MGMT: Oracular SpectacularReleased: 10th March 2008 (Sony BMG)
MGMT are probably best described as a "psychedelic pop duo". From New York, and featuring the talents of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngaarden, this is an album featuring synths, guitars, falsetto vocals and a generally swirly sound contributing to a decent set of songs.
As with so many debut albums these days, "Oracular Spectacular" starts off strongly with the first song being the recent single "Time to Pretend". This is followed by the strong sequence of "Weekend Wars", "The Youth" and "Electric Feel", and by this stage you will know whether you like this kind of thing or not (probably a good thing as the album does tail off a little towards the end). If you haven't heard any of the songs yet, and you are unsure about whether it is worth £9 (or however much) of your hard-earned cash, then I can give you a clue:
If you like Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips, you will probably like MGMT.
The common denominator is, of course, the work of Dave Fridmann, who co-produces "Oracular Spectacular" with the band. Although I think Flaming Lips have a lot of charisma, and along with Mercury Rev have done some brilliant individual songs, I have never really felt that either band really manages to maintain enough consistency to sustain a whole album at a time; however, "Oracular Spectacular" is a short album at just over 40 minutes, which helps to prevent it from dragging on.
On the whole, this album provides an excellent accompaniment to my regular journeys up and down the M42; it is certainly not as dark as Mercury Rev can be, nor as obscure as some of Flaming Lips' moments, and it is this poppiness that makes it an enjoyable listen. 7.5/10.
UPDATE: I originally drafted this review a few weeks ago, and I have to report that the album is really growing on me - I think it gets better with every listen.
You can view some of their videos on YouTube; in the meantime, here are the band performing "Time to Pretend" on "Later with Jools Holland":
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