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Alternative Press

Oracular may be a complex effort, but the verdict is simple--it's brilliant. [Feb 2008, p.115]

Under The Radar

Though the record is slightly front-loaded, there's nary a dud to be found here. [Winter 2008, p.86]

Prefix Magazine

It's a confident debut, one that features two young musicians reveling in their abilities and perhaps discovering ones they didn't know they had.

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All Music Guide

Despite the ever-present irony, the songs never feel insincere and the record is inherently strong throughout, making it a solid start to their career.

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Billboard

Joining fellow hotly tipped Brooklyn bands Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer, MGMT (pronounced "management") merits just as much attention for its psychedelic experimentation as it does for its melodies and hooks.

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Hartford Courant

The songs on Oracular Spectacular are considered and carefully constructed, and as a result, they’re taut, hooky and highly danceable, in a hipster-dance-party kind of way.

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New Musical Express (NME)

For all its musical philandering, unbridled excess and shrouds of irony, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a record with more musical depth and warmth all year than this one.

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The Guardian

All this energy somehow comes together as one, making the whole package so radio-friendly it's practically kissing your aerial.

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musicOMH.com

Hugely enjoyable and wonderfully disposable pop for the listener, who will turn round and return for more, no question. An auspicious debut.

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Hot Press

Oracular Spectacular is an arresting introduction to the illogical world of MGMT, and is the kind of album that’s a guilty pleasure without the guilt.

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Observer Music Monthly

Ultimately, there is something refreshing about MGMT's lack of cynicism and the winning way in which they fuse hippy and punk ideals.

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Uncut

A sugary feast for the senses. [May 2008, p.98]

Q Magazine

Oracular Spectacular is a triumph of conceptual ambition, a series of fantastic voyages that avoids any of the navel-gazing such notions normally provoke. [May 2008, p.138]

New York Magazine

Put the last eight years of Williamsburg micro-genres in a blender— all that electroclash, disco rock, retro glam, and psych-folk—and you’ve got a sense of the charming mess that is this Connecticut-via-Brooklyn duo’s debut.

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Drowned In Sound

It never ultimately transports you into his head or heart. All of which doesn’t stop Oracular Spectacular from being a blissful 40 minutes of high-end stereophonic joy, but it does severely hamper the listener from imbuing their own emotions back into it.

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Rolling Stone

Lips producer Dave Fridmann helmed MGMT's debut disc, fluffing their glitchy daydream rock into an intergalactic odyssey.

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Pitchfork

On 'Electric Feel,' MGMT pull off lithe, falsetto electro-funk surprisingly well. There's not much to the song aside from a Barry Gibb vocal and limber bassline, but within the context of the rest of Spectacular, it makes perfect sense.

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Urb

Opener 'Time to Pretend' exemplifies this best, as the synths provide quirky cartoonish bounces to tales of fancy car whipping and coke snorting pipe-dreams. However, the record grows sluggish at certain points, particularly when they try to get super sentimental on that ass.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

While Oracular Spectacular has its sophomoric moments (you’d be wise to avoid the nasal whine of 'Weekend Wars'), a listen to 'Climbing To New Lows'--a catchy demo set from their undergrad days--will make anyone see what attracted the bigwigs at Columbia in the first place.

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Dot Music

It's almost like neither [Dave Fridmann] nor the band could decide whether they were making an electronic or rock record and in dithering between the two settled on the awkward, frustrating middle ground.

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PopMatters

The individual songs may be big, but the road they travel is a narrow and short one.

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cokemachineglow

It is logically a bloated, uncomfortable, saturated throwback to no genre, time period, or movement in particular.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 72 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael H gave it a10:
Aside from Andrew VanWyngarden's beautiful and unique voice, the music of MGMT is unlike anything before it. So much melody and power pop sounds combined to make an amazing piece of art and music that is Oracular Spectacular. The album continues to thrive which each new song and there isn't one track that leaves you unsatisfied, a piece of music genius.

Kyle T gave it a9:
i would give this a 10 but it doesn't have the videos in it. This band is so funky and visionary it is so funny. They make me laughwhile listening to the songs. KIDS Time to Pretend Electric Feel are great and so is everything else. Just watch the video for KIDs you will be mesmerized.

tim gave it a10:
Best cd of the year blend of all the great sounds of rock.

jason q gave it a10:
best album ive heard in a while. although people may say its front-loaded, there are plenty of beautiful tracks if u just really listen to them all with an open mind.

Clif C gave it an8:
Every song is great or amazing or very good, etc. Buuut... listening to the whole album is a bit hard sometimes. That's why I can't give this album more than 8. Standout tracks: "Time to Pretend", "Weekend Wars", "Kids" and "The Handshake".

Irina P gave it an8:
The album is amazing, but I must say that there is too much electric feel, that I actually do not like

Zane S gave it an8:
I love it! I'm not an indie fan, but I really did like this album. "Time To Pretend," "Electric Feel," "Kids" and "Pieces of What" are my favorites. "The Youth" is also good. It's hard to assign a single genre to the duo, but indie, rock and electric should sum it up nicely.

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