Debut Album From Brooklyn School Band MGMT

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By Stef Siepel

Perhaps the most interesting music made in the U.S.A. today comes from the Brooklyn School, where several bands have emerged in the last year with eclectic, interesting, music. Yeasayer is doing a proper tour in Holland with multiple dates, and Vampire Weekend came by a few weeks ago, getting a decent amount of press, which is surprising, because normally indie bands don’t get press. Indeed, those two bands seem to be the flag bearers of the Brooklyn School at the moment.

Another exponent of that scene, and one who has just released their debut album, is MGMT . It consists of two young lads, Goldwasser and Van Wyngarden, who live expand to a quintet. They recently released “Oracular Spectacular” and are currently touring in support of their album.

The first song, “Time to Pretend” starts as a sarcastic note, a commentary on the path musicians often seem to choose. Shooting immediately to stardom, “make some music, make some money, find some models for wives,” and ultimately they croon that “they were fated to pretend”. The song’s sound is a poppy one and easy on the ear, and “Weekend Wars” continues on that route. “The Youth” is a celebration of youthfulness, but also sadly concluding that it is quite temporary. “The youth is starting to change,” the two lads sing in unison, followed by “Are you starting to change?”, which makes the meaning ambiguous. Either the youth is starting to change because the youth (that generation) is now entering adulthood, or the youth is starting to change because we are growing older, and don’t feel connected with the youth anymore and are not a part of the youth anymore, having us saying that they changed, while in fact, maybe it is us.

Then turning up the catchiness factor is “Electric Feel”, with the brilliant line “shock me like an electric eel”. If indie dance clubs have any sense they will play this around three o’clock. Why I don’t know, but I think it especially suits the three o’clock dancers. The drums and vocals mix perfectly. And if your disc jockey is totally inept at his job and accidentally plays the next track, it doesn’t matter, because “Kids” certainly has the beat. My interpretation of this song actually was be careful and don’t get them, but I admit that might not be correct at all.

And welcome to the second side of this vinyl record. At least, that is the feeling you get, when suddenly the feel gets more psychedelic, with spacey instrumentals and vocal manipulation. Gone also are the choruses, and more of a narrative takes its place. And even though the chorus returns on “Pieces of What”, the second half never returns to the catchiness of the first part. “Pieces of What” is balladry troubadour like, and “Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters” is far from a return to conventional pop, especially not with half the song being instrumental. “The Handshake” features whistling, and like in the whole second half of the album, the world music influences are very much apparent. The last song maybe sums up the album most perfectly, starting with a proper indie-rock intro just to slow it down later, with vocals almost falsetto like, and after that the song slowly evolves again into the synth pop of the first half, just to end by adding a touch of psychedelia to it again.

If I just gave you a sense of this album as a hodgepodge, you won’t be too far off, but still only half right. Multiple influences, also a lot from world music, and Goldwasser and VanWyngarden’s determination not to make it a conventional synth pop album makes the second half of this album an eclectic one. The first half though, is synth driven pop, easy on the ear, and quite danceable. The knock on this album is that it feels more like two EP’s than one album, also because of the placing of the songs. The first five seem to belong together, and the last five, even though all of it is unmistakably MGMT , but two different faces from the band. A more scattered placing might have helped that.

Eventually though, as two EP’s, they are two very good ones. The first one is easy on the ear, danceable, and loveable whereas the second one is more uncomfortable, more eclectic, but musically well arrived. With ambiguous, often ironic texts the lyrics are well done, and that is one thing both sides have in common. “Oracular Spectacular” is musically tight and indeed a good album, though with the risk that people might only like the first five or the last five songs. But these young guys are fresh and exciting, and well worth a listen. And certainly, wearing capes playing Letterman has never hurt any band.

About the author: Stef Siepel writes musical commentary at Mog. You can read more of his musings HERE.

MGMT Official Website

MGMT @ Myspace

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Here is their latest video - "Electric Feel". Video is sort of campy, but the song is very catchy

You can view a full concert from the band HERE

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Kids

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This is kind of trippy. Here is MGMT performing a cover of The Talking Heads "This Must Be The Place" five years ago while there were students at Wesleyan University.

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In this live video at the SXSW Music Festival, Andrew VanWyngarden gets a dead crowd hopping with his rendition of "Kids".

Lyrics | Kids lyrics

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Youth is Mgmt's fourth video from their album, Oracular Spectacular

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AOLs Interface recently hosted the band, where they performed their latest single, 'Future Reflections'

Watch more Oracular Spectacular videos on AOL Video