Late Night Tales: MGMT

iTunes Review

As if we needed another reason to love MGMT, the selections it chose for its Late Night Tales mix are pure nuggets of record-collection gold. For the uninitiated, Late Night Tales is a regularly released compilation series that asks selected artists to come up with a late-night mix from their own music collection. MGMT’s mix not only plays with a soothing after-hours vibe; it’s like a portal into the band’s collective core of influences. It starts with Disco Inferno’s sleepy “Can’t See Through It” before dropping a pre–Jefferson Airplane gem with The Great Society’s psychedelic serenade “Love You Girl.” Following this up is the sultry Suicide cut “Cheree,” which is like the “Louie Louie” of drone rock. Add The Velvet Underground’s half-lidded “Ocean” and Spacemen 3’s “Lord Can You Hear Me,” and you have an ideal collection of lullabies for the Beatle-boot and bowlcut crowd. Of course MGMT has to throw in its own “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” because if you can’t dig your own songs, what are you doing it for?