http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/15334-alien-days/
Hard to tell if this is a proper indicator of what the next LP will sound like since it was a Record Store Day release, but it's, uhh...pretty lame.
Whatever, though. Not going to begrudge these guys for going down the road of their choice, but I have better things to do.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 06:59 (eleven years ago) link
I like it it's good
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 09:55 (eleven years ago) link
i like it too. i'm glad they are building on their last album instead of retreating back to a more accessible sound. tbh, i loved congratulations from the start and i didn't understand what people were talking about when they said it was "weird" or "challenging." to me it seemed like a really great psych pop album. i listened to it a zillion times.
― Pat Finn, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 13:42 (eleven years ago) link
i mean "plants...as far as i know/ are still bending...towards the light!" is a classic lyric.
― Pat Finn, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 13:43 (eleven years ago) link
This sounds alright. Could do without the Fridmann/Lips drum sound, but it's nice that it isn't a double back to what made them cake early on.
Liked the last album quite a bit... never really enjoyed the first album.
'Congratulations' is the 'Neither Fish Nor Flesh'/'Beauty Stab' of the p4k era, right?
― mr.raffles, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 13:58 (eleven years ago) link
more like the Don't Stand Me Down
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 16:49 (eleven years ago) link
The last album was really great. Hoping they come up w more good melodies/psych-outs.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
yea congratulations is a sick record, hope it gets another chance as time goes on
― yellow jacket (spazzmatazz), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 16:57 (eleven years ago) link
not optimistic about new record though, getting slammed/poo-pooed/ignored for going out on a limb and making a weird(er) album after a pop smash seems to do a number on a band's head... (blue album to pinkerton to green album, mellon collie to adore to machina). they'll either over or under compensate
― yellow jacket (spazzmatazz), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:00 (eleven years ago) link
it sounds like these guys are desperate to be weird. which sucks because they can actually write some great pop songs but they don't do the weird thing very well imo.
― wk, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:32 (eleven years ago) link
^ this
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:33 (eleven years ago) link
I'm fine with weird/outsider stuff when it doesn't sound labored.
i love congratulations, but this song sounds very dull
― mizzell, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
it's like they want to be ariel pink but are going about it backwards. they should write a whole bunch of great catchy songs but perform and record them in a weird amateur bedroom kind of way instead of writing weak meandering songs and then doing these big slick productions around them.
― wk, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:40 (eleven years ago) link
bleah, this song is horrid. did the last album sound like this, like doilied-up indie psych?
― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 19:00 (eleven years ago) link
wk otm
― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=96168#unread
― nostormo, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 20:28 (eleven years ago) link
oh you made a new thread: MGMT (s/t 2013)
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 03:49 (eleven years ago) link
i don't agree with this "trying to be weird" narrative. congratulations had eccentric elements, but the hooks were there; songs like "song for dan treacy" "someone's missing" and the title track are total earworms. i think one of the things people responded to in oracular spectacular was this sort of groovy wiccan undercurrent, which was way more 60s than most 2000s indie, and i think they just are continuing to refine that san francisco sound. i mean "i found a whistle that works like a charm/ and when my noose is tied i can blow it/ and fall right into your arms / fifteen centuries of dissolution and grief/ and return a yellow trickster and a thief." classic psychadelic Odin reference, the god of the hanged. the album reminds me of new hope pennsylvania.
― Pat Finn, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 04:51 (eleven years ago) link
people talk about this album like it's jandek or something but in actuality it is a total joy. i hope they get "weirder" with each new release. also, this isn't noted very often, but the production on congratulations is way better than on oracular spectacular, which sounds really bright and metallic for some reason. i want to hear it remastered.
― Pat Finn, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 04:55 (eleven years ago) link
I think people are talking about the new song, not Congratulations. You think the new song has hooks? I never got into congrats, but my favorite songs on oracular are The Handshake and Weekend Wars which are both somewhat adventurous but still great pop songs.
