MGMT - Congratulations

_____MGMT were probably, without a doubt, one of the biggest bands of 2008. Their Oxegen set is still talked about, they started that headband craze basically all on their own, and their album Oracular Spectacular was just that. So their little break away from the fields, and even possible stadiums, full of screaming fans for the most part of last year was more than deserved. But wisely, they didn’t keep the masses waiting too long, as the majority of the musical consumer base are very much like that animal, what’s it called again… Oh yeah, the goldfishsheepparrot: they’ll love you if everyone else likes you, they are incapable of having any opinion other than those they were told to hold by MTV, and, the danger which MGMT ran, they’ll forget about you in approximately 12.75 seconds after you stop releasing songs for them to be told whether are good or not.
___But luckily, for the most part, people can still just about remember something about a couple of atrociously catchy songs. Think one of them was in Skins too… That meant that quite a fair few eyes were on the these lads, eagerly awaiting what they held in store for us with follow-up album Congratulations. So many in fact, that it was inevitable that it would get leaked eventually, and surprise surprise, I have it on my iTunes even though it’s not out yet! Technology’s mad innit?
___It’s worth noting that the band have stressed repeatedly that this album wouldn’t be like Oracular Spectacular. There’d be no trippy synth riffs, no headbands, and no, erm, singles… I do sort of get where they were coming from, they didn’t want everyone hyping the album up to such dizzying heights as the previous one, as that’d be pretty tough to top. Totally understandable like. Only nobody understood it and for the previous few months the entire internet has been crying out one resounding message to the New York boys: MORE DIS PLZ


MGMT - Electric Feel
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_____And it wasn’t just those who can’t spell and write in caps that longed for more feel good summer smashes, no, I don’t think anyone would have criticised MGMT had they come out with Oracular Spectacular Mk.2. But they didn’t. I would say fair play to them for not bowing to public pressure and releasing the sort of songs that they are bound to be sick of playing by now, but, after listening to Congratulations, I really wished they had done. Because I reckon there’s a good chance that the band will look back on this second album in a couple of years time and think “shit, that was like the worst decision ever”.
___Because it really was. No matter what way you look at it. It just wasn’t smart. As economic producers, they’ve acted irrationally in not producing what was demanded. As talented musicians, they’ve acted curiously in making really bad music. And as intelligent human beings, they’ve acted 100% ridiculously in not only going ahead and releasing the album, but publicly admitting themselves that there wouldn’t be any Time To Pretend’s, Kids’, or basically any decent songs on the album. I just don’t get it…

_____I even think they might have been a bit harsh on themselves, as, while I’m not saying it’s good, cause it’s not, but there are some glimpses of ok-ish songs on there. But by god do you have to wade through some thick as shit musical manure to find it.
___The album opens on what is quite possibly the most mediocre of notes in the history of the world. It’s Working, I think it’s called, as if there’s one thing that I noticed about it, it was that it’s gracefully forgettable. Lady Dada’s Nightmare is far worse than a nightmare, there are absolutely no positives whatsoever to take from I Found A Whistle, and I haven’t a clue how bad Siberian Breaks is, because every time I sit down to tackle it’s ominous twelve minute bulk, at around 30-45 seconds into it, it makes me realize that my time on this earth is not infinite, and every moment I spend not listening to Suffragette Suffragette is a moment wasted.
_____Some moments, however, are more wasted than others, and while this album is, on the whole, just one prolonged wasting of consecutive moments, some parts weren’t quite as painful as others. Song For Dan Treacy did slightly raise false hopes that this album might have more to offer than it’s preceding opening track implied, Flash Delerium could just about pass for a half-decent B-side to Future Reflections or something, and Someone’s Missing is definitely one of the more bearable tracks on the record, although that is aided by the fact that it’s one of the shortest.



_____There’s strong rumours that MGMT will return to the festival scene once again this summer, and I’ve no doubt that they will pack out the tents once again. However, there’s a fairly could chance that if the band don’t play all the hits at least twice, that Congratulations will have the masses pouring out of these tents and flooding to the main stage to see Arcade Fire in the most miraculous displays of musical righteousness that we have all waited too long to behold.

Ph4il

Ellie Vs Marina

_____You know when you’re in love when, even though you’ve only been together for a matter of months, it feels like forever. When during what little time your not thinking about them, you’re jerking off to them. When even their worst aspect has 17 listens on your iPod. That’s how I know I’m in love with a certain Marina Diamandis. So you could say that this titan-like battle of the precious metals (geddit?) won’t be exactly fair one, but you’d be wrong, as despite my endless love for the stunning Marina & The Diamonds, I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only gone and done an Ashley on it and sent metaphorical nude pictures of myself to Ellie Goulding… So this’ll be an honest, clean-cut comparison of two delightful girls, only not really clean-cut cause there’s bound to be numerous sexual innuendos throughout. Future-sorry for that….

