Oracular Spectacular

Music history is replete with youthful innovators with a deep understanding of past music, displaying a sophisticated command of the genres they were working in. The duo behind MGMT, Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, are not that. Rather, they are clever debutantes, skimming along the surface of the last 50 years of pop music, plucking a bit of glam there, a touch of Prince there, a little disco there, some electronica here, a scintilla of psychedelia there, and weaving all these disparate elements into bright, summery pop music. They have an equal partner in Dave Fridmann, whose taste and firm hand on the keel is much appreciated. Fridmann balances analog and digital textures beautifully, and I didn't spot one single horrible synth patch, a small miracle in 2007. Another impressive aspect of Oracular Spectacular is that the duo composed all of the tunes, played all of the instruments, and did all of the arrangements. When I looked up the album on discogs, I fully expected to see session musicians. While Wyngarden and Goldwasser would never be mistaken for virtuosos on their instruments, between them they are competent on drums, keyboards, guitars and bass, at the very least. It doesn't stop there. The pair use their voices intelligently, sometimes going for mellifluence, sometimes a Bowie-esque whine, and still others a Prince-like falsetto. Their tunes are both catchy and display a keen understanding of pop songcraft. The tunes don't always develop in predictable ways. There are surprise changes in tempo, key, and time signatures. And their arrangements are canny, combining the old and the new harmoniously. The music on Oracular Spectacular may be light, fun pop, but there is quite a bit of skill under the hood. This kind of light pop really isn't my kind of thing, but MGMT and Dave Fridmann have done a great job with the concept and material.

Takes me back to the days when I worked at Subway and would mop the nasty floors jamming to MGMT

OVRRTD.

This might be blasphemous, but fuck it - there are shades of David Bowie in here. The hits are here, but the deeper cuts are infinitely listenable. Just an enjoyable album front to back. Best track: Kids

Nostalgia clouded rating! This album (and more specifically "Kids") was ubiquitous when I was doing snowboard seasons. I subsequently listened to this album a lot and have grown to love it. It makes fun noises!

hipster supermarket music

Really great record. Some classic naughties singles. Fantastic production throughout

I can't get on board with management. Bunch of boring clean shirts in their ties and polished shoes. Probably get home and expect their tea to be on the table. A downtrodden wife, who's been slaving away all day and doesn't even get a "thanks". A cottage pie, a cheap bottle of plonk and five minutes of miserable missionary. Makes me sick.

Pleasingly proggy, I wish I'd listened to it sooner.

1. Time To Pretend: This sounds familiar. Oh I know this!!! I love the sound. I relate to this so much. It’s a little sad at the end. I get the existential nihilism but I hope they change their mind over the album. I love the… synths?… in the background. 2. Weekend Wars: Ugh I love this whole sound. “my predictions are the only things I have” is hell of a lyric. “There’s a reason I don’t win, I don’t know how to begin” 3. Youth: This makes me sad knowing they are probably mid millennials now. Every generation thinks it’s gonna change the world doesn’t it? Or maybe this is about growing up and taking your parents generations place as the adults in the world? This album feels very like “is growing up worth it?” This has a trance-y hypnotic feel because of all the repetition. 4. Electric Feel: I think this song is about the industrial revolution? Or the information (internet)/ technological revolution. They have a lot of repeating musical motifs throughout this album kind of like you notice in Broadway. Oh I love this flute part or whatever is. It sounds kind of Norwegian? Or something like that? Like I’d hear it in Frozen. 5. Kids: Everyone knows this song. I think Gossip Girl or something used it. Crazy how it was huge years after the album came out. I was obsessed with this once. Oh the famous “a family of trees wanted to be haunted” lyric that no one knows what it means but it’s provocative. Really gets the people going. Is this about growing up? Love the instrumental breakdown it’s gorgeous. Growing up and having to take responsibility? Unsure. 6. 4th Dimensional Transition: Pretty sure this is just about sex but it sounds really cool and the metaphors are interesting. I guess not committing though. The outro is so gorgeous. 7. Pieces of What: This sounds somewhat country but weirder. This has a lot of pathos. Not sure why. Idk I’m super into this it makes me feel nostalgic for something I’ve never known. 8. Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters: This is weird af but it sounds cool. What’s it about? Idk. I hear a lot of Lorde in this. I wonder if MGMT is one of her influences. Outro is so good. 9. The Handshake: This has to be the selling out song. MGMT’s hotel California. It’s such a cool song. All over the place like several songs stitched together but haunting and foreboding. 10. Future Reflections: I don’t know what this is about. Modernity maybe. But it’s gorgeous. Oracular means: relating to an oracle/hard to interpret/enigmatic/ utterance that seems to come from special inspiration or authority/prophetic Spectacular: beautiful in a dramatic or eye-catching way/ an event such as a pageant or musical, produced on a large scale and with striking effects/striking, sensational, notable for size or beauty Oracular Spectacular is a perfect name for this album. (Future Nostalgia could never) I love this. It’s like a perfect listening experience in the same way that melodrama is. And I feel like you probably pick up more and more on subsequent listens. This is going on my album rotation. Curious to see where the band went from here. 2nd listen: 1. Such a good opening track for a debut 2. I guess I just like trippy-ish music. This sounds Beatles-ish meets solar power Lorde but that might be boss baby syndrome. I just am into the vocals and the atmosphere. 3. This gets a little sinister cultish sounding towards the end? But I like it? It’s like yay! Growing up! Oh wait. Growing up. Or it’s starts out good intentioned but ends up really sinister. 4. I fucking love this song. Everyone says it’s about sex or ahuayasca but I still think it’s about technological innovation/Revolution and how it changed the world and how we felt about it at the start (before we knew the consequences) and the band straight up said it’s about electricity 5. If you don’t/didnt like this song at some point you have superpowers. But in context of the album (which seems very reluctantly coming to grasps with coming into adulthood both as an individual and a generation and a human race) it fits so well. I love love the bridge part. Second half of the album is apparently controversial about if it holds up to the first half. 6. This is the sex/drugs song though clearly. It has no hook but it’s atmospheric af. 7. I just really like this. I’ve never heard anything else like it. It’s like a trippy fucking Jack Johnson song or something but make it country on lsd. Love the beat pick up at the end. 8. I just love the instrumentals of this. Can’t make out the lyrics at all really. 9. I never get tired of the songs about selling out for fame. They’re always so sinister and cool. The handshake under our tongue being a reference to hiding pills under your tongue instead of taking them is clever af though / the whistling at the end is so eerie. 10. Is that an organ? Or an organ sounding synth? The vocals on this are higher in the mix then anything else. The end reminds me of something more recent. It’s like a trippy oceanic feeling. I really loved this album. I might change the tracklist order eventually but there are no skips.

