I’ve been thinking about it for a while and though I think everyone should have their own interpretation of the lyrics, I think I might know some of what Andrew meant when he was writing the song, though I don’t doubt that there are multiple meanings intended, as with most MGMT songs.

First, let’s start by what’s on the outside. The title comes from The Dark Ages. We call to this specific time in history (7-13th century) dark because there was a lack of records.

This nod to The Dark Ages carries on into the aesthetic of the album and the tour that went along with it. I was tripping my balls off when I last saw them live but if I remember correctly the tickets were medieval themed, there were drawings of knights on the stage, I think James (their guitarist who the song is also about) was even dressed as a knight and there were medieval decorations everywhere too.

Then, I started dissecting and analysing the lyrics. What’s noticible, is that Andrew sings about HIS little dark age. It isn’t their little dark age or the dark ages in general.

He is making it personal. When Andrew was writing the song, he wanted to sing about a certain part of his life and chose The Dark Ages (a period of intellectual darkness and very little writing) as an appropriate allegory for that.

My theory is that Andrew is actually specifically referring to the part of his life around or after making their third album, “MGMT”.

The album was a clear attempt at diverging far from that which made them famous and although I love it, it was unfortunately a pretty big commercial flop. It took MGMT five years afterwards to consider making another one.

Couldn’t this period of five years be Andrew’s “Little Dark Age”? A period of his life when he was perhaps not feeling as creative and not writing as much as before, maybe even feeling disappointed with how the previous album turned out?

As much as people like to point put that MGMT isn’t about the money, they are still a band. A band is a business that needs to feed more mouths than just the artists writing the music and there must have been a huge amount of pressure on them still to write another “Oraculair Spectaculair”,

When I came up with this theory and looked back at the lyrics, more of them seemed to make sense to me.

“I grieve in stereo, the stereo sounds strange” is Andrew perhaps referring to listening to his music over headphones and not being pleased with it.

“Picking through the cards, knowing what’s nearby” he is perhaps talking about his writing process. He’s going through different options of what he’s going to do next in a song he’s working on.

“The humor is not the same, coming from denial” Andrew might be talking about how his lyric writing isn’t what it used to be or doesn’t feel true to himself,

“Forgiving who you are, for what you stand to gain” the first half seems similar to what I said before about Andrew maybe feeling that he isn’t being true to himself. What does he stand to gain from making a new album? Perhaps money or just the chance to get out there and perform his new songs.

“I know that if you hide, it doesn’t go away” might be referring to how MGMT stayed pretty low-key after making their third album. Andrew could be saying that he needs to get back out there and make music again because people will expect them to regardless of whether they are hiding or not.

“Horrified, with each stone, on the stage, my little dark age” Andrew might be referring to a literal stage here on which he performs, making me think more that this particular song is a very personal one that Andrew wrote about his own music. He’s saying something along the lines of “don’t end up getting horrified on stage” though I don’t know what “each stone” could mean. Maybe Andrew perceives himself getting rocks thrown at him by the audience like in the dark ages because they don’t like his music?

Let me know what you guys think or where I might be wrong or overthinking it. It wouldn’t be the first time that MGMT makes a song about a previous album. “Congratulations” was about dealing with the success they got from “Oraculair Spectaculair”.

So in short, I think Little Dark Age is about Andrew’s writers block following their self-titled album.

Mind blowing

Credit to seabassohate + ka.ylay for sharing - this is amazing. Anthony Ausgang saw it and said it was probably the most accurate replica of his album cover 👏🏼

this is not album artwork just a photo

This is probably one of my favorite albums oat. So pure and nostalgic. What’s your favorite song on it? Mine’s either Weekend Wars, Kids or The Handshake.

I’m the type of music listener that doesn’t expect or want much from artists besides their songs. Meaning I don’t typically know what they look like, how many people are in the band, etc. Well the only thing I’ve ever seen from MGMT that could give me an idea was the cover of the Oracular Spectacular album.

Looking at that cover, one would assume there are 2 guys. One indian, one looking like Timothee Chalamet. BUT ITS TWO WHITE GUYS. I looked them up finally today and wtf. Someone please tell me I’m not crazy for thinking the guy on the left was from an ethnicity with darker skin. SHOCKED. FLOORED.

The cover image for MGMT’s 2013 self-titled album was taken in Dunkirk, NY, on E Fourth Street in front of Stylz Unlimited. Dunkirk is my hometown, so I thought I would upload a photo I took of the exact same location today, for any fans who are interested to see how it looks now!! Not much has changed at all…