MGMT, Little Dark Age - album review
MGMT must have recently watched the cult hit Nicolas Winding Refn movie Drive.
They must have taken inspiration from the soundtrack to that slick flick starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, for this feels like a direct tribute to it.
The dark and brooding electro beats here on MGMT's fourth record are heavier and snarling compared to previous offerings. In fact, it is hard to place these tracks alongside the airy Time To Pretend and Kids that dominated every radio station and indie club dancefloor for about 18 months after their 2008 release.
Stepping into a different pair of musical shoes is nothing we will ever criticise. Testing yourself and trying something new is to be commended. But sometimes it works and sometimes....it almost doesn't.
Skip past the first few tracks here and there is little to keep you gripped from start to finish. In fact, the frustratingly bleak When You're Small with its badly repeating lyrics, and then the equally tiring Hand It Over, are one of the weakest ends to a record we have heard in a while.
But Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser do have some neat tricks up their sleeve. The complete zany world of Me And Michael is like something straight off a Nintendo 64 adventure game. You can see Mario leaping around screaming 'whoohoooooo' and landing on Goomba heads while this electro mish-mash plays in the background.
The title track is also great. Those deep, resonating beats are like Drive hit Nightcall by Kavinsky. Scarily similar. But on top of this they have a wonderfully layered chorus that hides danger signs behind a seemingly friendly exterior.
That hidden aggression is also prevalent throughout James. Again, all feels calm around us as fuzzed keys trickle along sweetly, but there is always that feeling a bad turn might never be far away.
Unfortunately it fades as we progress - much like that Drive soundtrack does actually.
And other than the explosive pings of One Thing Left To Try - which is one hell of an uplifting tune - the second half of this record may want to be ignored after a couple of plays.
Rating: 5/10
