The Rough Guide to Cult Pop (Rough Guide Music Guides)

August 23, 2008 | By Doug In Pop Music |

Sometimes we all need to escape from the all too serious world of reality. Sometimes you just want to play some music that just makes you feel good. Plastic Heroes are perfectly named with a wink and a nod towards those that take it all too seriously Continue

Let Me Die a Woman The Phoenix Foundation Play Sample Play Video Add to Cart Light Tony Barnao Play Sample Play Video Add to Cart Get Back Home Kiri Play Sample Play Video Add to Cart Threw Love Down the Drain John Goudge Play Sample Play Video Add Continue

Posters: The Fratellis Poster - Costello Music (36 x 24 inches)

Oracular Spectacular
The term Oracular Spectacular might not mean much, if anything, at all–it’s essentially nonsensical–but that doesn’t stop it feeling exactly right. Here is a band that treats dizzy cross-eyed awe and a vast bounding sense of sonic weightlessness as their yardstick, jostling to surpass themselves on a track-by-track basis and aiming for the musical equivalent of performing somersaults in tye-dye t-shirts off the rings of Jupiter. MGMT seemingly submit this debut album as an application to acquire and even supersede The Flaming Lips’ previously uncontested mantle as spiritual leaders of over-sized Technicolor psychedelic-indie with a soul, weird but not so weird that swelling crowds and even flirtations with the charts aren’t a foregone conclusion. “Time to Pretend” opens and sets a tone for the record, producer David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) providing a familiar expanse for them to riff across with bull’s-eye synths, massive drums and their twist on the template–retro 80s electro and abstract shapes, see Suicide and the Talking Heads for reference. “The Youth” is centred around a hypnotically looping refrain that recalls Pink Floyd and David Bowie, as interpreted by a mellow Secret Machines and the brilliant “Pieces of What” is Ryan Adams spinning through cosmos with classic Neil Young on his headphones. “Future Reflections” meanwhile stand on its hands on a line somewhere in-between XTC and Ween. Thrillingly eclectic, endlessly colourful and never predictable. It’s all a bit ridiculous, but indeed spectacularly so. –James Berry
List Price: ?11.99
Amazon Price: ?7.98
Used Price: ?6.97
Customer Review: Spectacular “oracular”
Putting a label on the debut album by MGMT is a toughie. They’re sort of a synth-psychedelic-space-indie-noisepop band. And they break an awful lot of rules in their debut album “Oracular Spectacular,” a vibrant, colorful little album that sounds like a cascade of summer flowers. They have a few wrinkles yet to iron out, but their music has a unique and striking sound, and they obviously know how to craft solid pop music with a foot-tapping beat, and a slightly eerie sound. It opens with squeaks, bubbling noises, and finally with a slow-building electric riff smothered in twisted synth. “I’m feelin’ rough, I’m feelin’ raw, I’m in the prime of my life/Let’s make some music make some money find some models for wives… This is our decision to live fast and die young/We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun…” the soft layered vocals intone. Well, at least there’s no pretense about plans for the future, even if it means “I’ll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home,” and ends up with divorce, more models, and “We’ll choke on our vomit and that will be the end/We were fated to pretend.” They slow down a little with the guitar-led, sparkling pop of “Weekend Wars,” and the shimmering psychedelic echoes of the languid “The Youth” (”We could flood the streets/with love or light or heat/whatever!”). But then they happily speed back up again — beat-heavy funky tunes, undulating playful synthpop, and rapid-pattering electronic psychedelica. Styles are jumbled seamlessly. As the album’s end approaches, the songs get even more complex, as if the band is learning the ropes as they go along. We have an acoustic-led ballad, a sly rippling pop melody, and a dancy, intimate-sounding finale — not to mention the utterly sublime “Of Moons, Birds & Monsters,” a deliriously beautiful psychpop melody strung with colourful synth, spacey sound effects, and guitars that chime like church bells. “Oracular Spectacular” is the sound of a magnificently talented band that is still getting its bearings, and exploring the blended sound they’ve created. Most of the songs on this album are of good quality but not brilliant — and then MGMT suddenly bursts forth in full-blown musical splendor, with some truly larger-than-life pop rippling with exquisite instrumentation. Much of that instrumentation comes from the subtle percussion, and a series of guitars that can drive the melody forwards like a speeding car, then can suddenly turn into a mass of psychedelic blurs, murmurs and chimes. You can hear some handclaps and what sounds like kettle drums buried in there as well, plus the occasional bashed cymbals. But the synth is nothing short of gorgeous, and it permeates every song in the album. Sometimes it’s a chirp, tweak, squeak or electronic chime on the edges, but sometimes it’s a sweep of truly exquisite shimmering sound. “The Handshake” sounds like it was recorded underwater at times. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden’s soft voices are layered through most of the album, although occasionally one of them sings solo. It adds an otherworldly sound as their vibrant lyrics explore youthful revels, rock’n'roll, otherworldly transformations (”My liquid silver arms extended/These waves aren’t far apart… I am fire, where’s my form?”) and who knows what else (”Why’d you cut holes in the face of the moon base?/Don’t you know about the temperature change/In the cold black shadow?”). “Oracular Spectacular” lives up to its name — outstanding music that only promises to become better, shimmering with colorful pop and boundless imagination.
Customer Review: Deserves all praise
The first time I heard of MGMT was on the last episode of “Skins”, the track played was “Time To Pretend”, and on the strength of this, I bought the album. I am glad to say its the best investment in an album I have made in years. Like a fine meal to gorge on made from the following ingrediants of Bowie, T-Rex (marc Bolan) Scisor Sisters, and even a dash of Erasure, blended on a remixed soundtrack to Rocky Horror sang at Woodstock. Lock yourself in a room and lose yourself.