MGMT have admitted they took inspiration from Lady Gaga and Kanye West when working on “Congratulations”.

Andrew VanWyngarden from the Brooklyn duo said he tried to get into Gaga and West’s mindset while recording the record.

“On some of the new songs, I found myself thinking about Lady GaGa or Kanye West, and what their ultimate goal is,” he explained to spin.com. When talking about one of the songs on the album “Lady Dada’s Nightmare” he explains “It’s just an instrumental track, but it’s very nightmare-ish sounding! Actually, it’s really kind of messed up sounding, and we thought it would be funny to call it “‘Lady Dada’s Nightmare’.”

He then adds “her videos are really creative, and I like that she’s getting more and more bizarre and spreading that to the mainstream. VH1 would say that she’s driven, that she wanted to be as famous as possible. That’s a very different goal from us. But I respect that she’s doing what she wants to do. This sounds cheesy, but for us it’s really just about the music and getting people to hear what we have to say. I’m sure it’s about the music for those people, too… but fame… it’s an interesting career.”

MGMT have said they don’t want to release any singles from their forthcoming second album, ‘Congratulations’.

The duo told NME that the album, which they hope to release this spring, is meant to be a complete body of songs rather than an album with standout singles.

“We’d rather people hear the whole album as an album and see what tracks jump out rather than the ones that get played on the radio – if anything gets played on the radio!” Ben Goldwasseer explained.

He added: “There definitely isn’t a ‘Time To Pretend’ or a ‘Kids’ on the album. We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”

The album is currently being mastered in New York with production help from Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev). Songs set for the tracklisting include ‘It’s Working’, ‘Brian Eno’ and ‘Song For Dan Treacy’.

MGMT have just be nominated for this year’s Grammy Awards. MGMT are nominated for the award “Best New Artist”. They are also up for “Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocals” with their amazing song “Kids”. Lead singer of MGMT, Andrew Vanwyngarden explained “It was really, really unexpected and just crazy. I was watching the nominations with our sound guy, and it was surreal to hear our name on TV. It’s a whole other world of music. I’m glad that they want to recognize a stranger band”.

THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON CBS ON THE 31ST OF JANUARY AT 8PM!

Although the official song list for the “Congratulations” has not been finalised, MGMT have unveiled 3 new songs at recent gigs, which may be revealed on the new album.

“Dan Treacy” -- A song about the singer from the band “The Television Personalities”. MGMT performed this track in Arkansas (their first show of the tour).

“It’s Working” -- This upbeat and psychedelic track was recorded back in June 2009 in Memphis and is due to be appear on their new album. Andrew Andrew VanWyngarden explains “It was the first song that we demo-ed almost a year ago. Ben [Goldwasser] and I went up to this little cabin in the woods in upstate New York, and the second I walked in the door I sat down and played this chord progression. The next day we expanded it into a song. Lyrically, it’s about doing drugs. I didn’t realize it until now, but it’s kind of funny, because the first song on our first album was “Time to Pretend,” which was about the imagined rock star scenario. So, “It’s Working” is like, “Yeah, we went out there and we did a lot of drugs and it’s not that great.” The song is mostly about Ecstasy. No, not really. But that’s how we envisioned the track when we were writing it. It stops and starts a lot; it’s frantic, confusing. There’s also a surfing thread throughout the record. When you’re surfing, there’s a specific break you’re paddling to. And when the waves are really good you say, “It’s working.” The song kind of has a surf-y vibe. It’s like surfing on ecstasy. Which is what the “Time to Pretend” video is like. Actually, the video is more like surfing on acid.

The third song “Congratulations” can be watched in the previous post!

MGMT announces new album for 2010.  “Congratulations” is due out in Spring 2010, rumoured to be 2nd of March 2010.

MGMT’s debut album “Oracular Spectacular”, which included the singles “Kids”, “Electric Feel” and “Time to Pretend”, sold over 1,000,000 million copies worldwide.

When talking about the new album Andrew Vanwyngarden explains “It’s mixed and mastered, and now we’re just working on presenting it to the world. We spent all of last year working on it, and that’s after a good long while touring behind the first record [2008's Oracular Spectacular], so it’s definitely nice to be done”.

He then explains “The honesty of it; it’s very plaintive. In a weird way, it’s like a soul record. That, and there’s an instrumental track, the second to last song on the album, called “Lady Dada’s Nightmare.”

A song from the album, which is also called Congratulations, can be watched below.  Check it out!