I mean I guess The Handshake hinted that they were going to screw the label over and spend their advance on acid, but this is not the way to go about it. You can make an uncommercial "fuck you" album that's still great, but somehow I don't think this new one is going to be their Dopesmoker.
― wk, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 05:13 (eleven years ago) link
maybe not "hooks" on that one, but it seems pretty straightforward melodically and not at all "out there". what it reminds me of most is yoshimi-era flaming lips. idk, it is like camp psychadelia and it sounds really into what it is, if that makes sense.
― Pat Finn, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 05:21 (eleven years ago) link
i just think their music is fun, and their second album moreso than the first one, much as i love "Kids." this song seems like it is in a similar vein to congratulations.
― Pat Finn, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 05:22 (eleven years ago) link
is this album widely considered a masterpiece yet?
― tɹi.ʃɪp (Treeship), Sunday, 26 January 2014 07:52 (ten years ago) link
this is the best album of the 2000s. that's an exaggeration, but seriously. I'm going to continue to flog this particular horse until it magically comes back to life.
― Treeship, Friday, 21 March 2014 05:43 (ten years ago) link
which of the three?
― ∞, Friday, 21 March 2014 05:50 (ten years ago) link
congratulations is light years better than either oracular spectacular or the new, self-titled one.
― Treeship, Friday, 21 March 2014 05:51 (ten years ago) link
never got into them. is it different from oracular?
― ∞, Friday, 21 March 2014 05:55 (ten years ago) link
ya. congrats rules. wouldn't say top 20 tho even of the decadetop 50 tho
― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Friday, 21 March 2014 05:58 (ten years ago) link
it's pretty different than oracular. the song structures are generally looser and there are more surprises. but the main thing that's brilliant about it is the way the band plays with the album's inevitable failure in the wake of oracular spectacular, a fluke hit they would never again live up to. i mean, there are few moments in music journalism more memorable to me than mgmt essentially bracing the new york times for disappointment when they were profiled as part of the promotion for the album. similar sentiments abound in the album: "the hot dog is getting cold / you'll never be as good as the rolling stones." "dead in the water / it's not a paid vacation/... yet all is well if the ticket sells." on one level, this kind of thing is just funny, a way of trolling the whole media cycle they were caught up in. but there are also anxieties about artistic belatedness on display that seem more pointed and serious. "we'll always be a step behind him, he's brian eno."
i guess mgmt had already explored their fatigue at the idea of being pop stars in "time to pretend". "congratulations" takes this further, and in more personal directions. i mean, the closing track -- which is the source of the album's title -- is basically a fuck-you to themselves. they are not convinced that their music has any real value. and yet, they clearly have a ton of fun with the wiccan-psychadelia stuff, like "i found a whistle" which would have blown people away if it had been written in 1968. so that's the other twist. there is a way in which the band's stated ambivalence about their work is liberating and i think, for them, that's the whole point of making fun of the whole idea of the pressure of a sophomore album.... to get some distance from the whole thing. and it works! there are moments that seem pure and fun. but also as a listener i can't shake the uneasiness these guys clearly feel about their whole career. all of this stuff is compelling to me.
― Treeship, Friday, 21 March 2014 06:24 (ten years ago) link
tl;dr this is the definitive album of the era of clickbait journalism because on a literal, lyrical level it is consumed with anxieties about its reception.
― Treeship, Friday, 21 March 2014 06:27 (ten years ago) link
Congratulation to MGMT
― 龜, Friday, 21 March 2014 06:35 (ten years ago) link
@treezy
i'll give it a listen. cheers for the introductory
― ∞, Friday, 21 March 2014 15:30 (ten years ago) link
"I Found a Whistle" is def one of their best tracks. "Something's Missing" was another highlight from that record. Love love love the Jackson 5-style outro hook.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 21 March 2014 15:48 (ten years ago) link
congratulations to treeship
― Little Nicky Pizza loved that rascal Rust (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 21 March 2014 15:50 (ten years ago) link
treeship otm this is a forgotten masterpiece and idk why
― when is the new Jim O'Rourke album coming out (spazzmatazz), Thursday, 5 February 2015 09:56 (nine years ago) link
i understand the circumstances i guess. first album crossed over, indie world turned on them and didn't pay attention to this record, and none of the songs were hits.
