Due Process: Congratulations

Album: Congratulations
Artist: MGMT

MGMT refuses to learn from its success. With Congratulations, they throw out the book on their winning pop-friendly proto-electronica and replace it with tired surfer rock tropes and unwelcome tonal hopscotch.

"Someone's Missing" is obviously missing Michael from the Jackson 5. "Flash Delerium" treads ill-conceived middleground between the Black Kids and the Klaxons. "I Found a Whistle" sounds like a plodding script read of a latter-day M. Night Shyamalan film. While "Brian Eno" and "Lady Dada's Nightmare" are a muse-scramble that fail to emulate or flatter their namesakes. And the title track provides little reassurance for an album that ultimately orchestrates MGMT's precipitous fall.

This surf-rock shame doesn't so much hang ten as it does sit dead in the water. Verdict: [D+]

Skip to the good part: Congratulations