“Little Dark Age” by MGMT

Behind all of the, shall we say primarily “dark” metaphors which highlight the lyrics of MGMT’s “Little Dark Age”, lie a fundamental, easy-to-understand premise. And that is an individual basically making an attempt to hide him or herself, in a metaphorical kind of way, as in not facing up to something which transpired in the past. 

The one line of the song which most clearly points to such a notion can be found in the chorus. Here, the vocalist asserts that hiding from it ‘doesn’t make it go away’. Well, we already know that who the subject is trying to shield himself from is actually himself. 

But as far as the “it”, as in what aspect of his mentality he is attempting to conceal himself from, that’s open to respective listener interpretation.

But you know how the old saying goes – you can escape from anyone but yourself. And ultimately, that seems to be the conclusive sentiment of this song. So try as he might, at the end of the day, the narrator still finds himself in his own “little dark age”. And by that, we mean he is still trapped. He is trapped in the situation where he still has to deal with his personal depression, sense of alienation or what have you.

The “Little Dark Age” Album

This is the title track from MGMT’s fourth LP, which was put out by Columbia Records, the same label that handled all of their prior full-lengths.

It was also the lead single from said album and in that regard was officially released on the date of 17 October 2017.

MGMT

MGMT is a crew from Middletown, Connecticut. They signed with Columbia in 2006 and prior to that put out their first EP, Time to Pretend. And out of all of their full-lengths the first on the list, Oracular Spectacular (2007), has proven the most commercially successful to date. However, as far as critical reception goes their sophomore LP, Congratulations, reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 and number 4 on the UK Albums Chart, marking their best showing on both lists thus far.

The core membership of MGMT consists of its two founders, Andrew VanWyngarden and fellow vocalist/instrumentalist Benjamin Goldwasser. 

However others, primarily touring musicians, have participated throughout the years. For instance, bassist Simon O’Connor has been down in such a capacity since 2017. 

And it is also possible that the following musicians also contributed to “Little Dark Age”:

• guitarist James Richardson
• drummer Will Berman
• bassist Matthew Asti

All the aforementioned musicians were involved with the band, once again in a touring capacity, around the time of this track’s release. This is the reason we suspect they might have also played a role in the creation of “Little Dark Age”.

Credits for “Little Dark Age”

As far as those who are officially credited, in addition to being acknowledged as the writers of “Little Dark Age”, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser are also listed as the instrumentalists. 

MGMT are also collectively noted as being the track’s producers. However, in that regard they worked with the producers mentioned below:

• Patrick Wimberly
• Dave Fridmann

Meanwhile, there are two directors of the music video to this song. They are David MacNutt and Nathaniel Axel.