02 10

MGMT MGMT Columbia

10.10.13

Around the time when you couldn’t endure a pre-show soundcheck without Kids being blared through the PA, rumours began floating around that Bill Murray was hanging out with MGMT at house parties. This was frustrating. Why? Because MGMT aren’t a real band, they’re a total fluke. There’s no man on this earth whose company is as desirable as Bill Murray’s, and this friendship felt as undeserved as their stratospheric success. For their ‘uncompromising’ second album Congratulations, the duo (we guess that’s what they are, they’re still only letting the two good looking dudes in the press shots, that’s for sure) did the same trick – hastily assemble a few tunes and send them to a generously paid producer to smother ’em with FX and transform it all into ideologically barren, decaffeinated psychedelia. And they still never actually learned to play the songs live. Looks like MGMT still haven’t pulled their shit together. To promote this record, they appeared on Letterman, failing to mask the absence of a tune by wearing capes and hitting a giant cowbell. So what’s with the five marks? This record deserves them because a) there’s a few tunes of Flaming Lips b-side quality and b) it kind of gives us the urge to listen to Small Faces’ Odgens Nut Gone Flake, which is nearly always a good idea.