MGMT : Oracular Spectacular

I have been listening to Oracular Spectacular by MGMT for the past month and recently they were named one of the 10 artists to watch by Rolling Stone, so I figured there is no better time than now to throw my love out there for this group. MGMT are the duo of Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. They came together in 2002 at Wesleyan University in Middleton, Connecticut.

According to their bio, The pair was drawn to the music of other duos and found themselves incorporating the implications of the hallucinatory power-twee of the Incredible String Band, the roaring subway minimalist electronica of Suicide, the silky pop-soul of Hall & Oates, the pulsing narcotic trance of Spacemen 3, the avant-garde industrial romanticism of Royal Trux and much more into the constantly evolving sounds of MGMT.

Their sound is definitely as diverse as the artists mentioned above. I hear a different influence every time I listen to this album - everything from Air to The Flaming Lips to Pink Floyd is represented. One of the many highlights of this album is the song, Time to Pretend. It tells the story of a kid dreaming of being a rock star, reaching that goal, reminiscing of a simpler time before all of the craziness happened, then ultimately choking on his own vomit and dying. I know, it is a cliché story, but they make it work.

The lyrics of Oracular Spectacular lead me to believe that Vanwyngarden and Goldwasser, like most people in their 20s, are struggling with navigating their way to adulthood and dealing with the realization of lost dreams and false notions of how life is going to turn out that they had as a kid. The most obvious example of this is the song, Kids, which starts out with the lyric, You were a child, Crawling on your knees toward him. They then go on in the chorus to say, Control yourself, Take only what you need from him, which can be interpreted as a warning to parents to do what is best for the kids and not to get caught up in the materialism of society. They bring the song full circle when the child crawling at the beginning of the song grows up and has a child of his own. They go on to talk about the difficulty of parenting and growing up by finishing the song with, I thought this wouldn't hurt a lot, I guess not.

It is lyrics like the ones previously mentioned that give this album a depth that is rarely reached by artists of this genre. This is a fantastic debut album that only gets better with each listen. Enjoy this album now, I predict it is only a matter of time before you start seeing songs from this album on everything from movie trailers to your favorite primetime drama ad nauseum.

Oracular Spectacular is currently available as a digital download on iTunes and will see its physical release in January 2008. They are currently on tour in London, but will tour North America with The Fiery Furnaces toward the middle of next month.

MGMT - Time To Pretend
MGMT - Electric Feel

MGMT Tour Dates:

Nov 26 2007 - 7:00P - The Social w/ Post War Years - London
Nov 28 2007 - 8:00P - The Water Rats w/ Verdena - London
Nov 29 2007 - 8:00P - Barfly - London
Nov 30 2007 - 9:30P - Koko (Club NME) - London
Dec 8 2007 - 8:00P - Music Hall of Williamsburg** - Brooklyn, NY
Dec 9 2007 - 7:30P - First Unitarian Church** - Philadelphia, PA
Dec 10 2007 - 9:00P - Great Scott** - Allston, Massachusetts
Dec 11 2007 - 8:00P - Cabaret du Musee Juste Pour Rire** - Montreal, Quebec
Dec 12 2007 - 8:00P - Lee’s Palace** - Toronto, Ontario
Dec 13 2007 - 8:00P - The Magic Stick** - Detroit, Michigan
**with The Fiery Furnaces

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