Oracular Spectacular?....Craptacular more like it.

MGMT BAAAAAAAABY

Tie-dye bandana hype. I couldn't get on board with the music (or the tie-dye) at the time, and I still don't get it now. Three absolute monster hits and a lot of really dreary filler. Rehashing all the shit parts of the 1970s in a knowing hipster way for the 2000s generation, great.

This spectacular journey of bliss entranced me.

MGMT understands the enjoyment of being enveloped in a wave of sound like a shoegaze album whilst keeping the catchy hooks like your favorite pop song. This leads to an album that certainly has its fantastic hits and moments on it, and the whole album otherwise is still incredibly solid. My only worry, and the reason it stays from the five range, is I question how much this will stick with me past the singles. Some of the sounds of songs already allude me just after the album ends, and it does sort of give off the vibe of the music the alternative kid listens to just to stand out, albeit far better than most other groups that fall into that genre. I certainly don't dislike it, far from it, I just could use some more form in my pop and some more overwhelming noises in my wall of sound.

There were some songs on this album that brought back a lot of memories. MGMT sounded familiar but wow those songs were really popular. They're also the best songs on the album, however. Some of the songs are a bit boring but songs like Electric Feel mostly make up for it and maybe it's partially because I recognize them but Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, and Kids are great. That being said, the lyrics are pretty weak throughout the whole album and the production sounds a bit washed out even on my favorite songs. Plus the end of the album is really weak and I skipped several songs on the album on the second listen. The good songs are good but there aren't enough of them to justify a 4th star. Favorite Songs: Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, Kids Least Favorite Song: The Handshake Decent 6/10

dog shit. psych music is probably my most listened to genre so its nothing to do with genre, its because its just fucking shite. i feel dirty classifying it as psych, its like an instagram version of being wavy. like some teenager wearing a tie die t shirt and saying 'far out maaaan'.

I like adverts they make me buy lots of things to impress my friends and work colleagues

3.3 - It's 2009 and I'm sitting at my cubicle with my earbuds in. Pandora's spinning another MGMT track, just for me. I look around. I see my mug. Then my screen. I gaze up at the beige ceiling tiles...Everything's FINE. Everything WILL be fine. Everything feels PERFECTLY FINE... I am feeling perfectly fine...

Elite level singles. Pure hype beyond that. Even worse than I remembered, no nostalgia bump at all here. The lyrics are shockingly poor. Aimed for left field indie-psych, ended up with advert music.

A pretty pleasant listen with a few super catchy synth melodies. I enjoyed my time with the album, it gets pretty dreamy at times and I for sure liked some songs more than others - which all seem to have been their break through hits from previous recordings just re-recorded for this album. Standouts Time to Pretend Electric Feel Kids 4/5

In Fall 2005, about a week into my freshman year of college, I went to go see Of Montreal, a band I knew little about -- I was just looking for an excuse to see some live music. The opening band was "The Management" (before they became MGMT). They performed, as a duo, in neon orange zip up hoodies with no shirt underneath. There was no band, just push button backing tracks. The songs sounded goofy, dripping with irony, and the 2 singers carried themselves in a very unserious way. Which is why I was shocked to see this album blow up 2 years later, and even more surprised by the critical praise they've sustained for a couple decades -- some people talk about MGMT like they're the goddamn Beach Boys. 20ish laters, this album still sounds somewhere between "joke music" and the firehose of generic indie pop that dominated my classmates' iTunes libraries back in college. I can see why some of these songs, especially the singles, make people nostalgic for the 2000s "hipster" era, but I find them mostly irritating.

This is what my teens should be sounding like... Listening to this album makes me feel nostalgia for all the things I should've experienced.

Pop? Electronic? Dance? What a mongrel sound. That's not a slight and the light, bouncy opening tracks are off to a good start. I'm only familiar with the band's name and I don't have any experience with their music. A contemporary of Arcade Fire's Neon Bible -- which is personal favorite -- it shares some DNA. Complex, competent arrangements and an "epic" & dreamy feel. MGMT is buried behind some vocal effects, has less ennui, and layered in more sounds, but is still as knowledgeable and steeped in their influences. (4/5) A few of the later tracks seem to lose some focus and went from dreamy to forgetful... I will forgive it on the strength of the first half of the album and overall, I like it.

I'd heard of but not listened to MGMT, and what I took to be a club album at first glance evolved into a genre-bending surprise of an album that wore all of its musical influences on both sleeves (despite the cover having none). Shades of The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan (parts of Pieces of What totally reminded me of The Man in Me), David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Porno for Pyros laid over with the melodic (and sometimes unmelodic) synth pop that stormed to popularity in the early 2000s. More mellow than Matt and Kim or Two Door Cinema Club, and maybe closer to the Flaming Lips (who I always really wanted to like but still don't) or Modest Mouse, I can recognize just as much if not more of the bands that came AFTER them (Capital Cities, Owl City, Temples, Walk the Moon, Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger and Tame Impala) in here. The most played songs per Spotify are certainly highlights (Electric Feel is one of my favs), but 4th Dimensional Transition (a nod to Perry Ferrell?) and Of Moons, Birds and Monsters gave a great addition of psychadelia that I was impressed to see by that point in the album. All of that to say that this one kinda hit me where I am, and I liked it quite a damn sight better than I thought I was going to. For the first time in this list I started an album over as soon as it was finished, and I look forward to exploring some more of their stuff. Definitely worthy of a 4.25/5 to me.

Swirly, bubbly fun. I've only heard their hits before, so I'm glad to have this exposure to a genuinely enjoyable listening experience.

