Artist: MGMT
Album: Little Dark Age
Label: Columbia Records
Release Date: February 9, 2018
Seeing Light
Photo by Brad Eltermant
Written by Silas Valentino
Death may be lurking in the crannies of this album but MGMT’s fourth outing, Little Dark Age, is their liveliest and most entertaining record yet. Whereas their initial success was marked by pristine singles such as “Kids” and “Time to Pretend,” this LP is a thorough 45-minute ride through death’s door that boomerangs back to suggest a hint of light amongst these darkish times.
This was a band dead on arrival: a psychedelic duo that transcended time, space and Billboard Top 100 charts. MGMT were never meant to be a household acronym but they somehow became one 10 years ago. They were inevitably marred by their success because pop couldn’t keep up with their stoney rambles (even though their sophomore release Congratulations is an underrated technicolored odyssey) but after an awkward stumble with their 2013 self-titled release, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser return with the best album of their career.
Never too cool to take themselves so seriously, MGMT begin the album with “She Works Out Too Much” that literally includes the introductory lyrics: “Get ready to have some fun!” And jokes on us, it’s hard not to. Just try not to sing along to the chorus hook of “The only reason we never worked out was he didn’t work out enough” or deny the exulting bass line that seems prime for an 8 Minute Abs workout soundtrack. The track is so much fun you can miss the point that it’s explaining why two people didn’t fall in love.
The best song on the album and a contender for one of the best songs of the year is “When You Die.” It’s a dimethyltryptamine thrill ride at just five minutes. The instrumentation is jammed with twisting melodies (courtesy of Ariel Pink who co-wrote the song) and an acoustic guitar lick that’s equally haunting as it is snake charming. The lyrics dare you not to laugh as VanWyngarden stares you in the eyes to sing: “Go fuck yourself/You heard me right/Don’t call me nice again”–but he says it with such authority you mustn’t deny him. A song like “When You Die” only comes out a few times a year, a song that’s so outrageous and interesting a listener has to keep unraveling layers to try to understand what and why it works. But don’t overthink it for you might miss the point.
After turning psyche pop inside out, MGMT nail the formula on the next track “Me and Michael.” It’s 1980s nostalgia done right: big drums, a sing-along chorus and the overall feeling of yearning. The original lyrics were “Me and my girl” but where’s the fun in that? By making this a possible love song between friends or something more, “Me and Michael” beckons for the boom box and your next summer barbeque.
“James” is the product of what happens after too much LSD. Story goes that the MGMT dudes and Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly attempted to write music while microdosing but accidentally took too much resulting in VanWyngarden blowing out his voice. Because of this, “James” features a baritone lead vocal that’s smooth and immediately stands out.
Little Dark Age ends on the farewell note “Hand it Over.” Like a hand slowly waving goodbye, the song sways back and forth in a dreamy haze while the band laments on these trying times when the bad guys won the White House and hope seems weak. But even amid this feeling of loss, MGMT manage to make “Hand it Over”–and all of Little Dark Age for that matter–sound optimistic. It’s as though they’re telling us the only way forward is to let go, relax and take a drop of this to help ease the transition to what’s about to come next.