MGMT-Congratulations

Following 2008´s commerciallly succesful Oracular Spectacular, Congratulations completely reinvents MGMT´s music style in a never-before-imagined-way. It´s impressive how much progress the band have made in the last 2 years, because we all knew it would be quite hard to come up with something better than Oracular, which even though was a very pop-oriented album and barely had hints of any kind of psychedelism and was a complete success, with songs like Electric Feel and The Youth, that became party-favorites, lacked anything really interesting for the picky music listener. This album though, is the complete opposite. Even though it still has the "classic" MGMT sound (if it can even be labeled as such, considering it's a band that has been around for less than a decade), the catchy, digestible and easy-to-listen-to music, it's also evolved and been introduced to a completely new style, turning something as basic as keyboard and drum machine beats into pure psychedelic magic. The first single off the album, Flash Delirium, sounded much more elaborate than the synthpop/rock singles from Oracular both lyrically and instrumentally, and this could either mean two things: The band was in the transition process, was going to lose fans because of their new sound, or just wanted to trick us into believing that they were doing the former. Luckily for us, it meant the former. Of course that first single wasn't enough insight of what direction the band were taking, but on the long run, it would help to prove something very important: They evolved, they improved and they became a completely new band. Like I already said, yes, the album still has their trademark keyboard-driven sound, but unlike it's predecessor, the album is a much more psychedelic rock-oriented (and influenced) album. Of course one can not just claim they evolved and became a psychedelic band because of one or two songs, especially not considering that a couple of the tracks on the album sound just more elaborate but could have easily been on their first album, but if there is one thing, one element on this record, that will leave you speechless and will more than likely make you applaud and shed a tear, is the 12-minute epic Siberian Breaks. Before I get further into it, let me clarify one simple thing. I could easily review all the tracks in this lovely record, one by one, but that's not my style, plus, I'll resume (and more than likely clarify your musical doubts about how good or bad this record sounds) every possible element with the following semi-review. This magical and legendary song comes from out of nowhere, the elements of it are unprecedented for an indie pop band, and the underlying essence it holds exceeds any possible vision of what the band could have composed 2 years ago. The heartfelt lyrics, the legendary progressive-based 3-segment instrumentation, the mood, the vibe, the musical elements, the majestic emotional landscapes it guides us through, just...everything about it resonates pure beauty and psychedelic magic. This is the song that completely showcases where the band is going (Along with Lady Dada's Nightmare, which sits right there at the very top of the album, combining the classical MGMT essence with the newfound MGMT essence to create yet another fantastic psychedelic/synth rock composition) and if there is one part of the song that will mark you (if you actually appreciate music) is when Andrew starts singing:

"I hope I die before I get sold"

The Who allusion perhaps? Either way, it's the most haunting moment on the record. It basically sums up all the wishes of any musician whose only goal is doing what they love in life, without being a victim of the puppeteers that handle this long-lost-art and newfound goldmine. Of course it could cause controversy and be considered as a hypocritical statement, considering these guys started out as nothing but a very charming, exciting, young indie pop band, but if they had actually had the cynicism of spitting out something so profound back in the day, they would probably be on my black list by now, but they didn't. They waited until they had the musical arguments to do so. Psychedelic music in general has long since faded from what you could consider as Pop music, and this is the main element of this record, psychedelicism, thus giving them the biggest backup to their seldom statement. If all these fancy words baffled your childish, non-educated mind, then let me make it easy for you, young reader: It's as simple as this, Psychedelic music is not Pop music, hasn't been for the past 20 years, and there are no signs that it will be in the immediate (or coming) future. To conclude with the review of the major musical statement of this record, the aforementioned song (and basically all of this marvelous record): It basically has all the elements you could possibly love about any kind of musical composition. It's such a perfect song in every way we post-Barret Pink Floyd fans can easily relate to the tea set. Yes, I just said Siberian Breaks is a Pink Floyd-like masterpiece, it sounds like them in their best progressive years (and even in their final acid years, before Barret left, considering the song itself also has typical 60's pop-music elements and the fact that progressive rock started out in the late 60s) Hate me now, or love me even more, that's up to you, dear reader, but this song could have easily been composed by Pink Floyd, simple as that. It's completely up to you to agree or to disagree, but you'd be deaf not to consider this as one of the best songs of the decade. At least on the "mainstream" scene (because who even listens to the non-mainstream songs I listen to, like...seriously)

Best Tracks:

1-It´s Working

2-Song For Dan Treacy

3-Siberian Breaks

4-Flash Delirium

5-Lady Da Da´s Nightmare

6-Congratulations

(Yes, practically all songs)

Final Verdict: Of course there are remains of the music they first attracted us with, but not as many as old fans would have liked, but that´s good! (In my humble opinion) because it just comes to prove how talented they are as musicians, evolving in a majestic way in less than 2 years. If you want to give a good CD as a present to someone, (or to yourself) don´t look any further, this is as good as music can get (at least in 2010 and on the mainstream scene, paired with Anathema´s We're Here Because We're Here and a couple of others)

9/10

Side Notes: Yes, the album´s artwork is epic. I don't really know if the members were the responsibles for it, but it's really cool and interesting, very cartoonish and funny. Buy the special edition CD, it comes with a really cool poster, you won´t regret it!