Singles carry this album

first track is one of my favorite mgmt tracks ever. something about the hard synths and then the raucous drums hits like nothing ever has second track is wildly different, almost early beatles in soul third track is like an anthem of a generation. somber and urgent and plaintive I SAID OOH GIRL 💃🕺💃🕺💃🕺💃 (track 4) damn this shit comes all the way back from high school. downloading the music videos off youtube and putting them on my ipod (track 5) not a lot to say about tracks 6 and 7 Overall phenomenal album incredible for history

I made a conscious effort to avoid this album and, to a lesser extent, this band for many years based off of the singles when they were released. Electric Feel, Kids and Time to Pretend didn’t really sit well with me then. I couldn’t get behind their sing-along, trust-fund hipster synth-funk. It was the kind of music that dudes who wore 80’s athletic shorts, had dumb mustaches and coke problems listened to; music for people who organized kickball leagues or duck-duck-goose tournaments in McCarren Park. Listening to those specific songs today, I still have that impression, I won’t lie. However, I don’t think those songs are a very good representation of what this record actually is. This is, and I mean this as a compliment of the highest order, a proper dirtbag psych rock record, along the lines of Ween or Royal Trux or maybe pre-Soft Bulletin Flaming Lips. I really fucking like it and I was wrong about this band. It’s weird, heady and psychedelic and doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the superficiality of late aughts’ hipsterdom.

It seems like MGMT wanted to be droning electro artists but then decided to turn their 45-minute instrumental versions of the Ghostbusters theme song into 3-minute pop songs so they could get famous. And they did so very effectively. The three hits are solidly hits. The filler is pretty bland but not offensively so. This is very 2007 “indie” pop but there are worse things.

1st song the hipster coffee house of my childhood, or a retail store.

Bowie, flaming lips, that Britpop band whose name I can't remember, oh, and let's make everything louder than everything else. Some of it was ok, but mostly just fatiguing.

Wow that was dull. After listening to this album, I am confident that MGMT is no one's favorite band, and this is no one's favorite album, and if by chance you're the exception, then you probably organize your condiments alphabetically and apologize for it. I'm amazed that this band performs live. It's got to be equivalent to buying tickets to watch an accountant file a tax return. Calling this band vanilla is an insult to vanilla.

Nostalgic for those who were exposed to this at a very impressionable time in their lives (me being one of them). It still gives me the impression to just throw up a bunch of middle fingers to the world while I pretend that I'm growing up while missing the good times.

No joke, Oracular Spectacular changed my life and the trajectory of my musical taste. One of my favorite albums of all time.

10

banger yall already know

o estilo electro pop me agradou muito, as primeiras faixas são incriveis e o album inteiro segue essa linha. dificil escolher uma favorita, todas me fizeram balançar levemente a cabeça no ritmo, fiquei feliz em conhecer esse álbum porque é um dos meus gêneros favoritos, e a mistura com o rock me agradou muito, salvei todas as músicas

Heard Before? Those singles were EVERYWHERE. I did listen to the whole album at the time but mostly forgot it. Notes: - at first blush, an obvious singles+filler release, especially since the singles have different production and songwriting styles than the rest. - plenty of the exciting sounds and interesting textures that so much of this list lacks. a production goldmine. - vocals are servicable, and the lyrics are there. rarely if interest, but rarely embarrassing. - the right kind of 70s-rock revival. curious but not reverent. plus a bit of spacey surf on "4th Dimensional Transition". Verdict: The title fits. It predicted the future and continues to outshine its many imitators. Listen Again? Perhaps. Listened multiple times today and surprised a friend who had also written them off. At the very least I'm inspired to check out their later releases, which I had completely passed over.

kid cudi tripped out on acid and danced like a pre-pubescent fool to electric feel at coachella 2014. that's history worth protecting.

Time To Pretend, Electric Feel and Kids still stand up, with Time to Pretend and Kids in particular being excellent songs that put me right back in the late 00s. I don’t think I’ve listened to this since around then, and I don’t think I listened to it a great deal then either, and it definitely feels like one of those albums that hit a moment and then fade from consciousness quite quickly. But listening now, even though not everything works, or matches the quality of those songs, it’s a very enjoyable album, not least for their cherry picking of influences and the slightly wonky charm of them performing the whole album themselves. Weekend Wars has a nice finger picky-ness before moving into a bit of Prince and a bit of Beck and into a spacey rock conclusion. It’s a real highlight outside those well known songs. I really wasn’t keen on The Youth on the first couple of listens, but it really grew on me, the strings and slightly sad feel to its evocation of young idealism. The bass on Electric Feel is superb, that three note riff in particular, and the overall loping disco-Prince feel is great. I never noticed that the keyboard riff of Kids has echoes of Believe by Cher to it, which is not a bad thing. 4th Dimensional Transition has a bit of Neu!’s Hallogallo to the guitar, even if the rest of it is quite proggy, and there is a great Ghost Town-esque organ line in there too. They then dip into a bit of acoustic, grunge alt rock on Pieces of What, before their synthy predilections re-surface, and it's a nice stylistic diversion. Of Moons, Birds & Monsters has a nice late 60s feel to it. The Handshake and Future Reflections are enjoyable too, even if they don’t quite capture the imagination of the previous tracks. It’s got a bit of Beck, a bit of Prince, a bit of Bowie as well as synth pop, folk, disco, prog, space rock and psychedelia influences, and that eclecticism serves its scattershot, silvery, neon charm really well. 4. ⚡⚡⚡⚡ Playlist submission: Time to Pretend

i don't this this holds up quuuuuuuite well enough to be a 5, but man, those really were the days

This is a solid album that offers a heavy dose of nostalgia. I do feel like this album sounds very of its time, drawing from the same indie-electro-psych-pop well that The Shins, Band of Horses, Phoenix, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs all seemed to be drinking from. Even so, this is not a criticism so much as a comment on the distinct fingerprint that MGMT and these other acts left on the music of the late 2000s. As soon as I hear the synth warble of Time to Pretend I am transcended back to high school... I actually think this album is one of the strongest out of the gate that I've listened to recently. The first 5 song run is extremely strong. Time to Pretend launches this album out of a cannon with its propulsive stadium sized synths and counter-culture lyrics about fucking off and doing heroin. Then things tune down a bit between Weekend Wars and The Youth. The former of which is a Bowie-adjacent tune and the latter which is one of my B-side favorites about a rebellious undercurrent among the youth. Just such a simple and beautiful optimism. Electric Feel swoops in to remind us that MGMT likes to dance with a sexual electro-funk jam that feels great and has a chorus that is catchy as hell. Then there's Kids, which brings back the stadium sized synths for the album's biggest hit with themes of moderation. The second half of the album is quite a change of direction into spacier, indie-psych tones, starting with 4th Dimensional Transition. Layered vocals sound as if shimmering through some gossamer film and the racing drums with percussion evoke a tribal feel. Buried towards the end, The Handshake is among my favorite here. A song on which they consciously explore their own concerns of "selling out" on the very record they feel like they are selling out on. All said this falls at a 4 for me. An album of two sides, this has solid music front-to-back, but the second side is certainly less memorable.

