The new nine-song album blends psychedelia with elements of post-punk, surf rock and even folk.
From the opening moments of the sublime “It’s Working” all the way to the titular closer, Congratulations is an incredible follow-up from a band that is still maturing into some unknown entity.
MGMT's Congratulations makes me want to say this to the band: Congratulations.
MGMT plots a strange course for their listeners with Congratulations, but the material here often exceeds that of the band’s initial full-length.
Congratulations is no more impenetrable than the Flaming Lips at their most commericial, with Sonic Boom offering a bright, upfront mix that keeps the baffling array of omichords, guitars, sitars, synths, organs and FX percolating in dynamic, uncluttered fashion.
MGMT remain great songwriters, and at the heart of much of Congratulations are great songs. It's just that this time around, they've gone back to basics, borrowing a slew of enduring influences, making popular music the way it was made when popular music was still in its infancy.
The fact of that matter is that Congratulations remains a sketch, a half-baked attempt to distance MGMT from its previous oeuvre.
Congratulations will likely be seen as a firm ''up yours'' by a lot of fans. I can see their point but I wonder if they'll see MGMT's point, that standing still is more boring than any tricky double-neck guitar heroics could ever be.
As with The Flaming Lips' recent album, Embryonic, it adds up to commercial suicide, but it makes an interesting change from bands desperately clinging to a winning formula.
Their mainstream audience should flee now, but Congratulations is more than mere commercial suicide. Their perversity has produced a sonic adventure, with lovely moments.
With Congratulations, they attempt to not just keep it weird — which they've done — but to figure out how they can be in it for the long haul. It's a solid start.
Overall, MGMT's refusal to co-operate with the listener jars with the crisp and professional production – which, despite Sonic Boom's involvement, is more Van Dyke Parks than Spacemen 3 and leaves Congratulations sitting somewhere in the middle, not complex enough for the prats, but too obscure for the jerks.
In the absence of Oracular’s pulsing, dance-ready synth-pop, Congratulations takes its cues from the cosmic-charged psychedelia of that album’s latter half.
Here’s one important question though, and answer it after you’ve finished Congratulations: “Would you even listen to this record if it wasn’t by MGMT?”.
While the only ostensible reason for MGMT’s stylistic 180 is to seem less like a lightweight pop act, the songs on Oracular were far more engaging and better written than almost anything here.
Congratulations shares nary a sonic smidgen with Oracular Spectacular, instead existing in a netherworld where mod-era psychedelia meets prog-rock and where the ecstatic heights of the band's debut don't exist.
Expectations are always high on a sophomore album, and Congratulations doesn’t even try to live up to what fans may have wanted, but doesn’t quite work on its own terms, either.
Happy Birthday to @Gustavstone07
MGMT are a gem of a band, who have delivered a mostly consistent streak over their careers since their breakthrough with Oracular Spectacular, a solid album in my eyes, even though the singles are considered some of the best tracks of the 2000s. "Kids" and "Electric Feel" are some of my favourite tracks from that decade as well.
The duo's second album Congratulations marks as a departure from the synthpop driven sound of their debut, ... read more
Woohoo, today was my birthday! You know what that means: special birthday review!
I decided to revisit and re-review one of my favorite albums of all-time, "Congratulations" by MGMT. This record is very important for me, as when I first heard it, it opened up a new musical world to me. Before listening to this album, I had little experience with psychedelic music, and it had yet to become a favorite genre of mine. Thanks to this record, however, I was able to change the way I viewed ... read more
1 | It's Working 4:06 | 90 |
2 | Song for Dan Treacy 4:09 | 88 |
3 | Someone's Missing 2:29 | 82 |
4 | Flash Delirium 4:15 | 90 |
5 | I Found a Whistle 3:40 | 84 |
6 | Siberian Breaks 12:09 | 94 |
7 | Brian Eno 4:31 | 87 |
8 | Lady Dada's Nightmare 4:31 | 83 |
9 | Congratulations 3:55 | 92 |
#3 | / | MOJO |
#8 | / | Billboard |
#10 | / | Q Magazine |
#11 | / | American Songwriter |
#14 | / | Spinner |
#16 | / | The Needle Drop |
#19 | / | NME |
#20 | / | Spin |
#26 | / | Rhapsody SoundBoard |
#28 | / | DIY |