Oracular Spectacular (MGMT)

MGMT's Oracular Spectacular benefited from being a CD that my bookstore had out in its now greatly-reduced selection of music. This wasn't a high priority album, but when I saw it there, I decided to give it a shot, having heard and enjoyed "Time to Pretend."

Perhaps I was just in the mood for MGMT today, but this album made an extremely positive impression on me. First, I thought the look of the disc itself was quite cool. When I put "Time to Pretend" on, I found myself enjoying it even moreso than when I heard it the few times prior. Perhaps the CD quality audio allows be to better appreciate the production, or perhaps I finally listened to the lyrics and realized how great they are. Whatever the case, the song blew me away. However, the entire album isn't made up of "Time to Pretend" clones. It's fairly diverse. This doesn't prove problematic, as it sometimes does, as the songs all work. It doesn't really leave one with the feeling that the album is itself one cohesive unit (that is, you could probably get a similar effect listening to these tracks in any order, though maybe not), but in this day and age, that's a very minor complaint. The music itself is top notch.

Standout tracks include "Time to Pretend," "Electric Feel," and "Kids."

I haven't had a chance to play with the interactive "Electric Feel" video yet, but that could be fun.

Tracks:
1. Time to Pretend
2. Weekend Wars
3. The Youth
4. Electric Feel
5. Kids
6. 4th Dimensional Transition
7. Pieces of What
8. Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
9. The Handshake
10. Future Reflections