Hello! It is your local MGMT evangelist here to talk about my lived experience. This album, and MGMT as a whole would set the tone for my music tastes between 2012-2018ish. I owe their music quite a bit as it was a pipeline to other bands I really enjoyed during my college years. In the 2010s, MGMT had a CHOKEHOLD on my generation. Their music was literally everywhere, and with good reason. Oracular Spectacular is a delightful album with some certified all timers. Many albums exist that can claim one, maybe two songs that transcend the album to become iconic. MGMT puts up three here with Time to Pretend, Electric Feel and Kids. To be able to even get close to, much less achieve temporal transcendence is enviable. MGMT were way ahead of their time here. I love this album.

There are several songs on this album, that shaped future albums, future genres, future music. Probably it's enough to give it 5 stars. I'm gonna go with 4.5/5.

It is clear that this paved the way for a new alt-pop sound, with artists like Tame Impala living the legacy MGMT never could. Only rating this a 4 because it has 3 great genre-defining songs (the rest are your typical experimental-style musical shrugs). This is, undeniably, a must-listen.

Good start, amazing hits in the middle w "Electric Feel" and "Kids" back-to-back, and then a little boring toward the end but still a strong debut from the best band from Connecticut ever, which is saying something coming from someone who has put in more effort than most trying to create the best band from Connecticut ever. Recipe to cure a lonely night: 1. Listen to "Kids" 3 times in a row. 2. Listen to "Broken" by Lovely The Band 3 times in a row. 3. Go back and listen to "Kids" again, noting how Lovely The Band so thoroughly borrowed "Kids" main keyboard riff as the backbone of their (excellent hit) song. 4. Play "Broken" one more time, but as loud as you can and scream along with the lyrics.

Nr. 177/1001 Time to Pretend 4/5 Weekend Wars 3/5 The Youths 3/5 Electric Feel 4/5 Kids 5/5 4th Dimensional Transition 3/5 Pieces of What 3/5 Of Moons, Birds & Monsters 4/5 The Handshake 3/5 Future Reflections 4/5 Average: 3,6 Fun mix of pop & electronica.

Great music. Loved it when it came out and still do.

Love this album. Always a fun listen just not for everyday listening imo

4 Songs in. If everything is as good as these first 3 tracks (I've heard Electric Feel before), this is gonna be an EASY 5 star. Upon finishing the album, the back half kinda falls off. It's still alright, but I went from "every song is now in my likes" to "80%". Which means this is a perfect 4/5 in every shape of the name. Gonna be real funny when I check the global average and discover that people hate this album or something.

With a title like Oracular Spectacular, this album does feel like a hipster time travel report from the future (perhaps even now) back to 2007 describing what life will be like in post modern 2.0 internet A debut album, and what a debut album it was. If it were a vinyl, Side A 1-5 is the strength and Side B tracks 6-10 are the weakness. I feel bad for this group because as a debut album they have been doomed, even as they mature experientially and musically, to never reach its groovy heights ever again. 1) Time to Pretend - A confession of pretension is somewhat comforting? And on this track grooving. I also take this as a warning that the rest of the album that follows is lyrically tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken to literally or seriously. 2) Weekend Wars - The Bowie idolatry is on! 3) The Youth - Woefully naive, or sarcastically cynical, I cannot decide which. Love the dreamy production with walking bass and The Beatles-esque harmony. 4) Electric Feel - Love this sound and production. Lyrically, I am convinced this song is just simply about the transcendence of youthful lovemaking, or extolling the society altering affects the goddess Amazon.com. 5) Kids - Ahh, the celebrated callousness of youth. Take what you want from it, but try not to be trapped by nostalgia nor participation trophies. 6) 4th Dimensional Transition - Where the college dorm psychedelia experience meets the road of reality. Love the pulsing tabla groove. Kula Shaker would be proud of this arrangement. 7) Pieces of What - The first song that feels like your standard early 2000s indie blues oriented rock. Not a bad thing, just the first song that did not eschew traditional song arrangement. 8) Of Moons, Birds & Monsters - Jefferson Airplane for the early 2000s. I love the finger food of music history approach in this song, and frankly on this album. A cynical person could say they are being ironic with their sound, but I personally think they truly love these pop forms as much as we do. The lyrics seem nonsensical, possibly chosen for the sounds of the words more than their actual meaning on this song. 9) The Handshake - Feels like a failed effort at Goth inspired songs. The angst is a bit eye-rolling, but then I remind myself that they warned us Time to Pretend not to take anything very seriously. 10) Future Reflections - Feels like a primer for understanding the image chosen for the album cover. All in all, a solid effort but in the canon of music nothing that delineated a before and after. One of the more interesting things to listen to in 2007. on a ten scale I would give it a 3.5, but since we are on a five scale, I'll give it a 4 on the strength of the first 5 songs.

First half of album was great. Second half forgettable.

Couple of hits that Ive heard before. I don't really see the appeal to most of it. Don't think I would listen to more.

I dunno. I listened to this whole album on Thursday and I can't remember a single thing about it.

Time to Pretend is great. I found the rest, well, not spectacular.

super nostalgic, super average

Elektronista emo-ish poppia. Paljon syntikkasoundeja. Osa biiseistä ihan jees.

Enjoyable enough. Didn't really leave an impression, good or bad.

