The pop seismographs threaten with a promise.
The greatness of a pop band can be judged by its seismographic abilities: do they manage to capture earthly movements before others do? MGMT are very good at this. Your debut ORACULAR SPECTACULAR in 2008 ushered in the early 10s: “Time To Pretend”, “Electric Feel” – and what was the name of “Kids”? “Control yourself, take only what you need from it.” Ten years later, their fourth album LITTLE DARK AGE provided the soundtrack to what followed from 2018: pandemic, war, terror, little Middle Ages. The title track keeps making the rounds online as an attempt to give the crisis a soundtrack.
Exactly six years later, MGMT are now making a new announcement, the title of their fifth album: LOSS OF LIFE. Oh shit. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden describe the record as “’Sleepless In Seattle’, directed by Paul Schrader”. Which probably means: A romcom with a bang at the end. “Mother Nature” shows what that sounds like right at the beginning. The song begins as a psych-folk piece and builds into a powerful Britpop song that will make Richard Ashcroft green with envy.
Pop in the present
Chris from Christine & The Queens sings along to the 80s pop ballad “Dancing In Babylon”. “People In The Streets” develops over six minutes from a street observation to an attempt to express the great love for people and the panic fear of them to somehow reconcile. Anyone who thinks it can’t get any more intense will be caught off guard by “Nothing Changes”: MGMT in The Cure mode, somewhere between PORNOGRAPHY and DISINTEGRATION: “This is what the Gods must have been talking about, when they told me nothing changes. “
The funeral march lasts almost four minutes, then MGMT briefly turns the song towards Burt Bacharach before it self-forgettably spirals into la-la land via a Las Vegas moment. LOSS OF LIFE is an incredible promise and a huge threat. So indeed: contemporary pop.
You can find out which albums were released in February 2024 via our monthly release list.