in Review

Snap, Crackle and Synthpop


MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

As Nancy once said in an earlier post, it’s always fun to find music on your own and it was pretty neat when I found about Brooklyn Synthpop duo MGMT pretty much by accident. I just accidentally clicked on some article while browsing through Yahoo News and then somehow stumbled upon the video for MGMT’s latest single “Time to Pretend” which I found to be pretty catchy, so I though I’d check out their new debut album.

Released on the interweb back in October and into stores last January “Oracular Spectacular” is an almost epic blending of pop music and synths with almost every song sounding as if it were recorded in a stadium. The songs here incorporate elements of psychedelic rock, electronica and even disco to give a nice blend of pop experimentation. Though not all the songs have the same punch as some others do, probably due to a few songs feeling somehwat dry, they all at least have some unique instrumentation going on. Like I said, “Time to Pretend” is a standout track with it’s heavy orchestra of keys, visual lyrics and dance beat, “Weekend Wars” sounds like a spot on Bowie tribute and the toe-tappingly fun disco/funk “Electric Feel” is nice little number to add to this collection of poppy tracks. I’d definitely say this album draws some influence from glam music and adding that to synth pop certainly leaves for an original and creative work from this up and coming duo, not half bad.

Favorite Tracks: “Time to Pretend”, “Electric Feel”, “Kids”