Great Songs: MGMT - Kids

One day in 2007 I listened to a track a friend advised me to listen to. There I was, in front of a video made by some user or other on Youtube, that blue screen that they seem to love on there comes up and the sound of children playing is the first thing that hits me. Next comes the damn catchiest synth riff I'd heard in years set against some nice, simple sequenced drums before a bit more textural synth and bass kicked in. I sat and listened to that whole bloody song and by the end of it I sat there, silently, for a second or two and thought: shit! That's brilliant!

That song was Kids by MGMT, the best recent pop song I can think of. Shortly after I was devouring the delights of Weekend Wars, Electric Feel and Time to Pretend by that same band and loved it all.


Kids - Sadly not the video mentioned in this post though

When MGMT came along in 2007 they were necessary. Far too many shitty indie bands with annoying "oh oh oh" sing-along crap as their main repertoire were in operation. MGMT literally showed them all up and showed them that yes, a song can be simple, it can be quite sing-along, yet it can still be sang instead nigh-on spoken on in affected English accents and it can still sound fresh and exciting and good.

Kids is one of those epiphany-inducing songs that gets a band real exposure. The simplicity of it is bloody audacious to be honest, but, the simplicity just makes it even more admirable.

From listening to MGMT I was also inspired when I heard the simlar-sounding Brooklyn gang Yeasayer and Kids was the root of me caring at all.

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.