5 Second Review: MGMT's Oracular Spectacular

Influences aplenty in the debut LP from the psychedelic pop-rockers.

Pros:

• Some tracks (eg: Weekend Wars) strangely reminded me of The Beatles. What a compliment.
  
• Seriously good singles. Time to Pretend= great. Kids= super great.
• Funk & falsetto (Electric Feel) is a winning combination.
• Draws so well from eras gone by that it could feasibly have been released in the 60s, 70s and at times 80s.
  
• They know how to get folk singing along.
  
• Happy things are fun.
• The lyrics for Time to Pretend.
  

Cons:

• The "That's good but what else have you got?" curse raises its ugly head, resulting in a considerable amount of filler.
  
• Hence, they're pretty much a singles band.
  
• It might just be me, but they may be overdoing the 'lets be weeeird' thing a bit. Some perfectly good songs go unnecessarily crazy.
  
• There's a slight touch of Spinal Tap to some of the mysticism.
  
• As with any artist drawing so heavily from retro influences, sometimes things go too far and get a bit wince-inducing (Of Moons, Birds & Monsters).

When it's good it's really, really good; when it's not... it's a bit meh. Generally solid thumbs up though- Prepare to be hearing Kids played in clubs for years to come.

Listen:
Electric Feel


Click for mp3