Scientists recently discovered two Earth-like planets about 1,200 light years away. NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity keeps scouring the Red Planet for signs of life. And somewhere out there, astronomers one day will find MGMT, who surely rate among the more mind-bending examples of Life As We Know It in the galaxy. On Record Store Day over the weekend, the band released a cassette single containing “Alien Days,” a song they’ve said will appear on their upcoming third album and have previously played live. It’s a sumptuously detailed, exquisitely zonked-out space-rock construction, journeying into a similar effects- and synth-warped beyond as the Flaming Lips’ Essential 2013 album The Terror. Though the full lyrics will take some parsing, there’s little terror here, only wonder. As in, we wonder if this is what the rest of the follow-up to 2010’s Congratulations will sound like, a continuation of that album’s whimsical sonic excursions rather than a left turn or a retreat. To boldly go…
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