― when is the new Jim O'Rourke album coming out (spazzmatazz), Thursday, 5 February 2015 09:58 (nine years ago) link
this album is totally top 10 cover art for me
maybe one day i'll listen to it
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Thursday, 5 February 2015 10:28 (nine years ago) link
new single. sounds better than anything on the 2013 s/t. bumping this thread because Congratulations is a criminally underrated record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtL5oMyBHPs
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 17 October 2017 18:05 (six years ago) link
i love all their records Congratulations is probably my favorite.
but this song is a little boring
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link
I found the s/t really dull & badly produced... this is at least nice on the ears, warm synths... but I feel that they really were poisoned by the harsh rejection of Congratulations. Such a shame, that record is so so fucking great.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 17 October 2017 20:59 (six years ago) link
yeah "Something's Missing" is all time imo. sort of existing in a glorious psychedelic nexus between Jackson 5 and Pink Floyd. the build up and that final chorus is so beautiful, and the A/B structure of the thing is so perfect.
"I Found a Whistle" has that utopian pop thing going for it but w really cool production and backwards sounds and stuff. a lot of this record feels very "Clouds Taste Metallic". maybe hearkening back to the space gospel of "They Punctured My Yolk". i think they hit this feeling in the first album with "The Youth" (probably my 2nd favorite track from that album after "Weekend Warriors").
the title track is so perfect. it has that sweeping-the-floor feel to it. it is the sound of a champagne bottle popping, hittin' the dusty trail. spare acoustic guitar and drums, with little rainshowers of synths, like tiny digital fireworks. it is so pleasing to listen to. this really scratches that Roxy Music itch, of truly futuristic pop.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 18 October 2017 00:09 (six years ago) link
yeah otm, especially about the title track "sweeping the floor" feel. it's such a beautiful song, an instant classic in a way. all about that descending bass line.
my favorite has always been "Song for Dan Treacy." completely manic and catchy and just fucking fun, those Scooby Doo synths on the chorus. & the thing jolts from section to section and actually gets better. "It's Working" is a great opener, too. "Siberian Breaks" - again, brilliant, and something they'll probably never attempt again because they got slapped for it in 2010.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 00:12 (six years ago) link
Best album of 2010
― Treeship, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 00:28 (six years ago) link
"It's Working" is a great opener, too
yes <3 the harpsichord, the slowed down "Be My Baby" bit, dream pop production, all of it. so good!
my favorite has always been "Song for Dan Treacy."
"he made his mind up" is such a killer hook! im amazed at their ability to write these weird kind of askew and wandering melodies that end up actually being super catchy. good lyrics too. i love this band, Treeship OTM
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 18 October 2017 00:44 (six years ago) link
Alien Days from the s/t is as good as anything from Congratulations but otherwise it was really dire
these days I think I would take Congratulations over any Flaming Lips album
― ufo, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 01:45 (six years ago) link
I'm so happy the tide seems to be turning on the reputation of this album.
― Treeship, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 01:49 (six years ago) link
lol connan mockasin in that video tho
― sunkengarden, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 19:27 (six years ago) link
this is the best album of the 2000s. that's an exaggeration, but seriously. I'm going to continue to flog this particular horse until it magically comes back to life.― Treeship, Friday, March 21, 2014 1:43 AM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Treeship, Friday, March 21, 2014 1:43 AM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
my life has meaning now
― Treeship, Friday, 20 October 2017 23:02 (six years ago) link
Ah I had totally forgotten this band ! Never listened to Congratulations. I might give it try.
― AlXTC from Paris, Saturday, 21 October 2017 10:03 (six years ago) link