BY MIKEY MIGO
I typically like to use the “First Impressions” pieces to look back at bands from the past that I’ve never had a full experience with. Sometimes I just don’t take the time to listen to a band because of a single that I didn’t like, because someone I didn’t like was a fan, or many other silly reasons. There’s also just ignorance to fall back on. Sometimes you just don’t hear of a band or be confronted with their music. Over the past “First Impression” pieces I’ve taken first time listens to the entire studio discographies of old bands like “Simon and Garfunkel”, “The Stooges”, and “The Cars”. There have been some newer bands like “Kings of Leon”, “Rise Against’, and “Coheed and Cambria” to sneak in as well. This is another one of those situations.
I don’t know much at all about MGMT. Based on the folks I know who do like them I’ve made a blind and potentially unfair assessment that they’re an indie pop dance band that hipsters and club people like. While people in that description are friends of mine, it’s not a style of music I want to listen to for an extended time period. So I’m hoping for the best. I’m hoping for something more complex and with more depth than what I just described. I do recall hearing one of the newer singles, but I couldn’t really tell you much about it except that it was a fluffy dance pop song. Again, I’m looking to be optimistic here. I want to enjoy what I’m about to spend my free time listening to. A lot of you fans and critics put A LOT of HYPE behind his band so please don’t be wrong. Let’s get started…
Climbing to New Lows
(2005 | Duration – 38min)The band was still called “The Management” at this point in their careers. They say this was an “accidental release”. Apparently this was merely a demo album, but was leaked on the net as their first full length album release. It just kind of stuck as a part of their official discography. Let’s see if that’s a mistake or not. We hear an intro called “Come On Christmas”. It slowly builds a simple piano melody over grizzly fuzz and a voice over of a man almost preaching his speech. It builds into “We Care”. The vocals are sung delicately as the layers of noise build around it. The chorus then almost comes out of nowhere into something pretty bouncy and almost fun. It’s a welcoming experience, but a tad jarring. I like it and if this is their early stuff, I’m really curious to hear them evolve. I really dig “Money to Burn”. It reminds me a little of “Purest Feeling” era Nine Inch Nails, which in my book is a pretty big compliment. It’s got a dirty funk to it, but maintains an aura of darkness and mystery that makes you want to dig a little deeper with further listens. “Hot Love Drama” is a filthy synth pop song that sounds straight out of a Prince B-Side cover album. “The Kids Quartet” takes me out of the experience. It’s an interesting song until the weird vocals kick in. It’s, I’m assuming a quartet of people ranting in whiney hipster voices the lyrics at us. It’s the kind of trite indie song that’d be on the “Juno” soundtrack. Kids count down as we get into “Kids (Afterschool Dance Megamix”. This song sounds pretty familiar. I wanna say I’ve seen the video if there is one. The synth melody they use here is addicting, the bass is controlling, and the vocals are just right for a song like this. Then it sorta just breaks off into a loopy bass line that’s kind of obnoxious and not in the fun way… and then back to the good stuff. “Honey Bunny” is next and starts off with some Casio preprogrammed loop sounding stuff and then goes into some oddly delivered vocals. It borders on annoying and catchy, but more so the annoying. I want to like it, I don’t hate it, but I can’t get into it. It’s too jarring and doesn’t work for me. The opening warped tones of “Greyhoundredux” are pretty fun, but take too long to really go into anything else. It finally gets into some really snazzy midi file sounding loops and sounds. I found myself trying to comprehend what I’m hearing here more than anything. It’s interesting stuff, but I’m not sure how good. We hear a phone ring and some zany inside joke from someone in the studio at the start of “Grutu”. It then goes into one of the best tracks on the album. The vocals, music, and experimentation here just seems to kind of work out for the better. This unofficial official release ends with “We Don't Care”. It’s got a good groove to it. It has a weird combo of feeling like something you’ve heard a million times and something completely new all at once. There are times the music falls from the lines of indie coolness and to sitcom theme cheesy. I’m not sure if that’s a dis or a compliment. It’s interesting stuff, layered and full of unexplored life. For an “unofficially official” release, this says a lot about where their initial buzz came from.
