Review Summary: We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
From the very moment that MGMT arrived on the scene, they already felt like giants among men. 2007’s
Oracular Spectacular spoiled listeners with songs that were impossible to forget and atmospheres that were truly larger than life. That supremely lush and galactic-sounding acid trip brought us “Time to Pretend”, “Kids”, and “Electric Feel”, and from that point on MGMT has been considered one of the standard-bearers of psychedelic indie-pop. Since then, they’ve nestled into a cozy pattern of less brash albums that for the most part are largely underrated, particularly 2010’s
Congratulations and 2018’s
Little Dark Age. Accurate descriptors for their career to date may include terms like
peculiar,
quirky, or quite simply
fun. They have a very unique approach to songwriting that makes their music recognizable, even to the genre’s most casual bystanders.
Loss of Life changes that. It’s an album that is almost excessively chill, with more than half the album hovering in stasis. Warm acoustics and airbrushed production create an aesthetically pleasing sound, especially on the gorgeous “Nothing to Declare”, but MGMT leans into the vibe a bit too much here. Take “People In The Streets” for instance, which offers up something bordering relevant social commentary on a beautiful acoustic canvas, only to faceplant into a wall of repetition and nondescript lyrics. They clumsily navigate the same general
Portugal. The Man meets Foster the People meets The Shins b-sides Bermuda Triangle of amnesia on “Phradie’s Song”, “I Wish I Was Joking”, and “Nothing Changes”, all of which sound like they belong on the album but are almost impossible to actually recall or glean any true meaning from. To be fair, MGMT has never been known for life-altering lyrical/emotional depth, and even
Oracular Spectacular has its share of clunkers, but on
Loss of Life the hits aren’t nearly strong enough to lift the rest of the album out of the mud.
For being something of a departure – and an ironic one at that considering that this might be their safest and most generic outing yet – MGMT still sound their best when they revert to their roots. “Bubblegum Dog” brings the strange in the same way that “When You Die” or “Flash Delerium” did – and the eccentricity pays dividends once again in the form of a super infectious cut that turns out to be one of
Loss of Life’s few obvious highlights. The title track, “Mother Nature”, and “Dancing In Babylon” all mark moderate successes in some way shape or form – the former with its heavenly and almost Beach Boys adjacent vocals, the second with its breathtaking melody and effortless progression, and the latter primarily due to an outstanding guest effort from Christine and The Queens. The pieces are here, and the artistic intent to create something markedly serene and
different is palpable, but the whole picture never really comes together. I want to buy what
Loss of Life is selling, but it’s sorely lacking the energy and unique spark that comprises MGMT’s core DNA. It feels like an excellent EP that was spread thin across a much larger obligation, and while this band’s floor still resides somewhere around “pretty good”, we’ve come to expect more than inoffensive, lukewarm indie-pop from these guys. MGMT should save that for the thousands of other indie bands out there that all sound exactly like
this, and go back to the stupidly fun and unpredictably bizarre music that most of us fell in love with.
