Released: 2022

Genres: Neo-Psychedelia, Progressive Electronic, Space Ambient

The Musiquarium’s 11•11•11 Review Score: 7 out of 10

Recorded on November 11, 2011, 11•11•11 is a one-off live recording of all original material that was not released until exactly 11 years later.

Having been commissioned to write music for a particular art installation in a museum, 11•11•11 is the sound of MGMT challenging themselves as artists and mostly succeeding while doing so. There are several interludes and most of the songs are instrumentals, but this is MGMT at their most abstract.

Invocation is dark and almost Flaming Lips-like, which is no surprise given the two bands’ then recent work together on The Flaming Lips 2009 track Worm Mountain, and their shared producer, Dave Fridmann. Whistling Through the Graveyard and Forest Elf both bring to mind the childlike whimsy of late sixties Beach Boys. The nine-minute-long Tell It to Me Like It Is is truly entrancing, as are I Am Not Your Home and Unfriend, which are all spaced-out and psychedelic. Who’s Counting is also quite fantastic.

It makes you wonder how 11•11•11 would have been received had it been released in 2011, but it was very MGMT to wait to release it exactly 11 years after its recording date, even if it ultimately diminished the album’s impact in the process.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view MGMT on Discogs.

Back to the 2022 Album Guide or the MGMT Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard