Ten years ago this month, MGMT delivered their debut album Oracular Spectacular. That seems notable for several reasons, but none more than the fact that a pair of the Connecticut psych-pop duo’s earliest hits, “Kids” and “Time To Pretend,” still sound as massive and fresh as ever.
Well, a decade and two additional albums have passed (2010’s Congratulations and 2013’s self-titled LP), and it’s clear that Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser still have a bit of that crooked pop magic. Today, MGMT return with “Little Dark Age,” the title track off their new album due sometime in 2018, and it’s a nice evolution of sound that should still keep those early adopters satisfied.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 show this morning, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser even referenced that glorious aughts era, stating that writing and recording this year in New York and Los Angeles “felt like we had reached a flow, it was the sort of chemistry, the kind of magic feeling we had when we started the band.”
Little Dark Age, was produced by MGMT alongside Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift, Kelela, Blood Orange) and Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tame Impala), and the video for the title track, directed by David MacNutt and Nathaniel Axel, finds the pair in a mansion, dressed up all goth, being stalked by death.
Very timely.
Featured MGMT photo by Brad Elterman.