Alubm Review: MGMT - Congratulations

I'm finally having a chance to sit down and listen to our beloved MGMT's new album Congratulations. For bands like MGMT, follow-ups are always tricky territory. I'm sure each of you can name a band for every finger that's completely fucked up LP2 - especially bands that gained a considerable about of notice for their first album. MGMT was a huge part of the electro explosion. They erupted onto the scene in a big way with a big sound, reinforcing themselves along the way with some absolutely killer remixes.

For Congratualtions, it sounds like they are taking the ever trickier route of transforming their sound. Congratulations should be seen as a separate volume rather than a new chapter. The band has opted for a much grander, more broad, encompassing sound the second time around. Making appearances, in no particular order: acoustic guitars, screaming electric guitars, strings, horns, flutes, trippy-synths, normal-synths, vocoders, reverbs, hella feedback ('ghost-like,' at times), chanted choruses, and songs that sweep between each effortlessly. The sound, especially the vocals, reminds me much of early Arcade Fire or even early Flaming Lips, if you can imagine that being applied to a still very MGMT sonic touch.

The lead single, 'Flash Delirium,' left many people, including me, completely turned off. I'm happy to say that after a couple listens through the album I am thoroughly impressed with the precision and poise MGMT has displayed in releasing a second album that could have easily been a mediocre rehashing of their first. Flash Delirium itself makes an incredible amount of sense, in context. 'Someone's Missing' sounds retro-dreamy while the 12+ minute 'Siberian Breaks' is a landscape of amalgamated sounds. The followup 'Brian Eno,' named of course for the God of Sound (whom sometimes goes, simply, by 'Brian'), is a thrashing of epic proportion, signaling the movement to a Deerhunter-like sound for the last stretch of the album. The album's title track 'Congratualtion' closes the album off with an acoustic conquering of the lyric "As strange is it seems, I'd rather dissolve than have you ignore me" - a fitting salutation. If you're looking for that re-hash then I am terribly sorry but you would do best to leave this album out entirely. Congratulations is a Dali if Oracular Spectacular was a van Gogh. Sonically, the album is intensely interesting at every turn, offering sweeping tempos and beats that are downright boppy at times. Some songs sound intensely natural while others, like one of the album's heavy hitters 'Someone's Missing,' sound chronically disillusioned - in a trippy sense [of sound], which I very much appreciate. If any new band's follow-up could ever be considered experimental - ladies and gentleman, I give you MGMT:

MGMT (OS) | (MS) | (W) - Flash Delirium (MP3)

PS: The album was recently leaked, hence clicking the official site link above will take you to a page where you can stream the album in its entirety. MGMT, as stated on the site, opted to allow streaming of the album rather than letting the first wave of listeners be scene-only pirates. If you enjoy it, please do buy it on 4/13! <3

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

I've had the chance to spend some quality time with the new Gorillaz album and I'm happy to say that I consider it a wide success. Sonically, each of the Gorillaz albums has been very distinct. Plastic Beach is no different. The myriad of performers on this album each contribute a unique sound, but underlying everything is a dream-like, twangy, afro-poppy sound. This album, honestly, swings. On a first run through, I was turned off by the, seemingly, less powerful sound. On multiple relistens, I can safely say that some tracks on this album will swing you softly around the dance floor while viciously beating the life out of your face (via ears). Not all of the tracks here are as solid as others, and Plastic Beach does come off a bit more like a B-Side album this time around (even for Gorillaz), but it's welllll worth a listen. It sounds like Albarn and Hewlett cherry-picked artists that would understand their idea and let each of the artists take the song and the concept of Plastic Beach and do whatever they wanted with it. What you end up with is an incredibly diverse record in which we can bob to Snoop, chill to Lou Reed, and straight up bounce to Gruff.

The lead single on this album, in my opinion, is Rhinestone Eyes. No guest starts here. As far as I know this is just Albarn and Hewlett.

Wanna get the shit beaten out of you? Turn it up to 11.

Gorillaz (OS)| (MS)Rhinestone Eyes (mp3)

Listen/Buy @ LaLa and if they EVER tour again, make god damn sure you don't miss it.

Review: Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Frightened Rabbit released their newest album on March 1st, and the cheetah was lucky enough to score a cop (thank god for imports, yeah?). And its good. Its very good.

One of the hardest things about their last album, for all of its brilliance, was that the entirety of the album depended on the repeat of the same structure. A good structure at that, and an interesting way to make the album as hard hitting as it ultimately was, but the adherence to this theme was undercut by the unbelievable quality of the first song "The Modern Leper." It made the album hard to access when they perfected the format on that first shot. And while songs like "The Twist" took cues from LCD Soundsystem, among others, to experiment and make the album one of the finest of 2008, and the decade as a whole, the album never entirely clicked as a whole.

So what to think about this new effort? How can it stack up against an album whose biggest flaw was that one of its songs was too good? The answer is - reverse the format. Explore different themes. For as similar as something like Frightened Rabbit will always sound to American ears, it couldn't be anymore different. Like opposing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the the only thing that makes them so different is how similar they are.

This album is, in certain places, simply bigger. Almost like a Snow Patrol or a Coldplay, and I mean that in the kindest sense, this album sounds like Frightened Rabbit shooting for the edges of a stadium, writing songs that use their essential intimateness to skyrocket their album to the most essential and meaningful of places. Songs like "The Loneliness and the Scream" and "Skip the Youth" perhaps emphasize this the most, with choruses whose chants reach almost anthemic levels.

None of which is to say that that Frightened Rabbit has traded any of their defining intelligence or speed of emotion to create The Winter of Mixed Drinks. Whereas the last album took a microscope to one man's crises of emotion and loss, an examination of the self-loathing and pain of that situation, here we see Scott Hutchinsen look at ideas such as escape, freedom and rejuvenation. This is an album where we see our hero learn to accept to move on, acutely aware of what he felt but with a new direction to send his attention. The lead singles most acutely bring this to the listener's attention, "Swim Until You Cant See Land" sounding like the protagonist doing exactly what the title describes, before finally finding the realization he needs to move his psyche forward. "Nothing Like You," which is as close to "The Modern Leper" as the album comes, as potentially depressing as the title sounds, contains lyrics as simple and as poignant as "She was not the cure for cancer."

So here we are. An album with a wider range, one that flows smoother than their last effort. But one which never quite reaches the emotional rawness of The Midnight Organ Fight. I cant say that this album is as good as their last effort, but I can definitely say that I like it as much.

((cheetah loves))

Frightened Rabbit - MS|OS

Frightened Rabbit - No One Like You