CD CHOICE: CongratulationsSony

MGMT's global-conquering Oracular Spectaculararrived front-loaded with some of the most concise and entrancing pop singles of the past 10 years. With tracks such as Kidsand Time to Pretend, the Brooklyn- based group had accomplished an all-too-rare feat: appealing to both high-minded music critics and the pop-music masses.

So there must have been much stifled anguish in the record company boardroom when Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden announced that the follow-up would be a “psychedelic concept album that would contain no singles”. That’s just what they’ve delivered, and that sound in the background is MGMT taking a flame-thrower to their casual fan base.

There's nothing on Congratulationsas remotely catchy as the songs on the first half of the previous album. Instead, they've gone for a "jaded rock star" concept and played it out over nine intriguing tracks. At times it sounds like Animal Collective for adolescents.

Opening track It's Workingsets the tone. it pretends to be catchy pop but it's really a moody scene-setter that reeks of a "look how we've matured musically" feel. Onwards to Song for Dan Treacy, and MGMT seem to be doing an almost note-for-note cover of a Rezillos song.

One gets the impression that these songs were written to be sung from a stage as part of a weird indie-rock musical. But by subtly channeling the spirit of a Pet Sounds/Smile-era Beach Boys, they manage to frame it all with a woozy, occasionally blissed-out effect. The trick is to take it as a song cycle instead of looking for chart-toppers. Lady Dada's Nightmareeven get an amazing Dark Side of the Moonvibe going.

Congratulationswill sell in vastly inferior quantities to its predecessor. Radio will hate it. The word "experimental" will appear in every review. But there is a quiet, majestic beauty to this album if you give it the time. It's surprising for all the right reasons. See whoismgmt. com

Download tracks:I Found a Whistle, Lady Dada's Nightmare