MGMT - Time to Pretend

I should probably do music in review here before time runs out for February.

I felt very torn this month, I had five or six ideas of what I wanted to do and could not decide on which song to review. I think I should try to remain relevant so the most relevant song should do.

Last year there was quite an unusually group to form, hell for all I know they have been around for a while; Management is not like anything else I have ever heard before. To describe them as electronic, or dance, or pop, would probably be inaccurate. While I have perhaps heard some similar background rhythms before from something like “Jackyll and Hyde,” or maybe “Kraftwerk,” but I think it’s safe to say MGMT is different.

As always I‘ll tell you a story. I was listening to some guy’s top 100 songs for 2008 in November, so clearly he got a little impatient as there was two months remaining for him to add to the list. Anyway “Time to Pretend” was on the list, so I gave it a listen, and it was the best song of the bunch. There were a lot of uninspired pop tracks, I liked about five of them. MGMT managed to stand out in my ears, and was probably the very best song out of the 100.

A little time later my big brother Sean is commenting on the song “Time to Pretend” and was surprised I had heard the song but had not seen the video.

That video... wow... just wow.

I haven’t seen a mind fuck that crazy since the ending of RahXephon.

Things started making a lot more sense after I saw that video. MGMT’s music was strange and hypnotic, like cell phone ring tones meets video game music... on drugs.

After watching that video, I was like, “oh they are totally on acid.”

I guess what I find so charming about MGMT is not only their fairly catchy psychedelic music, and there super tripped out music videos, but also the fact they are so blatantly high out of their minds. It’s not like they’re being subtle, if the brutally insane visuals in their videos was not enough to tip you off, they drop freaking acid in the video! I just find it amusing that something “pop” culture could be so obviously created by and supporting the use of hardcore hallucinogenic drugs.

Listen to the song, but more importantly watch the video, and yes the monster explodes into dolphins, hundreds of thousands of dolphins.

I guess the moral of the story is we should enjoy MGMT now while they are still alive, because they are totally going to die from drug abuse.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly