Video: MGMT – “Nothing To Declare”

Directed by Joey Frank. From Loss Of Life, out February 23 on Mom+Pop.

With a lilting ditty that could be a sonic sister to 2010’s “Congratulations,” our heroes are back to tickle our senses and bob our heads once again. “Nothing to Declare” has all the hallmarks one would expect from MGMT, including clever lyrics like “Nothing to declare/Not in the bags under my eyes,” which leads me to wonder if the party pop band from the mid-oughts aren’t still dipping their toes in the punch from time to time?

But let’s talk about the video for a bit because I think it’s one they want us to talk about. We follow a gal as she navigates some travel from Pittsburgh to gay Paris. And the navigation is the interesting part as she has no arms. I only mention that because as an able-bodied fella with all the original equipment, it is interesting (to me) to see how one without arms manages everyday tasks like showing your passport, flipping down your airplane seat tray, or even just sipping a cup of coffee without the use of hands or arms. There’s more than one shot of people in the video similarly interested, if not bemused, which makes me think it was intentional to use someone otherly-abled and therefore worth the mention. As you might guess, she manages it all perfectly well and is just another young person having fun and on an adventure.

There has always been a strange tint of youth to MGMT’s music. Not entirely without that hint of danger that defines adventure either. “Nothing to Declare” carries the same scent and makes me sad not to be young, while happy for my own adventures. Go see the world, kids. You can’t tell people what you didn’t do–that’s not a story.

Video: MGMT – “Mother Nature”

Directed by Jordan Fish. From Loss Of Life, out February 23 on Mom+Pop.

Bonkers that it’s been 15 years since I first saw MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” video on MTV2’s “Subterranean” show. That whole sentence is a little bonkers, a different era for sure. Back then my Tivo would record “Subterranean” for me every week and I’d watch it later, blooping past the commercials and the boring Radiohead videos.

YouTube was still pretty young in 2008 and Google had yet to fully iron out its relationship with the record labels who kept filing lawsuits for copyright infringement. It was wild.

But the “Time to Pretend” video was on YouTube and I would watch it over and over again with my toddler on my lap. We didn’t let him watch tv but he was into trains and we’d look up a lot of train videos. His favorite video was a compilation of 120+ images of the historic diesel VT601 soundtracked by Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express.” He would sing along: “Trains! Robots! Express!” So yeah, my two year old turned me on to Kraftwerk.

I returned the favor, I guess, by turning him on to trippy videos featuring dudes in loincloths riding giant flying cats. You’re welcome, kid.

Well now here we are all these years later and we’re all considerably older. I haven’t paid a ton of attention to what MGMT’s been up to but this will apparently be their fifth studio album and their first since 2018’s Little Dark Age. And maybe they sound more mature? “Mother Nature” shares a bit of a vibe the last MGMT song I actually remember: “Congratulations” (from 2010). I like it.

In a statement Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser said, “Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.” Maybe closer to 25% but that’s alright…