When people first hear of up-and-coming psychedelic rock band MGMT and decide to go buy an album by them, most of them go out to the store and pick up a copy of Oracular Spectacular, the band's "debut" album. While this album is the band's first major release and first release on Columbia records, their current label, it is not the band's first album and is far from their first release.
MGMT has actually been around for a few years now and Oracular Spectacular is their fourth release. The band's name comes from their old name The Management, under which they released their first EP and album in 2004 and 2005. Their discography also includes the Time To Pretend EP which was their first release as MGMT.
MGMT has come on to the scene and made a strong entrance with a psychedelic style that has an interesting take on the combination of electronic sounds, and the sounds of traditional instruments. Overall, their style is fairly innovative and not one that is normally heard on the mainstream level, which they are quickly breaking into. This is all fine and dandy, but what about their old material? Can we expect the same echoic and psychedelic sounds that we hear on Oracular Spectacular from the old stuff?
Put simply the answer is no.
When I first heard MGMT at this year's Bonnaroo I immediately went bought bought Oracular Spectacular and looked them up online. My search led me to some information that I think is crucial to understanding the transition from the old sound the their current one. MGMT did extensive touring with Of Montreal in support of the Time To Pretend EP. Based on their current sound this kind of makes sense, but when you consider their old sound it's like a hand fitting in a glove.
MGMT's original material under The Management sounds a lot like new Of Montreal actually. If you want a more concrete description, strip off all the live instrument's and a lot of the vocal harmonies. What you're left with is a lot of keyboard samples and some odd lyrics that create some incredible songs. The material I'm referring to can be found on the band's first release: the We (don't) Care EP and the band's first album: Climbing To New Lows.
While I have implied that the MGMT's current material is a drastic departure from their earlier stuff, this is not uniformly true. A precious few of the songs off of their old releases such as "We Care," "Love Always Remains," and even the version of "Kids" that is found on the We (don't) Care EP sound like they could be on Oracular Spectacular, in fact this version ok "Kids" is on Oracular Spectacular. Most of the songs are either drastically different, like "We Don't Care" and "Everything's Happenin' So Fast," or are transitional between the old and new styles, like "The Kids Quartet." Hints of this older sound can be heard on the Time To Pretend EP in songs like "Destrokk."
This older material is a window into the evolution of this increasingly popular band. A complete review of the their catalog really gives you a feel of where this new sound came from and how it began.
Take a listen and see what you think:
Climbing To New Lows
We (don't) Care EP
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