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GREAT PROG ALBUMS I MISSED from January 2018

PROG ALBUM REVIEWS and ALBUM OF THE MONTH – February 2018

Page 2: GIG REVIEWS – February 2018

Page 3: NON-PROG / NON-METAL HIGHLIGHT – February 2018 

Page 4: FILM and TV

⊕ NON-PROG / NON-METAL HIGHLIGHT – February 2018⊕

MGMT – Little Dark Age

Image result for mgmt little dark age

Genre (RYM) – Synthpop, Neo-Psychedelia, Psychedelic Pop

I love MGMT‘s Oracular Spectacular, so in my quest to broaden my musical horizons, I saved the new album of MGMT for further listens. I don’t know very well how the band has evolved since that debut album but the new album, Little Dark Age has a fan in me.

Musically though the album and the first half especially, is full of fun and catchy songs. “She Works Out Too Much”, is a groovy, bass-heavy fast-paced opener with some funny commentary and lyrics and even has some sax bits in the outro. “The only reason we never worked out was, He didn’t work out” cracked me up hard; Perhaps it’s all the grim lyrics I’m used to in prog and metal that a glimmer of comedy in music has me in splits. “Little Dark Age” is similar in its bass-laden nature with vocal delivery similar to the debut album.  My favourite of the album is “Me and Michael” which is just a quintessential 80s synth-pop song : the ‘Woooah’ opening mutter, the soft vocal delivery, the two thumps before the chorus, the short keys melody: this one turns back the clock. “TSLAMP” has a section with the guitar (keys) that sounds like the music of an old arcade game that is like an imitation of the sound of keypads of old cellphones, as phones or smartphones is the theme of the song.

From “James” though, the songs mellow down and are a bit lacking in the catchiness and inventiveness present in the previous tracks. “When You’re Small” has a very wierd David Gilmour vocals vibe going that sounds very out of place in the context of the album. However, considering how fun the first half of the album is and the good lyrics throughout the album, I would recommend this album to fans of synth-pop – even if you don’t like it all, at the very least you’d sing along “Me and Michael” when the time comes, yeah?

Rating – 7 / 10

Links (Album): Spotify // YouTube

⊕ SPOTIFY PLAYLIST  – BEST OF FEB 2018 ⊕

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