By Mike Clark
As the world enters a new decade, a new type of music begins to unfold. MGMT’s first album, “Oracular Spectacular,” was one that attracted a lot of attention; the band’s new album, titled “Congratulations,” is set to be released April 13.
The album was concocted in a “small cabin in the woods,” according to the Brooklyn-based indie/psychedelic band’s members, and is expected to feature Pete Kember, ex-member of Spacemen 3, and Royal Trux singer Jennifer Herrema, in addition to original members Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser.
The one thing the band intends to do differently this time is to release “Congratulations” as only a full album, so fans don’t just hear them through radio singles like “Time to Pretend” and “Kids.”
One single, “Flash Delirium,” has been released not as a single per se, but just as a little taste. It definitely reminds me of the Nuggets compilation and has the usual psychedelic vibe to it. The New Musical Express got a first listen to the whole album and describes it as “echo-drenched mini epic tendencies” mixed with some “classic MGMT,” and “frenetic, brief pysch nuggets.”
This album is meant to be experienced as a whole, rather than just listened to for stand-out singles. “We’d rather people hear the whole album as an album and see what tracks jump out, rather than the ones that get played on the radio – if anything gets played on the radio,” Goldwasser explained. “We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album, in order, and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”
You can definitely tell in the one single that this album will not be about being poppy and just attracting radio drones. The fact that it’s titled “Congratulations” makes this writer believe that this will be more about having fun and creating something unique.
Obviously, the first album was just a way to get their foot in the doorway of the creation process. MGMT has described the album as “a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence.”
Now, standing in the doorway of a bright future, MGMT has been contacted by music greats such as Paul McCartney about collaborating on dance tunes and other ideas.
The band will also be very much occupied with tourning in the next couple of months, especially with the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, Calif. on April 16 and also a show at the University of New Hampshire in Durham on April 30.
The adventurous and bold experimental album will be available for download any day now.
Amber • Apr 6, 2010 at 3:47 am
please do not ever and I mean EVER! compare MGMT with Nuggets again.
Nuggets was a compilation of REAL musicians.
ed tandius • Apr 6, 2010 at 3:42 am
No links to new songs? Anything….?