1001 Albums Vol. 0035: Oracular Spectacular ============================================================ Introduction: One day in 2007, two shirtless White men...even though one of them really doesn't look White...stand on...probably a beach...when in actuality...it is N-New York City...? How? Okay, doesn't matter. They pose for the camera. The moon rises behind them. One of them looks completely dumbfounded and completely stone-face serious. They look off into the distance, staring at what they themselves probably don't even remember considering we're going on 20 years. Then, there, they would take the photo for the cover of the legendary album...Oracular Spectacular. And yeah uh...these men were apparently shirtless and wearing decorated scarfs, and turbans, and other wear for a music video too...and I would try to make a joke here saying something along the lines of the fact that nobody cares about the music video, but as of currently it's sitting at over 100 million views on Youtube, holy shit.....BUT REGARDLESS, we're still here to solely tell the tale of the great Oracular Spectacular and not the various pieces of visual media it would produce with the sole exception of the cover photo we just discussed. The tale begins with a duo by the name of MGMT and them releasing their first full length commercial studio album in the year 2007. The dazzling duo had already released two extended plays, both of which achieved a fair level of success, but they were about to release something that would achieve something beyond their wildest dreams: mainstream success. The dismayed duo didn't even expect it themselves, but as we just stated a bit ago...100 million views...that's a lot whether you want to realize it or not. And this tale doesn't involve your typical mainstream success act of the time such as Emo Rock, Ms. Spears, or all the other huge acts of the time. No, this tale involves an intentionally bold and unintentionally beloved exploration of a fusion between various genres such as Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock, and Synthpop. All of which was apparently mashed together by our diplomatic duo into something more akin to...let's say a Castro-era Cuban cigar than something like...you know what...mashed potatoes....Look, this is my review, just keep scrolling if you don't like my opinions. I mean, the entire point of this site is kinda meant to be opinions anyway, but you do you. Maybe mashed potatoes is your trigger, I don't know. THAT SAID, uhh...oh yeah right...the distinctive duo went mainstream with this new and exciting blend of genres. In fact, this album, while definitely not the first to mix these various genres together, is generally considered to be the VERY first that managed to bring its attention to a wider audience while still managing to apparently be both loved by a critical audience at the same time. Now, toning down the seer persona a bit to a more personable one....I won't lie, whether this is true or not is something that I...unfortunately...cannot attest to at all. This album was just ever so slightly before my time and memory and solidified themselves into existence. So basically what I remember as radio hits from my childhood are definitive, groundbreaking, and absolutely loved by everyone in existence songs like...Hey Soul Sister, California Gurls (which honestly isn't all THAT bad), and Just The Way You Are....which now that I think about it I still listen to radio quite often and haven't actually heard in a very long time...huh. Anyway, yeah, point is, this album is essentially going to serve more like historical exploration for me than rediscovering some lost part of my childhood. This isn't something I'm necessarily proud to admit as sometimes I do genuinely wish I was a bit older than I was because the decades before my time seem like the absolute peak of existence, but I digress. Does the folklore surrounding the magnetohydrodynamic MGMT hold any merit? Or is this album just another product of the time, something that people loved then but doesn't hold a candle to any other beloved album now? As always, let's dive in and see. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Track 1: Time To Pretend: 11/10 Track 2: Weekend Wars: 8/10 Track 3: The Youth: 7/10 Track 4: Electric Feel: 10/10 Track 5: Kids: 11/10 Track 6: 4th Dimensional Transition: 7/10 Track 7: Pieces Of What: 6/10 Track 8: Of Moons, Birds, & Monsters: 8/10 Track 9: The Handshake: 7/10 Track 10: Future Reflections: 6/10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conclusion: Well, after actually experiencing the great Oracular Spectacular for myself, I can say without a doubt that it is one of...well...it's one of the most mixed-bag albums I've ever listened to in my entire life. You know, there was one part of the tale of the great Oracular that I intentionally left out in the beginning because of the fact that I wanted the album to sound more like an untouchable God, but I'll go ahead and tell that part here....um...so yeah if you couldn't tell....the three big singles were generally seen as the only TRULY noteworthy things this album had to present while the rest of the material was just seen as pretty good but much more flawed in comparison. And yeah, if you couldn't already tell by my rankings, I couldn't agree more. So does this mean that the tale of the great Oracular doesn't have any true place in history? No, not by any means, but I'd maybe drop the title from Great to Good. Oracular the Good. That really does kinda remind of the whole James and James The Lesser thing in biblical lore which still makes me smirk and laugh to this day. You really can't help but feel bad for James The Lesser to a degree because...I mean...what the actual hell?...But anyway, James is lore from like 2000 years or something before this album and is for a completely other discussion. Anyway, yeah, like I said, there is some absolute gold and diamonds on this album. And...well...like any other diamond rank song, these three specific tracks do literally everything right in the given genre they were made for and push beyond that perfection as well. I mean like, the three greats here are just absolute late 2000s and early 2010s pop perfection. They're catchy of course, actually meaningful and invoke a genuine emotional reaction out of me at times, and just connect with me in a way that so many other huge songs of the era simply did not. Musically, the three huge hits, and the album as a whole really but we'll get to the other songs in a bit, have this very distinctive experimental and magical feel to them very akin to the general vibe that Funeral by Arcade Fire gives off. I mean, really the best way that I can describe these three songs in terms of their music is if Arcade Fire was still...you know...actually good at all when they made Everything Now. I mean, you basically have all of the same aspects in both: synths...of which Oracular is superior in terms of their use and performance, umm...they both have singers....but only Andrew on Oracular was actually great...and well...they both have lyrics too...but only Oracular was actually good. Yeah...basically Oracular is like 10x better than Everything Now. I don't think anyone will disagree with me on that one. There are some important distinctions from the two, however. Where Everything Now's instrumentation sounds WAY too clean and an overproduced mess, this album sounds...again with the three singles at least...we're still mostly talking about those for now...more raw and aggressive, PROgressive, Psychedelic and funky in certain parts, and have an actual general sense of direction that feels unpredictable yet sounds great and very memorable once you hear and understand it at the same time. And, very importantly as well, these three tracks, despite ending up as huge hits, all feel very bold and experimental at the same time. It's almost as if they were written without the intention of them being huge hits...which they weren't....The band literally still considered themselves more as a joke than anything serious at the time but that would make the tale of Oracular the Good seem less mystical so forget I said that....Anyway, It doesn't feel as if these songs were made for the charts or to sell and were made just for the hell of it. And while that might not be important to many listeners, it is important to take into context here because it makes the music itself feel much more genuine. It gives the music and lyrics presented here