I can’t decide whether what they did was genius or borderline suicidal. Genius: I guarantee they will not be nominated for a Grammy after this spectacle – they basically said, FU, whatever, whatever, we do what we want. So the novelty of MGMT is still there. Hell, they’re rebels now. Borderline Suicidal: I bet you clicked through the songs waiting for the next “Kids,” or even something resembling “Weekend Wars.” And by the time you got to “Lady Dada’s Nightmare,” you were like, “wait.. seriously?” And you finished sampling the songs all disappointed, turned away from the album forever.

The problem is not that MGMT set the expectations too high, it’s just we weren’t expecting what we ended up getting. It’s like biting into a lemon, expecting sour, and getting sweet. Your reaction is, “wait, there must be something wrong with that lemon,” when in fact it’s not a lemon at all.

I suggest you take a second listen to the album. It’s actually kind of cool. Tons of layering, dissonances and quick changes. I think if it hadn’t leaked during the snowy doldrums we would have received it more welcomingly. Now, with the warm weather and sun shining, Congratulations sounds like something you’d want to jam out on the porch to in the company of your facial-haired hipster friends.

This review was going to be about how a half-hearted album deserves a half-hearted review. And I was going to ask you to review it in your comments. I no longer think the album was half-hearted – just risky.

Anyway, I’m still interested to know whether anyone still hates it even after a second chance. Or if someone absolutely loved it the first time through.

Give It A Second Chance?

Tags: MGMT

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 6:40 PM and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.