MGMT are back with their new single, ‘Your Life is a Lie’, which leads the procession for a stomping, rhythmic album to be released next month. This track follows the first acid-trip of a single, ‘Alien Days’ but has, so far, received a larger cult following. The drums drive the song. Though simple and repetitive, they accent the lyrics addictively, whilst reinforcing the subject matter ; our lives are a futile routine. Both surreal and dark, the single nevertheless lends itself to the band’s playful nature. A playfulness contradicted by the accompanying lyrics, which express ridicule at the picket-fence ‘American Dream’ that is so idealised, with punchy, pessimistic outbursts (Your life is a lie/Wondering why/Nobody writes/Hollow inside) – a statement reflected in the video, whose quick succession of strange and wonderful visuals reference the seeming pointlessness of middle-class American life whilst managing to include a stuffed toy with strawberry lace entrails and smiling middle aged men boasting the song’s lyrics on their gleaming bellies.
United in 2002, MGMT refuse to see their past as their prime, as they set forth to herald another wave of fresh psychedelic sounds with their new album, ‘MGMT’, due to be released in September on Columbia Records.
8/10, album out September 17th 2013, Shira Rossiter
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