MGMT: Congratulations - Reviewed

5/5
What a fantastic band MGMT are. With their first album, 2007's Oracular Spectacular, the band provided us with some absolutely wondrous pop songs such as Kids and Electric Feel whilst throwing in the odd psychedelic number like Of Moons, Birds and Monsters and singalongs such as The Handshake and The Youth.

Second album,Congratulations,released last month, is a different beast altogether. Whilst losing none of the appeal of the first album, Congratulations is a more Syd Barrett-esque take on things. Psychedelia is clearly an influence on the album (see Siberian Brakes ) but doesn't overrule the melodic nature. Brian Eno is a fantastically catchy track about the former Roxy Music knob twiddler/whatever he was doing man turned demi-God producer and friend to Bono and Chris Martin. It's this album's Time to Pretend. Lyrics such as "my whole foundation came unglued/when i tried to humanize by ambient light/dipping swords in metaphors/yeah but what does he know?/he's go the whole world behind him he's Brian Eno, Brian Eno!" have more than a hint of tongue-in-cheek qualities about them. Another fabulous look at how both we and an artist can believe their hype.

Congratulations is a complete success, if it's slightly less accessible than the first album, it's certainly no worse off for it. It's their White Album to Sgt. Pepper.