MGMT Reveal Eye-Popping "Congratulations" Cover Art

The purple-and-pink checkboard background, the flood of turquoise and the two-headed chimpanzee surfing out of the mouth of an icy wave shaped like a Sonic the Hedgehog character: The above image couldn't be anything else but the cover of the next MGMT album, Congratulations. If the music on the album is half as ostentatious as its '80s-tinged cover, we're all in for a memorable second album from Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. We still haven't determined whether we love or hate the image, but there's no denying it's as unique as MGMT themselves.

See Rolling Stone readers' favorite album covers.

The neon nightmare up top was created by the artist Anthony Ausgang, whose Website is filled with more canvas filled with deranged felines that look like Scratchy from "Itchy and Scratchy" and MC Skat Kat navigating through fluorescent, Dali-inspired landscapes. Fans of the Japanese noise rock band Boredoms might recognize Ausgang's work from their Rebore series. To take a retina-burning odyssey through Ausgang's collection, check out Ausgang's Exit Studios.

MGMT's much anticipated second album Congratulations, the follow-up to Oracular Spectacular, is due out April 13th. The duo has claimed they won't release any singles from the album, but we'll see if they stick to those guns as we inch toward their release date. Until then, check out the Congratulations track list:

Congratulations
1. "It's Working"
2. "Song for Dan Treacy"
3. "Someone's Missing"
4. "Flash Delirium"
5. "I Found a Whistle"
6. "Siberian Breaks"
7. "Brian Eno"
8. "Lady Dada's Nightmare"
9. "Congratulations"

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

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