Hey guys! About a month ago, I briefly mentioned that MGMT is one of my favorite bands, and also said that Congratulations (their second album, the followup to Oracular Spectacular) is by far the best thing they've made. I'm pretty sure I also said that anyone who thinks Oracular Spectacular is wrong and should be ashamed of themselves. In the weeks since, I've been listening to quite a bit of MGMT, and I think I'm going to have to revise that statement. I still think that Congratulations is better, but Oracular Spectacular was way more solid than I've been giving it credit for.
Here's the thing: Oracular Spectacular came out, and they released three songs as singles; Time To Pretend, Electric Feel, and Kids. Pretty much everyone who knows MGMT got introduced to them by one of those songs, and they were all great songs to provide an intro to their stuff. Time To Pretend had one of my all time favorite synth hooks, along with pretty great lyrics and an indefinable charm that still makes it one of my favorite songs by them. Electric Feel and Kids had... a lot less, frankly. They're both good songs, maybe even great songs, but I suspect I'll always resent Kids for being better known than the much more deserving (in my admittedly biased opinion) time To Pretend, and Electric Feel just didn't do it for me like their other stuff. But anyway, once you'd listened to those three, Oracular Spectacular had a few other really great, attention grabbing songs that made you sit up and pay attention, and then everything else kind of felt like fluff. Not bad fluff, but almost a third of the album felt kind of forgettable.
Congratulations, on the other hand, is just this rock solid monolith of ear joy, composed entirely of really fantastic songs. I remember when it was first released, people kept talking about how it didn't have any singles, how it was a cohesive listening experience that was best when you just sat down and listened to it from beginning to end (incidentally, after it came out they ended up releasing four of the albums nine songs as singles, but that's neither here nor there). I ended up ignoring that advice and fixating on almost all of the songs one at a time, listening to each one over and over before moving on to the next one, but I have to say that it is actually really satisfying to listen to end-to-end.
Anyway, this has been one of my favorite albums for almost exactly four years now, so I feel justified in spending some extra time to go over it one song at a time. Haters to the left, Congratulations is worth it.
1. It's Working - I distinctly remember the first time this song made a really deep impression on me, because I'd been falling asleep in an incredibly boring entry-level college class, and after getting out I tried to wake up before going to my next class by listening to It's Working. Then I spent the rest of the day trying to convince my friends to listen to it, because I claimed that it made me feel like there were caffeinated spiders crawling through my bloodstream, and I wanted to share the feeling with the world
--As a quick disclaimer, I did not then, nor have I ever, used recreational pharmaceuticals. It's working just had a really visceral effect on me, that day. Normally I wouldn't feel any particular compulsion to mention this, but MGMT is up with the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd as far as weed music goes, so I wanted to make it clear that their music is really good even when you aren't into the side of it--
2. Song for Dan Treacy - I still don't know Dan Treacy is, nor do I care. I kind of get the impression that this songs about a detective investigating child molesters, but the main takeaway from this song is how great it is. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Song for Dan Treacy is my favorite song off of Congratulations, but it easily fits on my... top seven, at least. That pretty high!
3. Someone's Missing - I didn't really like this song for the longest time, but it grows on you. It's actually kind of an odd song, by which I mean it's only two and a half minutes long, and the first minute forty-five of that feels like an intro instead of a song. However, as weird as that set-up is, it works really well. Also, the crescendo always sounds kind of a like a boozy homage to the Mamas and the Papas to me, which is something I am 100% in favor of.
4. Flash Delirium - This is probably the most standout track on the album, and might be the most well known as well. It deserves it Flash Delirium has all the things a good single needs: flutes, massive wall-of-sound vocals, a magnificent finale that includes lines like "Sue the spiders, sink the Welsh"... It's got all things that are good.
5. I Found A Whistle - This song is a sort of tipping point on the album; after the first four very uptempo songs, I Found a Whistle slows down a bit and show a more ballady side of their music, which sets most of the tone for the last half of the album, and is pretty awesome. As a word of warning, it's a pretty terrible idea to listen to this album as driving music for road trips, especially when you start to get tired. It works really well until you hit this song, and after that you'll find your eyes drifting shut with alarming frequency... or so I have heard.
6. Siberian Breaks - This is what happens when you have like seven different song ideas, and decide to just crank your music up to eleven and daisy chain them together. Siberian Breaks feels less like a song , and more like a twelve minute concept album, which is to say it's AWESOME. It divided into a several discrete sections that blend together, and in spite of how chaotic it seems like it ought be, the end result is a very unified, melodious whole. It also has ridiculously compelling lyrics, including one of my all time favorite lines ever: "It's not the life lesson I'd've guessed/ if you're conscious you must be depressed/ or at least cynical". Seriously, it's a great song-thing.
7. Brian Eno - When I said that the last half of album is mostly slower and more ballady, this song was the reason for the "mostly". Brian Eno may be the most aggressively fun songs MGMT has ever made. It's all driving guitar hooks and wailing keyboards, and it's probably my favorite song of of this whole album. Apparently it's an homage to an English musician who pioneered ambient music in the 70's, which is kind of ironic, since the song itself is ambient like political cartooning is subtle.
8. Lady Dada's Nightmare - Ok, this is the one song that I'm not going to gush about on Congratulations. I just don't like it. It's not terrible, it's easy to listen to, but it's also kind of super boring. This is the kind of songs that makes you think "Man, I kind of want to skip this" a minute and a half into it, simply because it completely fails to make an impression up to that point.
9. Congratulations - I'm not going to lie, this is probably my least favorite song on Congratulations after Lady Dada's Nightmare, but it's pretty good in spite of that. Congratulations is one of the most aggressively passive songs I've ever heard, and I can only listen to it so often as a result of that. It's basically MGMT saying "We won music, so everyone can eat it". I am totally OK with that message, and in fact I heartily endorse the sentiment, but overall I'd rather just listen to Brian Eno two or three times in a row, if I'm aiming for sheer audio satisfaction.
And that's Congratulations! It's not as immediately listenable as some albums, but it rewards you for paying attention to it, and it's well worth the time invested. Go listen to it! you won't regret your choice.
PS, here's a little bit of extra music! I have loved Sooner or Later by The Grass Roots for as long as I can remember, but I feel sort of weird when I listen to it now. I can't make up my mind whether it's a delightfully upbeat song about a guy who got dumped but feels hopeful about the future, or an inappropriately cheerful song about the most determined stalker since Sting. Either way, it's still great.
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