neo-psychedelia since.

Listen to the album on Spotify.