feel as if they were a genuine look into the artist's minds instead of some piece of slop made to be a huge radio hit or sell well. This single fact just creates a certain depth to the music that all good music should have. So, yes...while many consider the three singles from this album to be overplayed radio hits, the context surrounding said radio hits is very important to take into account when looking at an album critically....And yes...there are a good few people who consider the three huge songs on here to be bad and overplayed...but to be honest I think literally anyone in the world would take this over some of the slop we hear nowadays. I mean, there REALLY isn't anything all that good playing on radio stations that play popular music nowadays. The specific station in my area that does play currently popular music does this throwback thing on Halloween where they play older spooky songs like Thriller and stuff and that's really the only day worth tuning in....But with that said, yeah...let's just get into these three song's lyrics now....They're, to nobody's surprise, really good. These three specific songs all have these very nostalgic, depressing, and carefree lyrics that tie both deeply into your youth and into natural human nature that you really can't help but just...feel them. Electric Feel does this to a lesser extent than the other two but you get the point. They invoke that same sense of magic and carefreeness that the melodies present in these songs create and sound very similar to something that...you guessed it...Arcade Fire would have made back in their heyday. Now, these lyrics aren't any Neighborhood #1 by Arcade Fire, but they're still incredibly strong while invoking a stronger sense of nostalgia and emotional vulnerability than some of the weaker songs on Funeral regardless. They're just....really good...and really relatable whether you want to admit it or not....AND NOW...with all that said...um...this is quickly becoming my longest review yet post dropping track-by-track. Seriously, I already have a whole wall of text on my screen and I actually have a lot more to say. Okay, ANYWAY, with ALL of that said about the three singles, let's actually talk about the rest of the album now, shall we? Well...you can basically take everything I had to say about the singles and just downgrade it to get the rest of the album....Again, the rest is not bad at all by any means, but it is noticeably weaker. The three big singles on here all have a very noticeable and good sense of progression throughout, yet most of the non-single tracks in comparison feature a little bit TOO MUCH progression to the point where the songs can feel a bit directionless at times. The Youth is the only lower rated track that manages to feel pretty consistent in terms of progression throughout and that track scored lower simply because it doesn't really carry the same energy or weight as the three big tracks did. The rest of the album definitely has a problem with progression though. And there really isn't anything wrong with progression in music either. I mean, I loved Happiness Is A Warm Gun by the Beatles when I listened to The White Album, so what's wrong here? Well...I guess the musical direction really just doesn't feel as intentionally jarring as it did in that specific song....And these tracks don't carry the influence that track had as well so there's that too. I guess it simply feels as if the lack of direction wasn't an intentional artistic choice and rather something that came as a result of lazy songwriting and editing. This does kinda make the tracks themselves not super memorable either after an initial listen...and yes, I know tracks should have a lot of depth to them and all so that you can listen more than once, but you as a listener really shouldn't be at a point where you struggle to recall a single notable or any moment at all from a track some time after listening to it. That's kinda the feel that most of the non-big tracks have. Of Moons and Weekend Wars had some pretty great moments and Weekend Wars as a whole is really the only song where the sense of progression feels great throughout, but that's about it. The best example I can give is saying that the weaker tracks have more of an Emerson, Lake, And Palmer type of progression than a King Crimson type.....And we've officially hit the point where text covers my entire screen. Like seriously, top to bottom text now. Yeah. This is the longest conclusion I have written by quite a bit and...well...I still have another kinda important and lengthy thing I want to say before I try to close it off quickly. Okay, I have to talk about production real quick. I'm going to try to limit this more since I'm kinda running out of writing steam here but I still want to talk about it regardless....and well...it's quite odd how despite being very early on in the project as a whole, I can still make many references to past albums and songs I've heard, but here I go again....This album reminds me of Melody A.M. in terms of...well a lot of things, but most similarly are the two album's production. Both have this very apparent encapsulating and engrossing feel to them that really...in an odd way...kinda makes me feel very close to the music itself. Kinda like it's pulling me into the world of the music kinda situation. It's really, really good and is one of the aspects of this album that kept me thoroughly engrossed all the way through. And...in a way...I kinda like to think that this is what Melody A.M. could have been with just a bit better songwriting and better lyrics...I mean, they sound similar in so many ways besides just production that the album generator could have convinced me the two albums were made by the same artist had they just swapped MGMT for Röyksopp just for shitties and gigglies...And to me, this album did make me feel in a way from just the production alone because of how much I loved the sound of Melody A.M. It's just...great...you can't change my mind about it...And yes I know I gave Melody A.M. a 7/10 and now here I am getting all boo-hooey and nostalgic about it but I don't give a damn! You know, I don't think I've said this anywhere before, but I was REALLY conflicted on giving that album an 8/10 and a 4/5 when I rated it almost a whole y-year ago at this point...jesus christ. I may very well go back and up the score someday, I don't know...but anyway. OKAY, FOR REAL THIS TIME, one last thing I have to mention before we're done. Let's briefly discuss the lyrics of the non-single songs. Well...they don't carry the same emotional weight or connection as the big songs do, but they still work well with the album as a whole. They're much more vaguely written and interpretable in a way that kinda fits with the Psychedelic melodies that the tracks have to provide. I mean, they're not like amazing or anything and won't make you think or feel too deeply, but they're still pretty solid regardless....OKAY, we're finally done. The screen of text has been scrolling up for a bit now and I'm scared to scroll up because I don't want to see the monstrosity of a review I've created. You know, when this website was made, I really don't think its creator had well...THIS in mind. Yeah, a notes section was provided for a reason, but it's also called a "notes" section for a reason as well....ahem...BUT REGARDLESS...the tale of Oracular the Good still remains an extremely strong tale engraved in late 2000s folklore regardless. The tale really only mentions the highs for a reason and leaves out the lows for the same reason, but a tale is best told whole regardless. Oracular the Good has cemented its place in my mind as a very important part of musical folklore history while seeming genuinely intriguing at the same time. And so...Finally...the seer brings his own wise tale to a close and provides his rating of the album below....But at the same time...the seer is kinda fucked...as I'm dropping this wise storytelling persona forever and leaving it here on the same beach, which I realized while writing this is most likely Coney Island, with a shirtless Andrew VanWyngarden and a similarly naked Ben Goldwasser. Goodbye oh wise one as we leave you in limbo in Oracular forever. Never to be seen again...(Except they were seen again here to lower the score of this album from an 8/10 to 7/10 and 4/5 to 3/5. Okay...they're gone for real this time...) ============================================================ Oracular Spectacular: 7/10 Song Average: 8.1/10

