Apr 14

COMMENTS












SFD Review:

MGMT - Congratulations {Album Review}

Author: justinglenndavis
POSTED AT 08:04 PM
Categories:
Music, Indie, MGMT, Congratulations, Websites

Congratulations MGMT. Initials that became a topic of daily conversation on radio stations and music blogs everywhere in 2008. The band formerly known as The Management went from a small electronic Indie band to a global Indie phenomenon over the course of a few months. Their debut release "Oracular Spectacular" was met with huge success by international audiences courtesy of their wildly popular first single off the album called "Time to Pretend" which according to Wikipedia was featured on five television shows and three feature films in the year 2008 alone. At the time, Time to Pretend was admittedly one of the most fun, energetic, and innovative songs I'd heard in years. Sure enough the song started popping up everywhere and the band was tracked down, researched and sought after by the general public and musicians alike. Before they knew it the Band was opening for Music Industry giants like Radiohead and Paul McCartney, and receiving awards for their wildly popular recordings and performances.

As a fan of the music I found it almost magical that the band would receive so much wild and rapid notoriety from all channels of the media, the pubic, and the industry. Everyone wanted a piece of MGMT. In various interviews about their influences, it was obvious that the band's most potent influences came from the likes of Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin, the typical drug fueled rock gods of the 70's. For me at the time this was a big red flag. A band of kids, singing about how much they want to be famous and do drugs (Time to Pretend lyrics). Abbreviating their band name before getting famous and talking about how much they love the seventies. Their first batch of music videos from oracular spectacular were no less than "trippy." Featuring wild shroomy fairy parties (Electric Feel), primitive kaleidoscopic bonfires (Time to Pretend), and horrifying monsters stalking a baby (Kids), So what comes next? Worried? I am.

MGMT recently fell prey to the digital age, their new album, "Congratulations" leaked online around the 19th of March. The album is currently streaming for fans on their website whoismgmt.com. The streaming page reads quite honestly, "Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us. We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn't make sense to anyone but us." I'll get back to their online presence in the next paragraph. Their first *single from the new album, "Flash Delirium" was released on March 9th and is now accompanied by a music video that streams from their website. Flash Delirium is a musical description of momentary hallucinating and paranoia. And the music video is a visual representation of this assumingly drug induced disorder. At the end of the day you go with your gut on music reviews, and I must say that when it comes to Congratulations my gut has been about as unsettled as the album's themes. Congratulations is now available everywhere, and I must say that after a few more listens the album is beginning to grow on me. There is still a chance that the album will fall by the wayside in comparison with the band's more popular past exploits. However it must also be said that an album can be brought to life on stage. So if MGMT can manage not to creep out their fans too bad, and not get too high to perform or think, the album could be a huge success. Listen to the band talk about their album on NPR
whoismgmt?
Something interesting that I love about this band is their website. Whoismgmt.com is not particularly complex or even tech stimulating. However their page backgrounds and banners are 100% designed by their fans. One of the benefits of being a stoner-friendly band is that you have an army of stunning visual artists who are willing to work for you free. MGMT takes advantage of this by allowing anyone to submit their fan art to be added to the site, and their standards for professionalism in design are lax and welcome to even to casual doodlers. All posted content fits in some way or another to the Band's image. Their druggy image allow them to mismatch logos and banners without really confusing their brand, which is great for brand awareness and fan loyalty. Their simple online presence is shockingly effective and inviting, and I give them a thumbs-up on their fan-built brand and website.
whoismgmt?
You can listen to Congratulations here.

*The band did not want to release the album with any specific “single� in order to encourage fans to listen to the whole album. Although Flash Delirium was the first song to be released off of Congratulations.

Like what you read? You can read more posts by Justinglenndavis

Read More

Subscribe

Categories

Archives

2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009

Authors

elder
elder