MGMT - When you die

When MGMT released Oracular Spectacular back in 2007, they let us know that making catchy alternative pop tunes came natural to them. Later on their career, they wanted to show us that they also could made more experimental music, but in both Congratulations and their self-titled album, there was something missing and their attempts to be the next Animal Collective failed miserably.

Now they are on the verge of releasing a fourth album, Little Dark Age, and the release of When You Die is proving that if they still don't want to take the easy track and recreate a new Kids or Time to Pretend, they are letting die those ambitions of obscurity and conceptuality. And it's for the best.

When You Die is a much more approachable song than anything they've done in the last eight years, with a quirky feeling, playful scales and psychedelic energy. They are aware of how much sophistication and experimentation they can cram into a track that in the surface is pure pop bliss, but that when closely revisited is discordant, full of eerie low-fi effects (yes, we can see your hand there, Ariel Pink).

This meta-self-analysis is also toyed in the lyrics: "Don't call me nice, I'm evil", they scream, echoing their efforts to shake the commercial success of Kids, and to prove themselves a dark and deep band, rather than a playful fun one. Don't put us in the same box of Empire and the Sun and Foster the People, we belong with the misunderstood dark kids like Dirty Projectors and Oneothrix Point Never. And by laughing at their failed efforts, they come back to play intriguing indie pop free of pretensions and full of the MGMT power. They might still loathe their previous success, but even in a chorus-free track, their dark humor in catchy tunes is proving to be the best MGMT has to offer.