MGMT

MGMT are a New York duo whose Pop/Dance/Rock/Electronic sound makes for a heady mix. Their very playful disc "Oracular spectacular" comprises just 10 tracks (these days, loads of CDs average 11 tracks, doing away with filler).

"Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives" they sing in the buzzing "Time to pretend" as they spell out the hedonistic lifestyle they have mapped out.

The acoustic "Weekend wars" reminds me a wee bit of The Beatles. "Of monsters, birds & monsters" is more upbeat. An extremely catchy retro sounding Pop/Rocker. The echo-ey "The youth" is so retro sounding, almost a Doo-wop ballad with shimmery psychedelic effects. "Electric feel" is disco-tinged and finds the duo singing in falsetto. Extremely catchy and one of my favourites.

"Kids" (aptly filled with sounds of kids at play) is a stomping slice of Dance/Rock, while the droning "4th dimensional traditional" features some tribal sounding percussion. "Pieces of what" is a lovely acoustic ballad (with percussion and epic strings coming in before the end). "The handshake" is a lovely ballad with echo-ey/disembodied vocals, while closing is the woozy psychedelic-sounding "Future reflections".

A spectacular debut!

Just shy of turning 40 I`ve become a little bit of a fossil regarding whats hip and new but Im so glad I didnt let this little gem get away. Really fantastic.

Not to sounds pretentious or like a music snob, but I use to listen to these guys since they were referred to as "The Management". All I can say is that they've definitely grown over the years and that this is their best record yet. If you like the single "Time to Pretend", you'll love the rest of the album. This is one of those records you'll listen to again in 10 years and it wont feel like it has aged.

I don't understand the rating of this album. I agree with it, but I don't undertand it. So far it is a collective 4 star. I give it 5 stars. Nay I give it Amazon 5 stars. It is not a true 5-star in the sense that it is a flawless album that can be recognized for greatness by just about anyone. However, I can asure you that this is an Amazon 5-star, where fans love it so much that they over-review it and give it five stars. If any album is worthy of that, it is this one. Call it what you want, New Wave, Glam, Electro-Indie, this album is amazing. There are 4 songs (tracks 1,3,4,9) that absolutely blow me away and make me want to share them with everyone I know. Probably Electric Eel most of all. Of the other 6 songs, you will not find 1 bad song. All songs have somehting that hooks you in to some extent. Again, not all seconds of this album are heaven, but I have not heard a track that I want to skip. If you are a fan of this genre or at least open to this genre, do yourself a favor and buy yourself this album. You can thank me later. They're greeeeeeeaat!

I really like this management band for a few reasons. First, they play super cool alternative rock that I can quote to my country music friends to make them sound all stupid and stuff. I'm in management for my company so I can relate to what these cats are speaking about. There are times where Bob will call a 9am roundtable about garble reports and I'll just yell at him that it's time to pretend. When it's time to pretend, I pretend my office is a 17th century castle and I'm the King. I declare war on the other offices around me and go around passing gas in them. They don't like it, but I'm an awesome mammal.

There are songs on this I don't get, but let me clue you in on a little secret. I lack the intelligence needed to comprehend many things. I'm totally awesome and good looking, so I've moved up the corporate ladder. I make enough money to buy my band asschowder new instruments every crescent moon. We tour arby's locations throughout Iowa with wholesome angst polka. Average pulled me over and asked me directions to runza last week and I said, "I don't deal with you."

I like this album quite a lot. for me mgmt are a real revelation. the vinyl also sounds quite good.

1st I downloaded this album of a torrent site and fell in love with the whole album so naturally I bought this record for my collection, enhanced must means its a totally different master then the cd version. The low end(bass) seems like it was cranked to the max and sounds distorted and indistinct from the mid. Great band and album, terrible vinyl!

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.

This album is fantastic. Hot diggety! Do you like music? MGMT is to your music collection what star anise is to chinese five spice. Bloomin essential! Woot Woot!

ps this is a serious review. I love this album, and so will you.

I like this album quite a lot. for me mgmt are a real revelation. the vinyl also sounds quite good.

1st I downloaded this album of a torrent site and fell in love with the whole album so naturally I bought this record for my collection, enhanced must means its a totally different master then the cd version. The low end(bass) seems like it was cranked to the max and sounds distorted and indistinct from the mid. Great band and album, terrible vinyl!

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.

This album is fantastic. Hot diggety! Do you like music? MGMT is to your music collection what star anise is to chinese five spice. Bloomin essential! Woot Woot!

ps this is a serious review. I love this album, and so will you.