_____I suppose the best way to do this is just to straight compare the two against each other in what we all look for in a female soloist; performance, flexibility, and legs. All in terms of musical ability of course… Oh, and there’s their debut albums to take into consideration as well I suppose. I’ll just get them out of the way first so we can get down to the really important stuff.
___Both girlies set themselves pretty high standards for their debut albums with fantastic pre-release singles, the blonde one’s most notable Starry Eyed and the brunette’s Hollywood. The former has amassed over two million hits on YouTube, while Marina is still playing catch-up with one of the catchiest songs of the year so far. In terms of their other easysingles, it’s pretty close, however Mowgli’s Road and I Am Not A Robot probably stand out a bit more than Ellie’s Under The Sheets and Wish I Stayed. Not that the last two aren’t good, they’re two of the best off Ellie’s debut, Lights, but in the run up to The Family Jewels’ release, everything Marina touched seemed to turn to a beautiful allotrope of carbon. And her in that Hollywood acoustic video, boy I’d expose her to high-pressure high-temperature conditions and get some serious covalent bonding going what what? That’s one…



_____With both releasing their albums within a couple of weeks of each other, there was always going to be a conflict in opinions. From day one, NME identified Marina as the one to watch, or in their case, the hole to lick, while BBC took up a firm position behind a primly positioned Ellie. Others either decided to get a piece of the hot hot action, or to remain as nervous voyeurs on the sidelines.
___Me, well being such an unbiased and non-judgemental person, I chose to wait until both albums were out to pick my side. But, Marina’s album came out first, and kinda spannered that plan up. Ellie, unfortunately, was down before she even had a chance. Because The Family Jewels blew any ridiculously high expectations I had for it out of any ridiculous amount of water in which they were submerged. From start to finish, I paused for not one, not two, but seventeen underwear-alternations. Although admittedly, three of them were just from looking at the cover…
___Like there’s no point in me telling you which songs are awesome, cause they all are basically. Well, The Outsider can be a bit meh from time to time, but that’s ok, cause Guilty and Rootless are amazing all of the time. And that lyric in Girls, “easy to be sleazy when you’ve got a filthy mind” is simply divine. She covered Space And The Woods, and yeh, it wasn’t half as good as the original, but Christ she was hot in her efforts…

_____So that didn’t leave little Miss Gouding in all to pretty a position. There was only one drooling audience for a new flash trendy-popper, and Marina certainly got them salivating. But when Lights eventually did come out, heads quickly started turning. And rightfully so.
___The record has plenty of top notch tracks that more than justify the pre-release hype it had been amassing in the months before its release, and perhaps deserved more than the one week at Number 1 it enjoyed. Even forget about the big hits, Under The Sheets and Starry Eyed, and you’ve still got some one-better-than-silver standard music. Wish I Stayed would be my personal recommendation, but Guns And Horses, This Love, and the delicately stunning The Writer all made a similarly lasting impression on me.



_____Traditionally an acoustic folk singer, that clearly shines through in the album, but working with numerous electro-pop producers, not one song on the record sounds like anything else out there. There’s something fantastically unique about Ellie’s voice too, unique and awful pleasant too. And while she doesn’t exactly scream sex appeal, I seriously doubt she has any trouble getting it.

____So did Ellie overthrow the Diamond parade? Does my future now contain blonde haired kids with the most perfect of cute accents? And to a much much lesser extent, was her album better than Marina’s? In short, no. Not at all. Not even in close.
___Don’t get me wrong, I love Lights, and I imagine I will do for some time. Hell, I even planned to go see it performed live a week ago, but at the end of the day, The Family Jewels has been possibly my favourite album of the year so far. In the time than I’ve written the last few paragraphs, I’ve changed my mind and decided that The Outsider isn’t meh at all, it’s ridiculously awesome. And so are all of them. Unfortunately for Ellie, there are very few albums that can compete with one that leaves out tracks of the quality of Seventeen, and Lights just isn’t one of them.
___In short, I highly recommend Lights, but I know full well there are many of you that just won’t like it. It’s not for everyone, people have different music tastes and opinions, and I respect that. But Marina And The Diamonds is for everyone. If you don’t like it, you’re music taste isn’t different, it’s polluted. If you don’t like it, I don’t like you.