The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #1 MGMT: Congratulations

The Top 20 Albums of 2010

#1 MGMT: Congratulations

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: you're reading the final post in a daily series I've been writing on the best albums of 2010. It took me until April 2011 to start writing them, because I needed a bit of time for my opinions to percolate. I've actively listened to around 81 records from last year, and these 20 have been the cream of the crop. Today's a special post, because it's about the Album of the Year, but if it's not your cup of tea, perhaps you'd enjoy reading about the others here.

Do me a favour? Kindly look at the album cover above? Ordinary geometric shapes are skewed; the ocean's waves look like a giant Firefox; a creature with eight eyes is surfing over foam seemingly created in MS Paint using its spray-paint tool; and there's no artist name or album title. Now, if you were a record company executive, would you "ok" that album cover? Or would gently propose the band should release it with this on the front instead:

See what I did there? I retained the 'surf' element, put the band in there, added a guitar to appeal to the rock market, but got the lead singer to act kooky so they don't alienate their fans, while - most importantly - we put the names of both the artist and the album front-and-centre. I know you're not reading this blog for a lesson in design, I realise you're here for some analysis about the music, but a picture tells 1000 words. The picture that was eventually released to promote Congratulations is of an 8-eyed mutant riding a lo-fi wave made out of a fox. To me, that decision meant one thing, and one thing only: MGMT have decided to release their "shut the fuck up, we know what we're doing thanks" record. 

And that, dear friends, is exactly what they have done. This is no ordinary pop album. It's 43 minutes of genius that encompasses several genres, without compromising on a chosen 'sound.' That sonic aesthetic makes sense in the world of the record itself, but is largely unclassifiable when viewed from the outside world you and I live in. If I had to summarise it in an old expression, I'd use the one about wedding preparations, where, for it to be perfect, you need "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." MGMT have made something fantastic by cobbling together Mamas & The Papas-styled harmonies, post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys hooks, Blur's drawled and ironic vocals, guitar noises seemingly lifted straight out of soul groups like The Delfonics, and bass riffs that sound like The Strokes made a baby with U2's Adam Clayton. To put it bluntly: they've distilled 40 years of pop music, cellared it in a recycled plastic barrel and served it to you in a chilled mug to drink. This is seriously messed up mainstream music.

More importantly though, in the context of it being "album of the year" and all, Congratulations combines everything I found great in all of the Top 20's records. A fan of 9-minute epics like Kanye's Runaway? Try MGMT's 12-minute song Siberian Breaks. Do you like the way Arcade Fire and The Brunettes created dreamy soundscapes without losing their way in their song's melodies? Try MGMT's I Found A Whistle. Did you love dancing to Sia, Goldfrapp, and New Young Pony Club? Try MGMT's Song For Dan Treacy. How about the messed up synths in tracks by So So Modern and Crystal Castles? Perhaps you'd like MGMT's Brian Eno. Or were you more of a fan of Nas and Plan B's arena-sized arrangements? Well, clearly you didn't watch the music video above! Anyway... this album has everything I've loved about 2010, compressed into 9 beautiful tracks.

The above music video is the album's closing song. On the first few listens I thought it was the most dull cut of the lot, but upon closer inspection I began to understand the lyrics. Told from the band's perspective, the verses could be read in a way that shows a band struggling to take in their mega-fame. One line in particular, shows how depressing it must be to have your finances dependent on your cookie-cutter pop machine blasting out mega-hits like the previous record's Kids. That line? "It's hardly sink or swim when all is well if the tickets sell." The song appears to be the reverse of a mission-statement. It's a footnote, explaining and referencing the rest of the album. This is an album that forces the band into a "sink or swim" situation. Just like Simon Peter in The Bible (well, not just like it, but humour me as I indulge their metaphor), we as fans need to step out of the boat as well, to test these new waters. MGMT's new direction has probably shaved a few hundred thousand record sales of their next few records, but their remaining fans are much stronger devotees now. MGMT could have been the biggest band in the world by emulating their past successes, but instead they chose to be one of the pop world's boldest acts. Check out their album's opening track:

That was called Is It Working, and it's the band's version of a mission-statement. One witty Youtube commenter said that "[the] moral of this story [is]...don't go to Ikea stoned." Indeed. I'm pretty sure that is the gist of what the band were going for. They needed clarity in their work, couldn't get it anywhere, so studied other patterns and got so obsessed by this task that they re-invented themselves. Is It Working is the blueprint to the rest of the album. It lays down a set of rules:

• Each song must 'turn' midway through.
• The lines between 'synthesised sound' and 'real instruments' need to be blurred
• There is no such thing as "too much echo"
• If you've found a good riff, mine it once or twice, but then move on to something else before you kill it

These rules bring a method to MGMT's madness. They make sure that, during your second and third listen, you feel a sense of anticipation for the next moment a rule will be enforced. The MGMT manifesto artifically propels the songs forward, even when if the tune would otherwise have naturally relaxed into its groove and been perfectly fine otherwise. It is this perpetual movement that makes this album a great one. Just like the mutant surfer on its cover, and the skewed chessboard background, this is a record that abhors stillness. 

I love it.