Definitely super into this album. My only real issue is these songs were so massively popular that I got sick of them a few years after they came out cause they got overplayed everywhere. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are 3 MASSIVE hits on this album. And even more incredibly there are hidden gems on this album because the hits overshadow the rest of the album pretty severely. Like there’s even a song that gets mildly psychedelic which is very unexpected. It’s also crazy to me that this album came from mostly just two people. That’s crazy impressive. That being said, I didn’t love all of it. I think the biggest problem with this album is it feels super safe and mainstream. Like it doesn’t feel like they took and dangerous or bold chances. Definitely a solid album regardless.

Always enjoy listening, but seems to be just a party band with some catchy hooks. Would not place this in the "greatest of all time." category.

God level singles with a lot of muck. The soundtrack of Obama optimism

This takes me back to a really specific time

Not sure about this, maybe I'm a bit too old. Pleasant enough but a bit of a whiff of 'of the moment' hipster vibes? 'Kids' is awesome though.

So I enjoyed the MGMT “Oracular Spectacular” album, and appreciated the originality of their sound… Pretty good diversity from a musical perspective throughout, and overall the album was pretty well done… “Kids” is by far the best track on the album, and its sound is incredibly original, and I’d give it 5-starts out of 7 in my little rating scale… Lyrics seem quite interesting as well, though don’t really have an idea as to exactly what it’s about though the line “…Control yourself, take only what you need from it…” really resonated with me from a variety of perspectives… “Time To Pretend” & “Electric Feel” were also the popular, and I though they were pretty solid, but the track other than “Kids” that grabbed me – was “Of Moons, Birds, & Monsters”, as I just really enjoyed that one as well… A solid 3 for me overall, and the “Kids” track really bumped it up…

Was familiar with some of these tunes, but never remember MGMT as the band! Or didn't know. Lounge party music?

1. Time to Pretend - initially, seems like a song that talks about the boredom of the world and wants to get away and live lives of sex and drugs. as the song progresses, it talks of the true wanting: their childhood and life before their tedious life working at a 9 to 5 job. the outcome of their glam-filled lives, or boring lives too will be mediocre, and this was their 'time to pretend' after childhood; they were fated to pretend, couldn't escape it. song in general sounds super cool! 4/5 2. Weekend Wars - i don't really get it. i think they're bored? and what they may do to pass the time? no idea sounds pretty cool though! but a 2.5/5, not going in my playlist 3. The Youth - gorgeous gorgeous song. talks of the change in youth, the transition between growing up and staying kids. this is expressed more in the music, with an obvious shift in tone. 5/5, going in my playlist 4. Electric Feel - some girl whose charisma is very electric. 2/5 5. Kids - speaks of the give-and-take in the dynamic of a family. the importance of making decisions, and the stage of being an infant; a toddler. sounds pretty cool. 3.5/5 6. 4th Dimensional Transition - i don't get it. i don't like it. 1/5 7. Pieces of What - i don't know either. sounds alright, very country-esque. 2/5 8. Of Moons, Birds & Monsters - exactly what the title says. interesting song. not going in my playlist though. 3/5 9. The Handshake - i think its about power politics, of signing a deal and not letting yourself get caught up in the power struggle between people. about being ignorant and in denial of being used, and not forgetting your roots. sounds pretty cool. 3.5/5 10. Future Reflections - nooo idea what this is about, very philosophical and vague. i feel like if i got this i'd be/sound super cool or something. sounds cool though! not going in my playlist 4/5 what's going in my playlist? 1. The Youth my rating? - solid 3/5

The rest of the album doesn't hold up to Time to Pretend, Kids and Electric Feel, but those three are fucking huge tunes...although were played to death a bit at the time. Let's shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars, I suppose.

Meh

Музыка временами неплохая, но в целом это ни о чём

No es muy mi estilo

mjäh

Only liked the singles.

There's some interesting sounds happening here, but overall it didn't grab me, or really entertain me at all. It feels like it's almost good, it's on the brink of it so left me frustrated when it didn't actually deliver anything no matter how long I waited.

It's the summer of 2007, I'm sitting in a field that usually houses four softball diamonds in Grant Park, Chicago, drinking a nine-dollar beer at Lollapalooza. Mid-afternoon at a small stage in the Northeast corner, Toadies come on. It's forgettable, mostly, but we huddle close to hear "Possum Kingdom." We make our way to a decent but not perilously close distance to the main stage at the South end of the field. Lupe Fiasco enters doing a backflip and plays an amazing set (IIRC, this is around the time Food & Liquor had come out). After one more set at the small stage, it will be time for the headliner at the main stage, Rage Against the Machine. The undercard at the small stage is a band I'd never heard of and which upon reading its name I called "Management." A few rave-y looking kids went over and huddled around the stage, but mostly people stayed where they were to keep their spots for Rage. Maybe 100 people crowd the small stage, while thousands of others pivot and look across the softball-field sized gap to these two dudes dressed like Steven Tyler playing keyboards. We were right to stay put. The show was underwhelming, sounded whack, and involved a bubble machine. Fuck you, I'm not a child. I mean, the singles on this are fine, but I've heard them a billion times on XRT and am not, like, excited to hear them again. Beyond that, all sound same, boring indie pop. Also, the album title is stupid.

