Just finally downloaded this album. If you're not into this group then you're not into modern music. Or should I say the "age of the digital" (which is what I like to call it). Post-post Modern if you will. The age where music just keeps regurgitating itself over and over. It's some kind of evolution. Something about mashing everything together and then trying to separate out the good sounds in your head. You have to work harder than ever to hear something to thing to latch onto. Some musical rhythm to ride on. Music in 2010 is much more complicated than the music of yesteryear. But somehow it seems oversimplified. Maybe its the way that pop music no longer feels the need to adhear to the accepted rules of structure and composition. Perhaps the fact where the "hook" is king (or queen depending on who you are...). I always feel like I am indulging when I listen to groups like MGMT. Like it's a guilty pleasure that is accepted by the masses. Don't get me wrong the album is fantastc but my roots are Elvis, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Johnny Cash. Unadulterated pop music. Music that was so easy to listen to that by the next spin you had all the lyrics and the melody memorized. Things have changed and I think for the better despite the nostalgia I have for clean pop. Vocals are much more un-assuming than before. Down and dirty. You just simply don't have to sing as well as you used to. It's not a prerequisite. You just have to have a message and be melodic at the same time. I would say that Dylan was the first to do so but his music follows the rules of folk. There are now a new set of rules for pop music. It's much more about a feeling than an intellectual mind teaser. Music is now meant for mass consumption no matter at what level you create. If you are conscious of your purpose than the music you create will be essentially good. And consumers prize quality and intellectual foreplay before anything else in this day and age.
J.G.
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