Cool Song No. 2 An Earthy Slice of Bliss From MGMT

Boy, oh boy is it good to have MGMT back on the scene. I really L-O-V-E-D "Oracular Spectacular", which after taking a trip into the wonderfully twisted world of "Time To Feel", you'll start to understand what the easily believable buzz was and, luck and unfavorable record company meddling notwithstanding, still is. This year brings a self-titled third album from this psychedelic rock outfit and the first song "Cool Song No. 2" is a true gas. Very much an amalgam of synth, tribal noise, thunderous piano and a splash of oddball that makes you want to get inside the craniums of these guys to see what kind of strong drugs they were on when they cranked this out. The beautiful thing about this band, and trust me I'm not dipping into the bag of overwrought musical cliche to utter these words, is that it truly does not sound like anything else in any genre at this moment in time. I'm a fan of how they don't take themselves overly seriously. They'd probably have fit right in during the 1960s Jefferson Airplane drug haze days. Lyrics such as, "Whenever I drift by the unknown, feign like I notice a fundamental tone, the fine petals open and close, offended, poor explanation and nothing shown" hint at the idea that these guys spend many a day watching the clouds drift by, pondering the bigger questions and the wider world. Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser take us through their peculiar looking glass which has a primeval sensibility running all over it while still moored to the now with generous dollops of keyboards thrown into the mix. Their vocals drift through the breeze. You'd be best served finding a spoon and grabbing a spoonful of this cosmic musical soup. The pieces of this puzzle come together in some mighty ingenious ways. You never can tell what atmospheric direction Andrew, Ben, and their cohorts Will Berman (on drums), Matt Asti (manning the bass guitar), and James Richardson (lead guitar)are going to point the way to next. If you were a fan of "Time To Feel" or "Kids", the two chief singles from "Oracular Spectacular" you'll be pleased to note that "Cool Song No. 2" returns to the marijuana inhaling glory of those tunes. I'd be remiss if I didn't add that the production values here are top notch. Beefy all the way through even during the passages where the sound tends to lurch out into the middle of improvisational territory. It's a nice package to unwrap and bodes well for the potential success of the new project.