Oracular Spectacular
(2007 | Duration – 40min)This album kind of blew up. I know for a fact that I had to of heard at least one song from it. I see that “Kids” is on this too. I bet that’s it. We start off with a very solid “Time to Pretend”. It’s said to be the “mission statement” for the album. If so, then no wonder people drooled over this stuff. We go into something that sounds a bit more Southern Rock in “Weekend Wars” and it fades into something kind of trippy. It’s like if Axl Rose went to art school instead of the Sunset Strip. This goes into a almost Bowie-sounding tune in “The Youth”. It’s a droney and enthralling journey into space. Its music that makes you feel like you’re in “Pandora”, the world from Avatar. I hated that movie, but this song is something I can get behind. I have heard “Electric Feel”! It’s actually coming back to me now how much I actually dug this specific song. I remember telling a few friends to check them out base off this song. It was a late night and with blurry eyes and even blurrier intentions I ended up rocking out to this video late one night on MTV, VH1, or one of the other 3 music stations that show music only at 3 AM. I’m slightly rocking out to it now as well. It’s got a smirky swagger to it that you have to join in on. There’s no way around it. “Kids” is next. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard THIS version before and not the too long for its own good remix on the first full length. This version has all the goodness of the remix, but tighter and just overall better. “4th Dimensional Transition” is pretty different. It’s got almost a tribal drum tap behind the down tempo organ and vocals. The hidden drumming in the background carries the song into different arrangements. I like the idea of that, but the execution is hard to pull off on something like that. And holy shit, these two do just that. This song is under four minutes, but takes you on a 10 minute journey. I don’t know how to explain it, but this song is what the act of time travel sounds like. The obnoxiously delievered lyrics of “Pieces of What” over acoustic music suck. This is my least favorite track on this album and feels like filler. Like pretentious cocky filler. Like they were like “let’s just do it, bro… let’s just make this shitty song and let people tell us how awesome it is”. It’s like they dared people to be hipsters and I’m sure there are lots of “American Outfitter” customers who bought in. We get back to business with “Of Moons, Birds & Monsters”. It’s much better, but I’m not sure how much. It sounds really silly. It feels like 80’s action movie love scene montage music. There are glimpses of brilliance in there, but the overall song itself just again feels like filler. “The Handshake” is good and enjoyable. It’s got a trippy Pink Floyd type of vibe to it and puts me back into the vibe of the music. It turns out to be one of the best songs on the album. It should have been a single. The album closes out with “Future Reflections”. It builds up and then dies down to church organ. The trippy vocals layer over it as an echoic synth loop lingers in the back. The layers here are intense, especially on headphones. It’s a solid finish to an overall remarkable musical accomplishment. Compared to the first album, it sounds much fuller and expansive. There is somehow more layers and noises, but it’s so well done and polished that it all sounds so natural together. It’s a bouncy AND explosive album. I can totally get why people love this band so much after this album. I found myself enjoying it more during the first half. There’s solid stuff in the second half, especially “The Handshake”, but it does feel like some filler. I WILL be listening to this album again in the future. So far, I can definitely recommend this album purely for its first half.
Congratulations
(2010 | Duration – 44min)Their most recent release came out just this year. The first track “It’s Working” seems a bit more “together” than their older sound. It’s got the loops of synth in there, the vocals are strong, and the whole track just ties together very nicely. It’s almost a surf rock song, which is off putting. It’s still enjoyable and a good sign of what could be coming. “Song For Dan Treacy” carries on the subtle surf rock stuff and bounce. This reminds me of if “The Shins” covered a “B52s” track. It’s just kind of weird in tone, but vocally is oh-so-droney. There is something beautiful about the simplistic majority of “Someone’s Missing”. It does build up towards to the end to a more playful dancey portion, but still ends up working out to make for a good song. “Flash Delirium” is trippy. It’s like a trippy rock a billy song. It’s catchy, fun, and is very solid. Then there is a chorus of voices singing a long during the bridge, then it goes into flutes, and then back into the trippy stuff. There is a lot going on in this song, but I really like it. So far, I can easily say it’s my favorite of the four I’ve heard on this. “I Found a Whistle” is pretty damn good too. It’s a down tempo track, but it’s a strong track. It’s unsettling, creepy, and just a good tune. I love the change up about two minutes in and then it builds right back up so effortlessly. “Siberian Breaks” is over 12 minutes long, but it does not feel that long at all. You are taken on a journey here. It’s a good listen all the way through and does not get boring or tedious. The last few minutes may have hypnotized me. I’m like 3% serious. Should I be worried that this indie rock group made me does their bidding? Why is there blood on my socks? Any who, we go into the seventh track on the album called “Brian Eno”. The dude is obviously an influence of these guys. The song is slightly dancey, but catchy and fun. The lyrical content, even if it is the awesome Brian Eno, is lame. It’s not that the song is about Brian Eno, but the lyrics are just cheesy and stupid. It’s an effort that did not pan out. “Lady Dada’s Nightmare” sounds like score that’d be in a Rocky movie. That is until the echoic screams of horror kick in. It’s a solid instrumental track, but at 4:31 about a minute too long. You need more change ups in a track like this to be that long. We finish off with the title track “Congratulations”. It’s a damn good track. It’s down tempo and the lyrics tell the story of dealing with the success of the band thus far. Is it me, or is it too soon for this band to be bitching and crying about having a lot of money, fame, and success? This rubs me the wrong way. This band went from being experimental and playful to woe is me and my music money. I’m not bitter or jealous, but this doesn’t do anything but secure the fact that they are rich kid hipsters from New York. At least other bands in the same vein make themselves somewhat relatable. Bummer way to go out on this.
Would I listen to MGMT again? Sure. I enjoyed some of “Climbing to New Lows” and possibly enjoyed it more than the most recent album. For the most part, “Oracular Spectacular” was their best album. The singles on it are stronger, but that’s not why I say that. I enjoy the overall listening experience of the entire album just a lot more than the other two. You can hear the band evolve from gritty to fun and polished to a little over polished and less fun. There is still TONS of potential here. I’d love to hear what comes next, but this is not a band I’m going to go out of my way to see or hear. I could see why other people do love this band and put tons of hype on them, but it’s just not my exact cup of tea I suppose.
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