0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - 7
Blandness trumps
beat on'MGM '
Not enough thought
put into latest effort
from indie group
By ERIKA HARWOOD
Daily Arts Writer
It would be far reaching to clas-
sify MGMT as conventional. After
all, they did play what could poten-
tially he the
world's largest B
cowbell on "Let-
terman" a few MGMT
weeks ago. Yet
there is a fine MGMT
line between Columbia
cutting-edge
experimenta-
tion and an unsettling lack of
focus, and the latter seems to pre-
side over the group's latest self-
titled effort.
"Alien Days" starts the album
off with the intriguing distorted,
childlike voice (perhaps actually
the voice of a child), eventually
joined by singer Andrew VanWyn-
garden who leads the song into a
primarily acoustic sounding track
that resonates more as an enthusi-
asm-lacking filler. VanWyngarden
softlymutters the lyrics behind the
halfhearted instrumentation.
Many of the songs tend to mis-
lead with strong openings like
on "Cool Song No. 2" and "Astro-
Mancy," which start off with dis-
tinct, individualized beats, yet
once they get going falter into the
same trap that plagues the rest
of the album once they get going.
After VanWyngarden begins his
unenthusiastic lyricism, the tracks
become dull and uninspired.
Songs blending together can be
a useful trope for creating some-
thing more cohesive and even
coherent, yet it works in the exact
FELICITY?
Fantasy 'Land' falters
The dogs are in the band, too.
opposite way for MGMT. The
second half of the album melts
together to the point where the
songs become completely indis-
cernible. Repetitive melodies and
the group's attempt at making
bizarre new-age sounds become
tiresome after about seven min-
utes, yet the album clocks out to a
solid 44 minutes and 24 seconds.
Though not entirely unlisten-
able, it grows stale and eventually
makes its way into background
noise.
The biggest problem with the
album doesn't necessarily fall
onto a specific track but more of
a broader sense of the direction
MGMT has decided to follow.
Their music now seems to be driv-
en on their own logic that people
expect them to be weird and psy-
chedelic when what people really
want is a genuinely good album
that gives off the feeling of actu-
al input. MGMT didn't become
MGMT because they made ter-
rible, avant-garde bullshit, they
became MGMT because they gave
indie kids something a little differ-
ent but still fell within the blurred
Who doesn't want her very
own Mr. Darcy to sweep her off
her feet, caress her in his arms
and tell her
lines of pop-rock.
No one expects another album
full of "Electric Feel" or "Kids"
or even "Congratulations." They
expect an album that exudes
thought and substance, which
can leave plenty of room for the
bands own personal experimenta-
tion, buta compromise needs to be
made between the two sides.
Fortunately, MGMT has songs
like "Mystery Disease" and "Your
Life Is A Lie" which provide a little
hope to listeners that the band still
has some fire in them. The heavy
percussion on "Mystery Disease"
leads into a contrasting sing-
along style melody that stands out
against the surrounding fizzling
tracks. "Your Life Is A Lie" has the
same repetition found throughout
the album, but whether it's the
quirky lyrics or the very present
cowbell, itholds its own as an iden-
tifiable track.
It could be possible that MGMT
is an album ahead of its time that
the mere masses just don't under-
stand, but as it stands now, it's a
feeble attempt at an innovative
record.
that she's his
princess? In my
eyes, it is a rare
woman who
doesn't require
the approval of
a man in order
to feel like a
Austenland
At the
Michigan
Sony
princess. A
woman is a whole person capable
of loving herself unconditionally
rather than seeking validation
from someone else.
In "Austenland," Jane (Keri
Russell, "Dark Skies") is a devot-
ed member of the contrary - the
more populace portion of women
who value men more than they
value themselves. She worships
Jane Austen's body of work. She
has memorized the first three
chapters of "Pride and Preju-
dice," kisses a cardboard cut-out
of Colin Firth daily and totes
around abagwith "I heart Darcy"
in big, bold letters. But these
aspects of her obsession pale in
comparison to the accumulation
of fairy-tale garb that consumes
every inch of her bedroom.
Shunning the wise advice of
her best friend, who is firmly
grounded in reality, Jane drops a
tonofdoughandimmersesherself
in the ultimate Jane Austen expe-
rience, an amusement park-like
setting straight out of her beloved
author's fiction. But, of course,'
the experience disillusions Jane
who grows overwhelmed by a
confusing dichotomy of veracity
and fantasy.
The film fulfills an audience's
insatiable need for guilty plea-
sures with a silly storyline so
far-fetched that the movie finds
a way to get the green light from
a producer (Stephenie Meyer
of "Twilight" fame); the film
scratches the itch for this niche
and, though it doesn't make
sense, it'll make some dollars. It's
an entirely implausible scenario
that drags on and on with pre-
dictable beats and trite tropes.
The humor falls flat, whether it's
cheesy dialogue by Jerusha Hess,
a somewhat seasoned writer but
first-time director, or awkward
timing by the actors.
The performances satisfy,
but only just. Jennifer Coolidge
("American Reunion") plays
Jane's Austenland buddy, her
stereotypical role as the flighty
floozy-slash-sidekick, and it's
overkill. To its credit, the film
presents a few memorable
moments, like when Jane plays a
version of rapper Nelly's "Hot in
Herre" on the piano to the strong
dismay of Mrs. Wattlesbrook
(Jane Seymour, "Freeloaders"),
the curt, uppity owner of the
wacky world.
Stephenie
Meyer's version
of true love.
"Austenland" is a starkly
hyperbolic display of the unavoid-
able and, at times, unbreakable
attachment to fantasy. It's a film
that supports my belief that,
speaking from experience, some
women desire the perfect part-
ner so desperately that they lose
themselves in the process. Some-
times, you gotta live to learn.
(Spoiler alert) But the saccha-
rine and fantastical nature of the
film dilutes the message when
Jane ends up with her own ver-
sion of "Mr. Darcy" anyway. I
spoil because, as pathetic as it
sounds, a self-help book would be
more helpful than this movie -
maybe cheaper, too.
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