3/10 I don’t know what happened to this band. They seem to have completely lost any ability to write the type of music that they’re actually good at making about 15 minutes into the sessions for this album. Two of the three big singles (Time to Pretend and Kids) had appeared in earlier forms on their indie label EP a couple of years before this album came out, and the only one that comes close to it, but still isn’t in at their level, is the other single. It’s kind of maddening. Their good songs are bombastic, euphoric, electro indie and when they do that, it’s great. But they seem to not want to do that for the rest of the album. Oh, and their lead singer is bad. With the high energy, big production stuff, it kind of works. The lead and bass lines are the stars and he’s the cheerleader during those, but when he’s left more exposed, oh boy. It feels like the producer is constantly trying different techniques and effects chains to make the vocal better, but it comes across as pretty scattergun and doesn’t really hide how weak the vocal is. Oddly, the guy who takes more of the backing vocals seems a much more competent singer. Maybe he’s just shy. This album is definitely held up by the singles, and I’d happily dip back in to those, but that’s all that’s elevating this album above the real cloggers on the list. Time to Pretend - This is an electro-indie banger. It’s got some interesting sound design, some great hooks and it moves. The beats are good, it’s got real weight and it screams ‘dancing, arms aloft at a festival in the rain’. Vocally it’s not great, but they are not the main focus of the track, so they work. Solid. Weekend Wars - Stripped back and thin, the weakness of the vocal is more exposed here. This is just a bit meandering and doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. It does offer development into different stages, but it feels like someone’s just muted a bunch of channels in the mix and we’ve got about half of a track. The Youth - Another wandering, meandering and thin song. It’s just rubbish. Doesn’t offer anything at all, plods along and then ends. Electric Feel - Another single! This has got a nice little groove to it, and some of the synth work is pretty decent. It is still quite thin in places and never reaches the height and weight of Time to Pretend. It just never really quite delivers on its promises. Decent enough album track, but still feels a bit bland. Kids - The other big banger of a single. It’s got a meaty, solid bass line and the intersecting synth lead lines are cool under that wash of pads. Again, the weakness of the vocal is compensated for by the scale and weight of the track. It’s very hooky and falls into the same category as Time to Pretend. Festival anthem. 4th Dimensional Transition - Another song that doesn’t really offer anything. Plinky synth lines that don’t go anywhere, and insistent percussion that bashes away, completely at odds with the rest of the track. It feels like it’s building to about the 3 minute mark, but it doesn’t build to anything except a drop off and some random guitar strumming that drags on for a minute. Rubbish. Pieces of What - Oooh, more terrible singing. This is the sound of an unbearable twat with an acoustic guitar around a campfire, but with an outrageous amount of reverb on his vocal. There’s obviously a bit of instrumentation, but it’s all very by the book and uninteresting. It finally kicks in 2/3 of the way through, for about 30 seconds, inexplicably, but the drums are splashy and bad, and then it just drifts away and… that’s it? Of Moons, Birds & Monsters - Sounds like pretty unspectacular indie rock, but with synths and a very muddy mix. He still can’t sing. Oh, that’s a bad guitar solo too. When it builds up the soundscapes it’s at least a bit more interesting, but the quality of the rest of the (non single) tracks on here has left me with less patience for this than I would normally have. The Handshake - It’s a fairly plodding little number with some arpeggiated synths. There’s a bit more to this than some of the other tracks. Rhythmically, it’s a bit more interesting in places and some of the synth washes are nice. Do we need a minute of ‘We got the handshake’? And with added whistling. Great. Future Reflections - This feels unfocused and I couldn’t help but lose attention to this multiple times. It’s just a bit uninteresting as a song. There’s at least a bit of an attempt to make it sonically interesting with some of the production, but it’s just a boring song.

The singles (I assume) are pretty good, but the rest isn't. It doesn't offend, but doesn't inspire either.

Not the album I remembered. More delicate. Kids still goes hard. Other stuff is a little mid. Artful mid 00s poseur indie. Melodious. Was expecting nostalgia but didn't really get it.

MGMT missed me. Completely. Their sound. There timing. I’d never heard of this band until last year (2025). Now I know that probably says more about me and my disconnect from popular music at the time than anything else. They hit at a time when I was not listening to anything new and most of my music listening time was given to things like audiobooks. To my ears, this is an unfocused mess. Just a mishmash of influences being tried out to see what sticks. I can see the appeal in the approach but it does not work for me. One intriguing track and the rest sounds like an EA Sports Menu screen . I’ll find my chill music elsewhere. How? How is this included on Rolling Stones 500 greatest albums of all time? Now, I feel like I’m the one being punked.

Not for me, really thin sound. Just not interesting.

Sort of disposable bubble gum Pink Floyd or whatever. Not my bag.lacks any kind of appeal beyond a catchy Riff on the singles. Weedy. I recognised the single but the rest is disposable with fairly pointless sorry for poor us lyrics.

Apathetic dogshit carried by a two short riffs that can’t even sustain interest for the duration of the songs they’re on, let alone 40 minutes of this crap.

It's just stupendous

I haven’t listened to this in full in forever. I’d forgotten how much I love Time To Pretend and Electric Feel in particular but pretty much the whole first half of the album is banger after banger. I’ve never been overly fussed on anything from 4th Dimensional Transition onwards but today I really enjoyed everything on the album. Maybe it’s a case of me listening to music differently since I’ve been doing this list. Top Track - Electric Feel

The instruments are so good. Intro to Kids and Time to Pretend is so recognizable. All the instrumental sections are peak. The use of synth is perfect. Lyrics are pretty good too like in Electric feel having a clear meaning and some word play.

De 16-jarige Elke is aan het gillen

I actually was expecting to like this one more than I did, I think it’s still a 5, but it’s not as solid of a 5 as I was expecting it to be. I could see changing this at some point. As Pim from Smiling Friends would say: I LOVE KIDS!!!! Highlights: Time to Pretend Electric Feel Kids (fav) Future Reflections Highlights:

edays band

so fucking good and truly genre defining.

Loved this album, then they had the sophomore slump

One-of-a-kind sound cements it in its time, in a great way. Dense with great tracks.

Classic of the era

A bunch of these songs were absolutely part of the soundtrack of my twenties. But I don't think I ever listened to the whole album before. Time to Pretend is such an insane banger of an opener. Man this whole thing is so good.

This one is like a slice of cheesecake. It has a velvety sound, rich lyrics, and a crunchy edge. It's dense but melts in your mouth. A slight sweetness and optimism come through, but it's full of calories.

Awesome album

So good, many perfect songs here.

iconic

I'm a millenial, I like alternative, and this came out when I graduated high school. I was the target demo. So, my rating is plagued with nostalgia. Still, very iconic songs. Too bad these guys SUCKED live. No charisma. Saw them at Coachella, and they didn't even play Kids! Highlights: time to pretend, electric feel, kids, the handshake (this one was new to me and I really enjoyed it)

Yassss