Music Review: MGMT, “Congratulations”

Rating: 88

MGMT’s “Congratulations” is a musical act of bravery in which Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden cast aside expectations of groovy indie dance rock and get deeply, deliriously psychedelic. There’s very little modernism on “Congratulations” — MGMT circa 2010 has more in common with Syd Barrett, Love or the Zombies than it does with Passion Pit or Hot Chip. But this is hardly an ill-advised wig flip: MGMT might not retain the fair-weather friends who loved “Kids” or “Time to Pretend,” but the beautiful strangeness of “Congratulations” will earn them long-term relationships.

Driven by pounding surf drums and harpsichord, MGMT comes booming forward with “It’s Working,” a wild-eyed flurry of love and madness, and continues with the bold-as-brass tribute to the British neo-psychedelic band Television Personalities, “Song for Dan Treacy.” The quickly changing “Flash Delirium” delivers with spot-on “Aladdin Sane”-era David Bowie affectations, setting up for the MGMT’s opus, the 12-minute “Siberian Breaks.”