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Tuesday, October 07, 2025
MGMT deserves Congratulations

MGMT: Coming off the success of their overplayed Oracular Spectacular, on Congratulations, MGMT challenges the reputation the album gave them.

MGMT deserves Congratulations

Who is MGMT? That's the question their official website asks. To many, they're the band played constantly at Urban Outfitters. With their latest album, MGMT challenges that reputation, even though it made their last album so popular.

After making a name for themselves with pop hits ""Kids"" and ""Electric Feel,"" the synth-pop duo is back with their third album, Congratulations. Having trouble dealing with the successes that came with their last album, Oracular Spectacular, band members Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden are releasing their newest album on their own terms. In a bizarre move, MGMT has decided not to release any singles from Congratulations, under the pretense that the album is meant to be heard as a whole. In an interview with NME.com, Goldwasser and VanWyngarden explained, ""There definitely isn't a ‘Time to Pretend' or a ‘Kids' on the album. We've been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.""

Congratulations will be officially released on April 13, but the album leaked a month earlier, and the duo decided to make it available for streaming on their website. MGMT's uncanny retro style is matched by their anti-establishment, the-music-is-what-matters mindset, stating on their official website that they ""wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn't make sense to anyone but us.""

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Apart from their style and attitude, MGMT's music also has a strong bearing towards 70s psychedelic rock. With Congratulations' 12-minute track, ""Siberian Breaks,"" MGMT have done Syd Barrett proud, as the song's vibe is reminiscent of ""See Emily Play"" by Pink Floyd, sounding like multiple ballads serendipitously jumbled into one.

Paired with their offbeat persona, the album seems as though it would translate to the live stage well, reminiscent of the Pink Floyd laser show, integrating odd sounds into drawn-out tracks. ""Lady Dada's Nightmare"" is one such song. Besides moments where the song diverges into what sounds like a synthesized cat in heat, MGMT delivers a purely instrumental ballad that is sure to woo fans into a cell-phone-sway during live performances. The song also includes an overly obvious reference to fellow-freak, Lady Gaga, who clearly influenced the track.

What is truly impressive about Congratulations, however, is that it gives every indication that the album is a compilation of random song styles and genres that somehow work as a cohesive entity. ""Flash Delirium,"" for example, is a nonsensical, Monkees-esqe song that oddly works. However, MGMT not only experiments with neo-hippie, 70s inspired songs, they've also taken inspiration from surfing, a hobby the duo picked up while recording Oracular Spectacular. Aside from the obvious nod to the beach on Congratulations' album cover, which is a picture of a cat on a surfboard being eaten by a giant wave/other cat, the opening track, ""It's Working,"" has a refreshing surfer-rock, Beach Boys sound.

This random cohesion of songs is brought together with the closing track ""Congratulations."" Its slow tempo and dreamy feel give the song an emotionally honest vibe. It's the post-coital cigarette to the album's wild ride.

Congratulations is likely to charm old fans, who've always enjoyed the band's far-out sound from their first album, but will likely have the opposite effect on those who grew to love the band for their dance hits like ""Kids."" The album is good and the duo proves they are not resting on their laurels, but it's not as catchy as what the band has previously delivered.

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