Rating: 7.2 / 10.0When I listen to a lot of the records that people tell me I “ought to” listen to, I can’t help feeling like I’m a kid who was forced to go to church: requisitely respectful, half-listening, but not really hearing anything of import. MGMT has made the sermon a little more palatable. Unlike their tourmates Of Montreal, they aren’t just goofy for the sake of being goofy. Rather, the execution of their songs is a vehicle for the delivery of the whole point of their record.
The first time I listened to this record, I tried to make up my mind that I didn’t like it, that I couldn’t like it. It had all the trappings of a record that I wouldn’t enjoy: reverb-soaked synthesizers and vocals, lots of falsetto, etc. The marks of a group that had listened to way too much Of Montreal and then hit the basement and started recording. But I kept listening. And the more I listened, the more I realised that I really did enjoy “Oracular Spectacular”. The reason being that MGMT are not singing to Hissing Fauna, or about Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies. They are singing about something far more real. These are songs about growing up, or trying to. They are songs about clinging to youth while being forced to assimilate into cosmopolitan, post-collegiate adulthood (the song titles themselves give that away: “Time to Pretend”, “The Youth”, “Kids”, “4th Dimensional Transition”, “Pieces of What”, “Future Reflections”). In that regard, the sound of the album is vitally necessary. It is infused with the bouncy effervescence of youth. Juxtaposed with the lyrics, each song becomes a potent expression of a conflict that exists in all of us at some time or another, the need to grow up pulling in one direction, the desire to stay young pulling in the other. Behind the soaring, screaming synths, crunchy bass, funky beats, and disco guitar, deep in the mix, VanWyngarden is singing about something really complex. This is a tough contrast to achieve. But ironically, the tracks that fall the flattest are the most mellow on the record (most prominently the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band reject 4th Dimenisional Transition).
Poignancy aside, “Oracular Spectacular” is a damn fun record to listen to. Consult the list of my favourite tracks from this year, you will find “Electric Feel”, which boasts the best chorus I’ve heard in a long while, on it. MGMT have released a record full of songs as danceable as anything James Murphy has done. The synthesizers sweep shamelessly, while drum beats pound suggestively. Crunchy bass and sizzling electric guitars muscle into the mix, and the result is an album that’s got its feet on the ground and its head in the clouds. Fitting.
Sure, these guys toured with Of Montreal, but they seem less influenced by Kevin Barnes et. al. and more so by the likes of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. To be sure, this record is nothing new, it is nothing original, but it is fun to listen to, and it’s got a message most of us can relate to. It is proof that you don’t necessarily need to be innovative to be successful: skill and sincerity will do.
-PTC
