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

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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