MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden decide it's Time to Pretend
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Monday, 10, Mar 2008 05:41
SonyBMG, out March 10th.
In a nutshell.
Synths, surfing, silliness, psychedelic, acid
What's it all about?
One hobby of the music press seems to be trying to pick the next massive indie act to come out of New York and blow the world away. After John Peel nailed it with the Strokes (and probably millions of other older bands, but it's the Strokes I remember him creaming about) any muso worth his battered leather jacket has been desperately trying to grab any interesting band out of NYC and tell everyone how great they are. Last month, it was all about Vampire Weekend (wayhey, we're posh and like African music); last week it was the turn of Hercules & Love Affair (look at us, we make kitsch disco and Anthony ex-Johnson does our vocals). Now everyone from Time Out to Dazed and Confused are tumbling over themselves to tell us that MGMT's debut album, Oracular Spectacular, should be filed alongside the Velvet Underground and the Ramones as the best thing to come out of New York since like forever. The thing is, they might all be nearly right.
Who's it by?
Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden met while they were at Wesleyan University, a private liberal arts college in Connecticut which, if you're interested, also was home to Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Doll and Buffy creator Joss Whedon. There they started making music, well, producing covers of the Ghostbusters theme song for parties at the college's notorious "clothing optional" dorm. They also found they shared a love of My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen 3 and ended up producing some more serious songs about the apocalypse, surfing and taking acid on a beach. It was enough to get people interested and they were promptly signed and paired up with Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. On the back of this buzz, US magazine Rolling Stone named MGMT as one of its Artists to Watch for 2008.
As an example.
"I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling wrong in the time of my life/Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives." - Time to Pretend
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?
It's hard to deny that this is a very accomplished debut record and the critics are certainly keen. However, it doesn't really possess the cross-over appeal that means it'll sell millions of copies. In the immortal words of the Mike Skinner, "cult classic, not best seller", but then all the best albums are aren't they?
What the others are saying
"In Oracular Spectacular MGMT have delivered a debut which is both intriguing and exciting if a little uncomfortable." - Damian Jones on bbc.co.uk
"MGMT's music is electro-pop at its best, served on a valiant platter of grit." - Dazed and Confused
So is it any good?
It's really difficult reviewing an album that lots of other people have already said is ace. Do you agree and look like a sheep or be deliberately contrary and pick holes in it? Admittedly, Oracular Spectacular didn't really grad on first listen - it sounded too much like trendy kids trying to make themselves into the next Flaming Lips, but with more Beach Boys thrown in for good measure.
But then, somewhere between the second and third listen, something began to change. The simple synth lines and witty lyrics became rather endearing. Suddenly, album opener, Time to Pretend, became one of those songs you just want to listen to over and over again (FYI, the last time that happened was on first hearing Regina Spektor's On the Radio). What's more, the rest of the album followed suit and opened up into something amazing.
Sure, there are some less good tracks; Weekend Wars sounds too much like some middle-class boys trying to ape the Beatles in their weird phase, or maybe to create a rejected Love record. Pieces of What also comes worryingly close to one of those crappy slow Weazer tracks you used to skip while looking for the Sweater Song.
But the majority of the songs on Oracular Spectacular manage to recall all those good old bands that your older brother's cool friend had in his record collection, while still sounding genuinely new.
MGMT are particularly successful when they pick up the tempo and make the sort of songs that it is easy to imagine being played in trendy but seedy clubs on the Lower East Side. Kids and 4th Dimension Transition deserve an honourable mention for sounding like exactly the sort of track the Klaxons would have made if they had talent instead of a really good stylist.
7.5/10
James Cooper