MGMT — Little Dark Age ANALYSIS & REVIEW
Published 02/16/2018
One thing MGMT did quite well with in their latest work was rely on their ability to create enticing harmonic structures in an atmosphere dominated by synthetic textures and overall energy. It’s rather difficult getting those to go hand in hand, but this group really separates themselves from the pack of modern electronic pop musicians for their ability to do so.
There were great patterns of I, IV, V and vi chords, as well as funky 7th chords, crazy sequential progressions that somehow end up back home, and some strong uses of pedal tones that maintained the groove well. While never mind blowing, the harmonies were the obvious strong points of the songs and were what enhanced the dance-like tunes from being quirky to being true ear candy and enjoyable. That’s a jump that not many musicians attempting the same fun, synth pop atmosphere today make, and one that separates the successful beginnings of this style 30 years ago to how it’s ended up today as a whole.
It also helped that their synthetic sound was crafted as a small homage to the strong stylistic era of the 1980’s, succeeding in being fun and supportive while letting other musical ideas dominate to create a multi-layered work. One thing that MGMT didn’t do so well with, though, was find more succinct yet daring musical ideas. This album was very wrapped up in delivering a light danceable sound, to which it succeeds nicely, but that room for potential melodic growth or emphasis on more exciting features was never used to the fullest. The sound itself was never too annoying, yet was rarely concise and driven enough with all of the synthetic additions. The timbre laid out an overall feel-good foundation but did nothing more.
Melody was the weak spot here, essentially keeping this album out of contention from being a truly grasping, memorable experience. They were obviously crafted with intelligence and supported the overall funky dance feel, but more motivic organization and sheer emphasis on linear motion would have added much more engagement and interest to the music overall. The few true melodic motives in this work were not highlighted very well in the texture and didn’t have very intriguing shapes.
Only the song “One Thing Left To Try” had a well emphasized and well shaped motive, which was my favorite song without a doubt, and that only seemed scratch the surface of what could have been accomplished. Nevertheless, we are left with a nice fun collection of songs to bop our heads to, and thanks to MGMT’s big name in the industry they can hopefully take some of the spotlight away from recent pop music disasters. Their combination of good intuitive ability and effort to create a fun atmosphere makes this a worthwhile album for anyone to get through at least once.
