MGMT: The Management Is Still In Charge

In an interview for NME, Goldwasser recounts that Congratulations “was written coming off of a really intense run of touring and we didn’t really give ourselves any kind of a break, so the paranoia and lack of feeling that we were in control, I think that came across on Congratulations a lot. The way that we wrote the music, it was intentionally uncomfortable.” In this way, Congratulations is not a follow-up to their first hit, but an ironic response to all of the initial “congratulations” that had been issued to the band members, given that their success was responsible for the resulting expectation of failure.

In “Flash Delirium,” the musicians sing about feeling overwhelmed by the media response to Oracular Spectacular. Andrew and Ben had become famous directly out of their college dorms, with no idea of the nearly inconceivable success they would encounter. Then, they immediately began feeling intense fan scrutiny during the process of recording their second album. The song that really defines the transition from youthful optimism to bleak cynicism is “Siberian Breaks,” which laments the harsh lessons learned by the musicians about the cost of not meeting someone’s expectations. Here, the band members liken themselves to a “silver jet plane making a turn, exciting the brain that expects it to crash and then burn.” VanWyngarden goes on to sing that “It’s not the life lesson I’d’ve guessed — if you’re conscious then you must be depressed, or at least cynical.” Finally, in a line from the album’s title song, Goldwasser and VanWyngarden express disillusionment with their fanbase, the majority of whom supposedly want nothing but the same poppy sounds of Oracular Spectacular: “But damn my luck and damn these friends, who keep on combing back their smiles.”

None of this has seemed to affect the group’s willingness to push boundaries and deliver honest expression. Their most recent release, a self-titled album that debuted in 2013, accurately reflects the band’s progression through fame in the pop culture arena. Though the title was initially chosen as a joke referencing the trend of bands self-titling their third album, Goldwasser and VanWyngarden admit that the title MGMT lives up to its name. In an interview with Digital Spy, Goldwasser remarks, “I think this is the most comfortable we’ve ever been — it seemed very uninhibited and the whole recording process had a nice flow to it. I think we ended up actually fulfilling [the title].” The album is about finding yourself through experiment and not letting anyone but you define the things you ought to want out of life.

In fact, one could argue that the album traces an Everyman’s personal odyssey in chronological detail. For instance, Track 1, “Alien Days,” underscores the importance of experimentation. The song speaks to the strangeness of being on drugs, along with all of the lessons learned during the period in one’s life when drug use is frequent. It explores the sudden feelings of awareness, compassion and positivity that influence a person during a psychedelic trip, as well as an awareness of the sufferings of others:

Today find infinite ways it could be
Plenty worse
It’s a blessing but it’s also a curse