MGMT: Oracular Spectacular

2008-03-17 12:54:05

After a first listen of MGMT’s glittering debut album, I’m left feeling decidedly guilty because I don’t think I entirely appreciated seeing this lot live in a sold-out Bodgea Social in Nottingham a few weeks ago.
    
Yeah I enjoyed the show, it was really unexpectedly very good, but after one round of Oracular Spectacular, its crystal clear why MGMT are being hailed as the saviours of modern rock in some quarters.
    
If you take one look at this oddball duo, you’d be forgiven for not knowing exactly what to think. They dress in 70s retro garb and paint weird shapes on their faces. But opening track Time To Pretend, with it’s images of a hedonistic, idealistic and hippyish escape from the pressures of modern life, tells you exactly where they’re coming from.
    
While Andrew VanWyngarden’s lyrics encourage us to: “move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars”, Ben Goldwasser’s extraordinary synth-rock soundscapes melt into a stunningly catchy composition that simply blows you away.
    
This stellar effort continues into Weekend Wars, a track that’s stamped with Hammond-esque diversions into prog-rock territory, and The Youth, which really could have been penned by John Lennon if he was still alive now, God rest his soul. Just when you think you have MGMT all figured out though, they go and change the record yet again.
    
Electric Feel, one of the definitive tracks and definitely a summer hit, is all techno-swirls and loopy disco-patterns and the vocals become blissed-out, 70s soul harmonies. It’s utterly brilliant and horrendously catchy; Beck should be green with envy.
    
We see more modern prog on the bizarrely-named 4th Dimensional Transition MGMT. In fact, there’s an ominous sense of menace in the track that recalls Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac, which shifts the flavour of the album yet again. If me namedropping records from your dad’s record collection makes you want to run off screaming, don’t let these references put you off, for MGMT have achieved something near-amazing on Oracular Spectacular.
    
Admittedly, Goldwasser and VanWyngarden have taken their cue from legendary and modern-day prog and techno connoisseurs but they’ve combined the hallmark sounds of alienation of this genre into a melting pot of pop, soul, disco and rock. The end result is an incredibly accessible album that will be the essential soundtrack to every clued-up teenager’s summer this year. New Rave? Pah. The kids are all about Neon Prog now. Shine on, you crazy diamonds!
    
Review: Miss M Dhillon
    

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