Rating: 4/5 stars
They are finally back. Nearly five years after the release of its very bizarre and polarizing self-titled album, “MGMT,” the band suddenly resurfaced in late 2017 with the single “Little Dark Age,” a dark and glitzy track drawing obvious inspiration from ‘80s new-wave pop hits.
Consisting of multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, MGMT looked to be tossing the flower headdresses and psychedelic look aside in favor of black lipstick and torn-up clothing.
After the next singles “When You Die” and “Hand It Over” were dropped, it was clear that the next album was not going to be focused in just one direction. This should not be surprising to anybody, considering how all over the place their previous projects had been, with VanWyngarden and Goldwasser experimenting with as many different sounds and ideas as they could. This free-wheeling approach to making albums had produced great results, like with its sophomore LP “Congratulations,” but had also resulted in the complete mess that was its self-titled project. There were plenty of doubts going into “Little Dark Age,” mainly with whether the album would be consistent or just another collection of half-baked ideas.
“She Works Out Too Much” kicks the album off in a fun and exciting way, with a female voice counting down over bright, colorful synths. “Welcome to the s*** show, grab a comfortable seat,” sings VanWyngarden, with a saxophone wailing away in the background. In an interview with Rolling Stone, VanWyngarden explains that Goldwasser and he were not trying to “mask [their] pop influences,” mentioning bands like Talking Heads and Hall and Oates. The lead single “Little Dark Age” reinforces that idea, fitting right into the synth pop theme with its eerie, almost unnerving melody.
The chorus is packed with energy, and VanWyngarden’s strained and uneasy sounding vocals fit perfectly over the aggressive synth arpeggiator. “When You Die” is one of the group’s most well put together tracks, with a guitar pattern that gets progressively more disorienting as the song plays on. The number of switch-ups on the track brings their track “Siberian Breaks” from “Congratulations” to mind, yet “When You Die” feels better written, accomplishing more in a much shorter runtime.
The song “Me and Michael” is a cute, light-hearted tune originally meant to be written about a girl, with VanWyngarden changing the subject to an ambiguous story of a man named Michael. It is a solid track, but suffers from feeling like more of an homage to ‘80s synth pop than a reimagining of it. “TSLAMP” is a smooth, punchy track written about cellphones and the way they affect how people communicate. The instrumental is upbeat and soaked with reverb, as VanWyngarden laments about all the time he has spent staring down at his phone.
“James,” “Days That Got Away” and “One Thing Left to Try” shows that the duo shoved their weakest material in the last half of the project, something they have done before.
These tracks do not have any real kind of structure, with the mostly instrumental “Days That Got Away” going stale before it is even half over. With how strong the first half of the album is, it is disappointing how easily skippable most of the second half is. “Hand It Over” is a lush, expansive finishing track, with some of the most beautiful vocal layering in their entire discography.
While “Little Dark Age” might not appeal to everybody, it is a huge step forward for the duo, with their songwriting showing the most improvement out of everything else.
Image from MGMTVevo via YouTube.com
