I awoke this morning to the sound of my lovely radio playing triple j for me. Then I remembered that Tom and Alex would be premiering the new MGMT track today. And oh the surprise! They played it about 5 minutes after I woke up! I didn’t have to wait around listening to the track being hyped up for hours on end.
But as for the song. Everyone wants to know what kind of album MGMT’s new one is going to be. Everyone wants to see where they’re going with their music.
Well, let me tell you this. It won’t be what you expect.
To me the song still has that MGMT feel to it (some may say it’s an… electric feel. I’m sorry. That was terrible.). But "Flash Delirium" is a little more unconventional than their other work. It doesn’t sound like the same kind of radio-friendly music that I heard on "Oracular Spectacular". Don’t get my wrong, I really enjoyed "Oracular Spectacular". It was quite a good album. But this new song really has me doubting exactly how good "Congratulations" is going to be.
"Flash Delirium" has no discernible structure, no chorus. It’s a flow of sounds and ideas, building up to frantic jumping yell, before being abruptly cut off. There’s even a little flute (?) solo in the middle! It really needs to be heard to be understood. The layered vocals, the trumpets, just everything feels a bit out there.
This kind of music, as an album, can be pulled off successfully. It’s different. It’s a bit strange. It’s a bit out there. But if it’s done right, it can be quite successful. I get the feeling "Congratulations" isn’t going to be the album of instantly catchy hits its predecessor was. I get the distinct feeling that "Congratulations" is going be what will be described as a more mature album. I think that if anything, "Congratulations" is going to be one of those albums that grows on you. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
At the risk of giving a premature evaluation of the quality of the song, I’m going to give it a score. The song may grow on me in the future, but this is how I feel now after 5 or 6 listens.
Score: 3/10
Grab a free download here. You don’t even need to give up an e-mail address.
The score was bumped down on 18/03/10.
On The Tune 
I’m waiting for the blogger backlash to begin now they aren’t the next big things. I’m waiting for the song download as I type. Am expecting interesting things
I get the feeling there won’t be so much a back-lash in the sense of “MGMT are shit now”, but maybe they’ll just ignore them entirely.
Alternatively, the new album may be weird and out there enough to not hit the mainstream, and all the bloggers will go “Hey, it’s okay to keep liking them”. But time will tell.
Gimme a yell when you’ve given it a bit of a listen with what you think.
Just had a listen. It’s listenable but very different to their other stuff. Nowhere near as catchy. I think it’s more of a grower