It is not my place to tell you how to feel about something as subjective as music. Art is up for individual interpretation. We all hear different things. So go ahead: like what you like and hate what you hate. The choices are all yours.
Except when it comes to MGMT. You have to love MGMT.
If you don’t love MGMT you’re objectively and provably wrong. Do you want to be known as an idiot? Then fine, go on not loving MGMT.
I am of course exaggerating for effect because I clearly have strong feelings about MGMT. Their music has brightened my world for nearly as long as they’ve been making it; for the last fifteen or so years Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden have repeatedly delivered on the promise of ORACULAR SPECTACULAR, their Technicolor explosion of a debut. They followed it up with 2010’s CONGRATULATIONS, the once under-appreciated classic that has now found a modicum of much-deserved respect over the years.
2013 brought their self-titled third album, a dense and paranoid journey of a record that now stands as their current under-appreciated work (by 2026 everyone will consider this one their undeniable masterwork, mark it down!). MGMT’s fourth album was 2018’s LITTLE DARK AGE, a mutated – and equally paranoid! – synth pop collection that many described as “a return to form”.
Which begs the question: when it comes to MGMT, what form are they returning to? What form did they become?
As their very website URL asks, WHO IS MGMT?
It’s a fair question. Each record sounds decidedly different. They are clearly searching for something, their artistic restlessness is apparent. Everything they do is an adventure and they’re not going to stop seeking as long as they are making music. But that doesn’t answer the question.
The truth is, I don’t know who they really are. And I actually know them! I mean, Andrew and Ben are nice guys in real life, both very funny and extremely thoughtful. They will hold open a door for you, and they don’t hesitate to reach for the check. Legitimately decent dudes by any yardstick.
But at first glance you’d never know these unassuming guys were the architects of some of the most audacious and uncompromising rock music of the twenty-first century, a band that maintains a perfect track record, never making a misstep after nearly twenty years in the game. You can count on one hand the artists who push the margins the way MGMT do and you’ll have a couple fingers left over.
MGMT have been able to funnel the catchiest songs imaginable through the filter of relentless experimentation, never settling for the same sound twice. At this point in the game it is time to recognize that MGMT are not just the star pupils of the graduating class of 2007; they are a Great Band whose music has stood the test of time.
Which leads us to MGMT’s fifth album, LOSS OF LIFE. Simply put, the guys did it again! They’re now five-for-five, which last time I checked gets you into virtually any Hall of Fame. This record projects an aura of undeniable warmth throughout, an album brimming with comfortable confidence. The sound bounces from blasts of strummy sunshine (“Mother Nature”) to a corrupted brand of adult contemporary (“People In the Streets”) that could best be described as “Peter Cetera jamming with China Crisis”. There are epic tracks and intimate portraits, a little bit of glam here, some psych-folk there. It’s a slice of magic that fits perfectly into the MGMT oeuvre while expanding the boundaries once again.
LOSS OF LIFE just might be their best to date, a thing of true beauty. Andrew and Ben themselves have described this record as being “SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE directed by Paul Schrader”, which kinda fits the bill. But the game of “this meets that” might not work anymore when it comes to MGMT. They are so much more than a collection of influences and references; those days are long behind them. Now MGMT set the pace.
Let other bands have their music described as “MGMT meets BLANK” (Faust? Keane? The Knack?), all you need to say about an MGMT record is “This is an MGMT record”. All the promise and potential is guaranteed to pay out like a slot machine as long as their name is on the album.
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