Based on the actions of recent months (e.g. the debuting of new songs followed by lack of public appearances), it’s no secret that MGMT has been held up in the studio, working on the followup to 2007′s Oracular Spectacular. And come early 2010, the duo of Andrew James VanWyngarden and Ben David-Martin Goldwasser will unveil just what they came up when they drop Congratulations.

As the San Francisco Examiner reports (via an interview with VanWyngarden), the album was recorded in Malibu, produced by Spacemen 3′s Peter “Sonic Boom” Kember, and features the vocal talents of Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux/RTX. As for the actual content? VanWyngarden describes it as “pretty dark.”

“It’s us trying to deal with all the craziness that’s been going on since our last album took off. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel natural.”

Now, here’s where we can utilize the aforementioned “debuting of new songs.” Check out two new tracks, “Congratulations” and “It’s Working”, both which have been performed live for a while now and will probably find their way onto Congratulations, below.

We’ll keep you updated as more details become available.