MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Slightly camp electro-pop? Me? With my reputation? Has no-one thought of the consequences? You’re talking to a man who barely, barely likes the Scissor Sisters for Christ’s sake. In fact, the Scissor Sisters are an instructive comparison because, despite the electro-synth genius of opener Time to Pretend, this is much more of a disco record than an edgy synth one.
The hype surrounding MGMT put me off to such an extent (ah right, another heavily stylised bunch of electro ponces from New York - wonderful) that I ignored the album, the buzz and the band for ages. In fact, it was only when I discovered that they are playing Edinburgh’s Liquid Room in a couple of weeks that I thought ‘Oh yes, them. I wonder if they’re actually any good after all’. The buzz alone tempted me to go along and check them out, if just for the sake of it, almost in a collector’s sense.
So I heard Time to Pretend, I bought the album and I loved it, largely. I have to confess that I start to lose interest in the second half, so I can’t claim to love it all, and it may not be dark enough for me to form a close emotional attachment. But this is not an album that I approach on a thoughtful basis, it’s an album I approach on a maximum wiggle basis. And there is plenty of wiggling to be done when MGMT are playing.
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I have an unplayed copy of this record somewhere. The problem for me is that I saw them live a few times opening for Of Montreal, and was not impressed. Gotta say though, I would have never compared what I saw to Scissor Sisters.
Ah right, so it mightn’t have been such a clever purchase, buying that gig ticket then?
You might as well have a go though Rich, it’s not a bad album, at least for the first half. And that first song is ace.
I LOVE the album (I put it in my Top 10 of 2007) but think they’re not very good live. They’re grappling with whether to be a rock band or a dance group, and live they swing toward the former. There’s no need for any guitar in “Time to Pretend” and that’s the main instrument when they play it in concert. And their drummer just isn’t up to snuff, especially when you consider how good they are on the record.
I will say the obvious comparison to me is The Flaming Lips, and not just because they share a producer. The lyrics, psychedelic vibe, bombastic production, the whiny singing…all pluses, mind you.