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Oracular Spectacular
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CDN$ 14.99 |
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | | Oracular Spectacular's intriguing cover image features two members of what looks to be the Lost Tribe of Androgynously Handsome Nu-Rave Hippie Natives from Thunderdome. The boys on the cover are MGMT, the highly talented, multi-instrumentalist duo of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngarden. Bowie, Muse, Pulp, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Daft Punk, and other major players in the canon of postmodern pomp-pop clearly loom large in MGMT's universe. The group's lyrics play figurative dress-up, too, as when, on "Time to Pretend," the pair imagine that they're already rich and famous. But like the worst of Bowie (Tin Machine, anyone?), these lyrics and music unfortunately ring false, not unreal, per se, but as if not enough effort were put into the endeavor. Stylistically divergent songs like "The Handshake," "Youth," "Electric Feel," and "Weekend Wars" have a lot going for them, and the album is ultimately a promising debut. It just happens to sound like a wayward mix tape. Hopefully, successive albums will have both the cojones and the cohesion missing here. --Mike McGonigal | |
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| | This album has a freshly awesome sound, its got electric beats mixed with rock and spacey melodies. Super Fresh sound! And unlike anything I have recently heard. I highly recommend it for people who think its about time we had a musical/spiritual/natural re-evolution.
| | | Putting a label on the debut album by MGMT is a toughie. They're sort of a synth-psychedelic-space-indie-noisepop band.
And they break an awful lot of rules in their debut album "Oracular Spectacular," a vibrant, colorful little album that sounds like a cascade of summer flowers. They have a few wrinkles yet to iron out, but their music has a unique and striking sound, and they obviously know how to craft solid pop music with a foot-tapping beat, and a slightly eerie sound.
It opens with squeaks, bubbling noises, and finally with a slow-building electric riff smothered in twisted synth. "I'm feelin' rough, I'm feelin' raw, I'm in the prime of my life/Let's make some music make some money find some models for wives... This is our decision to live fast and die young/We've got the vision, now let's have some fun..." the soft layered vocals intone.
Well, at least there's no pretense about plans for the future, even if it means "I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home," and ends up with divorce, more models, and "We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end/We were fated to pretend."
They slow down a little with the guitar-led, sparkling pop of "Weekend Wars," and the shimmering psychedelic echoes of the languid "The Youth" ("We could flood the streets/with love or light or heat/whatever!"). But then they happily speed back up again -- beat-heavy funky tunes, undulating playful synthpop, and rapid-pattering electronic psychedelica. Styles are jumbled seamlessly.
As the album's end approaches, the songs get even more complex, as if the band is learning the ropes as they go along. We have an acoustic-led ballad, a sly rippling pop melody, and a dancy, intimate-sounding finale -- not to mention the utterly sublime "Of Moons, Birds & Monsters," a deliriously beautiful psychpop melody strung with colourful synth, spacey sound effects, and guitars that chime like church bells.
"Oracular Spectacular" is the sound of a magnificently talented band that is still getting its bearings, and exploring the blended sound they've created. Most of the songs on this album are of good quality but not brilliant -- and then MGMT suddenly bursts forth in full-blown musical splendor, with some truly larger-than-life pop rippling with exquisite instrumentation.
Much of that instrumentation comes from the subtle percussion, and a series of guitars that can drive the melody forwards like a speeding car, then can suddenly turn into a mass of psychedelic blurs, murmurs and chimes. You can hear some handclaps and what sounds like kettle drums buried in there as well, plus the occasional bashed cymbals.
But the synth is nothing short of gorgeous, and it permeates every song in the album. Sometimes it's a chirp, tweak, squeak or electronic chime on the edges, but sometimes it's a sweep of truly exquisite shimmering sound. "The Handshake" sounds like it was recorded underwater at times.
Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden's soft voices are layered through most of the album, although occasionally one of them sings solo. It adds an otherworldly sound as their vibrant lyrics explore youthful revels, rock'n'roll, otherworldly transformations ("My liquid silver arms extended/These waves aren't far apart... I am fire, where's my form?") and who knows what else ("Why'd you cut holes in the face of the moon base?/Don't you know about the temperature change/In the cold black shadow?").
"Oracular Spectacular" lives up to its name -- outstanding music that only promises to become better, shimmering with colorful pop and boundless imagination.
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