A hit song is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can thrust you into widespread acclaim. But on the other, it can pigeonhole you, your audience forever using your old stuff as a metric. Your work progresses, but your fans are stuck in the past. For a great example, remind yourself that “Creep” is still Radiohead’s biggest hit.

For another example, look to MGMT, who had three such songs. “Time to Pretend” and “Kids” especially were already several years old by the time they appeared on Oracular Spectacular. And overall, that synthpop sound wasn’t very representative of that record. If you just look at the neo-psychedelic freak folk on the deep cuts, Congratulations is a faithful follow up.

In a lot of ways, Congratulations scans like a rejection of the songs they had been playing since college. Absolutely no concessions are given to anyone hoping for “Time to Pretend” pt. 2. Having been a sensitive folksy singer-songwriter who now plays in a heavy atmospheric band, I know that resentment well.

The songs are nebulous and fluid, shifting between proggy, noodly riffs several times throughout the runtime. The Apple-commercial-ready synths have been replaced with Doors-esque Farfisa organs and brittle Kinks-ish guitar lines. The best example is “Siberian Breaks,” a twelve-minute opus that twists and weaves through several movements that throw several queues to the likes of King Crimson and early Pink Floyd. Even “Flash Delirium,” the album’s lead single, is a genre-hopping, mood-shifting “pocket symphony” (as Brian Wilson would call it).

And there’s no mistake that Congratulations is a wonderful album. When it came out, I was one of the few people defending it. I went to the mat with a number of friends who completely dismissed it, forcing them to listen to “It’s Working” until they conceded that it was brilliantly arranged. I may have even claimed it was better than Oracular Spectacular. (My 2010 review was especially glowing).

But in the light of eight years’ time, there is no mistake which record I return to more frequently. And in that time, MGMT has wavered between trying to recapture the vibrant, life-affirming synthpop of those early singles and the fearless, druggy experimentation of Congratulations, without much success on either end. I’ve dipped my toe into the two records they’ve released since, and none of it has captured my attention the way these first two records have. I know that might make me sound exactly like the type of fan I criticized in the opening paragraph, but whatever.