Music Video Relapse: "Congratulations" (2010) by MGMT

Posted by Adam Fairholm on September 19, 2013 in Music Video Relapse

Staff Post

congratulations.jpg

MGMT released their third studio album, MGMT, on Tuesday, and even though we've spent a music video relapse watching an older MGMT video, they've got more than enough material to sustain us for a few posts.

So today we're watching my favorite video from MGMT's second album, 2010's Congratulations. The song is also titled "Congratulations", and was directed by Tom Kuntz.

You may recall that Tom Kuntz has recently directed a video for MGMT, "Your Life Is a Lie", the first single off of MGMT. While that video was a mish-mash of different scenes and images, "Congratulations" is one single narrative, set in a vast light brown desert.

In the video, Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden are journeying through the desert with a very odd creature - a hairless bird-like animal with giant, glassy eyes, a tail, and a beak. As it walks along its clear that while the members of MGMT are doing fine, this creature is not. It has parts fall off, and then eventually tumbles down a sand dune. Towards the end of the video they approach a structure that is never explained but looks like something that may be able to cure the distressed creature. Before they can reach it, a peiece of its head with its eye falls off and sinks into the sand, before pieces of light drift up frm the sand and twinkle to the melody of the song as Goldwasser and VanWyngarden clap.

This is a really bizarre video, but there's something about this video that I find really powerful. The creature that was build for this is so emotive - it really never reads as fake or a costume (a rare thing for a music video). That fact alone makes the emotions and the struggle of this bird creature very real. If you've ever watched someone or something deterioriate in front of you while you tried to help, my guess is that this video might hit you in the feels.

Although it's a narrative, Tom Kuntz apparently concentrated a lot on the pacing with regards to the song. Here's an interesting quote from editor Steve Gandolfi in Studio Daily.

Everything - each shot, frame, movement, is all choreographed in time with the music. Every edit made worked within this very strict visual orchestration. Tom also carefully considered every way in which the clip might be viewed - including on the iPhone - so we experimented with framing and tech specs so that it would be received well in any situation.

I definitely can see the result of that attention to editing detail in the video - the piece has the perfect pacing for the song and although the ties are subtle, they are there. Aside from the creature, Goldwasser and VanWyngarden play the parts as concerned by mostly hands off caretakers in the video. They never overdo it, and they even manage to keep well dressed while trekking across the desert.

Adam Fairholm is the co-founder and lead developer of IMVDb. You can find him on twitter at @adamfairholm.



More Music Video Relapse:


Most of the time on Music Video Relapse I am writing about a music video that is a classic for a good reason - either being iconic or just fondly remembered. Sometimes I write about a music video that was release relatively recently but I think needs a second look… Read More

As we've covered on the blog before, ABBA has an interesting history with music videos, using the form back in the late 1970s to spread their music to overseas markets. The videos, while pretty primitive, are well-done for their time, and they are almost all on their ABBA Vevo account,… Read More

When a video gets pulled off of YouTube, they usually tell you who made them do it. Usually it's a record label, but sometimes it's a random name. For instance, Iggy Azalea used to have a video called "Pu$$y," but it now says "This video is no longer available because… Read More

People whose jobs revolve around throwaway "viral" stories hit pay dirt last week when someone noticed that a radio station in LA was playing Nelly's 2002 hit "Hot In Herre" over and over again. This is apparently relatively standard procedure for radio stations undergoing a format change (it has since… Read More

IMVDb Blog




Site Sponsors

Add Your Company




RSS Icon Subscribe with RSS


Search the Blog


Recent Posts


Archive


Categories


Content on the IMVDb blog is ©2012-2024 IMVDb and FilmedInsert, LLC. All Rights Reserved.