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MGMT’s Self-Titled September Album Uses Something Called ‘the Optimizer’

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MGMT will finally release their long-awaited third album this fall. On September 17, the psych-glam duo will unleash MGMT, the follow-up to 2010’s Congratulations, via Columbia Records. The 10-track collection features a number of previously heard songs: “Alien Days,” the spacey cassette single that Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser dropped on this year’s Record Store Day; the swirling “Mystery Disease,” performed live earlier this year; and the deceptively peppy “Your Life Is a Lie,” which was also premiered during a concert.

The upcoming LP will also include a cover of “Introspection,” a song by ’60s garage weirdos Faine Jade. MGMT’s recent “Something to Do With Prince” tune, a track that appeared on a three-way-split single with Spacemen 3 and Spectrum, is not mentioned on the track list.

As SPIN noted earlier, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser recorded the album in upstate New York with producer Dave Fridmann (the Flaming Lips). Speaking to Rolling Stone, the pair cited Aphex Twin and house music as primary influences on the impending album’s sound. Goldwasser said, “We’re not trying to make music that everyone understands the first time they hear it.”

Speaking of which: MGMT will come with “unique visual elements to accompany and illustrate the new music,” by way of something called “the Optimizer,” which reportedly “provides listeners of the album with a simultaneous aural and optical listening experience featuring video and CGI work.” 

What’s more, official music videos for “Alien Days,” “Your Life Is a Lie,” and “Cool Song No. 2” are all on the way. Track list to MGMT, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates, below.

MGMT track list: 

1. “Alien Days” 
2. “Cool Song No. 2” 
3. “Mystery Disease” 
4. “Introspection” 
5. “Your Life Is a Lie” 
6. “A Good Sadness” 
7. “Astro-Mancy” 
8. “I Love You to Death” 
9. “Plenty of Girls in the Sea” 
10. “An Orphan of Fortune” 

MGMT 2013 tour dates: 

July 3 – Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest
July 5 to 7 – Kelona, BC @ Waterfront Park
July 9 – Quebec City, QC @ Quebec City Summer Festival
July 12 – Lansing, MI @ Common Ground Music Festival
July 13 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bunbury Music Festival
August 24 – Monterey, CA @ First City Festival
August 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Fest
August 26 – Las Vegas, NV @ Cosmopoliton
August 29 – Davis, CA @ Mondavi Center
August 31 – Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater
September 1 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield Amphitheater
September 2 – Seattle, WA @ Bumbershoot
September 4 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
September 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Twilight Concert Series
September 6 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
September 26 – Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall *
September 27 – Brussels, Belgium @ AB *
September 29 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Cirkus *
September 30 – Oslo, Norway @ SentrumScene *
October 1 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega Main Hall *
October 3 – Berlin, Germany @ Astra Kulturhaus *
October 4 – Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer *
October 5 – Munich, Germany @ Kesselhaus *
October 6 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Komplex 457 *
October 8 – Paris, France @ Olympia *
October 9 – Hamburg, Germany @ Docks *
October 10 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Vredenburg Leidsche *
October 12 – Glasgow, Scotland @ 02 ABC *
October 13 – Wolverhampton, England @ Civic Hall *
October 14 – Manchester, England @ O2 Apollo Manchester *
October 16 – London, England @ Forum *
October 19 – Dublin, Ireland @ Olympia Theatre *

* with Guards