Imagine, those of you born post 1966, sitting down to listen to The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" for the first time. Imagine your furrowed brow when track no. 2, "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," plays. The first usage of a sitar in rock music, hand cymbals and maracas instead of drums, a perplexing title that doesn't correlate with John Lennon's narrative. The Beatles hadn't yet entered the full-bore experimentation of "Sgt. Pepper," but only five months earlier it had released the straight-faced, Merseybeat soundtrack "Help!"
Despite its movements away from the mainstream, history has deemed "Revolver" and the band's following albums to be among the greatest in history. Because The Beatles are a great band. It's slightly unfair to compare MGMT to The Beatles, but the neo-psychedelic act hasn't proven itself able to tackle the same complex experiments, and yet during "MGMT," it tries so hard to escape from its pop roots. Why?
Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser were the "it" band of 2007. "Oracular Spectacular" bore a crop of inescapable hooks onto the alternative music world. Fans ate it up. Alt-radio ate it up. Soon, even pop radio began to eat it up.
Moment of self-realization for the band.
MGMT opted to reinvent itself, similar to what The Strokes did when it got too popular for its own liking. The difference is that The Strokes at least appeared to have a vision during middle albums such as "First Impressions of Earth." MGMT's second record, "Congratulations," met congratulations for unearthing '60s psychedelica, layering vocals and stacking harpsichords. It didn't add up to "Oracular," but it demonstrated new direction.
"MGMT" is the sound of the ideas present behind "Congratulations" splitting like the ooze in a lava lamp, disseminating in no particular direction. The vibe and qualities of a good psychedelic record exist, but the pieces don't float together toward a evident cause. The handling of VanWyngarden's vocals frustrate more than any aspect. MGMT spent all this time matching instruments, but it doesn't seem to care when its vocalist is drowning beneath waves of sound. When audible, the vocals ride from left-speaker to right, and back again, countlessly, to the extent that it's shifting balance for the sake of shifting balance. Ultimately, the music means more than the vocals for an act such as MGMT, but when the wordplay is handled this roughshod, it proves a distraction more than a disguise.
What made "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" successes was the creative juggernaut behind it. Expecting MGMT to live up to The Beatles would be a tall order. Van Wyngarden and Goldwasser still need to consider if "MGMT" serves as a reaction to unwanted publicity, or to serve as art unto itself. A little bit of "Oracular" hides in "MGMT." First single "Alien Days" hearkens to the incredible hooks of "Kids" and "Time To Pretend," and there's no shame in writing a chorus that effective, regardless of where it finds airplay. If the band opts to stick with psychedelia, a purpose must be found. Good psychedelic music operates like a Pollock painting: Done right, it's a dense, beautiful pattern. Done wrong, it's just a paint splatter.
