Oracular Spectacular
Encyclopedia
Oracular Spectacular is the first major label studio album by American
psychedelic rock
band MGMT
, released digitally October 2, 2007 on Columbia Records
, available in CD & LP formats from January 22, 2008 by Red Ink Records
. The album, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide, was nominated for best international album in the 2009 BRIT Awards
. It features new versions of both "Kids
" and "Time to Pretend
", songs from their previous release, Time to Pretend EP
(2005), the opening track serving as a "mission statement" and theme continued through the proceeding tracks. Though Oracular Spectacular never sold more than 17,000 in a week, it has been a consistent seller since January 2008, selling at least 2,000 copies per week.
, the album has a score of 76 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Jason Lymangrover of Allmusic called the album "some of the catchiest pop songs to come from NYC since the turn of the millennium." Lymangrover continued: "the songs never feel insincere and the record is inherently strong throughout, making it a solid start to their career." Prefix Magazine described the album as "a college-dorm experiment gone horribly right."
Not all the reviews were positive, though. In a more mixed review, Popmatters
' Matt Fiander criticized the second half of the album, writing "The second half of the record settles into a more monotone kind of space rock that is as big as the better first half, but gives us no recognizably distinct songs or catchy melodies."
The album was named the best album of 2008 by NME
. In 2009, Rolling Stone
named it the 18th best album of the decade.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band MGMT
MGMT
MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...
, released digitally October 2, 2007 on Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, available in CD & LP formats from January 22, 2008 by Red Ink Records
RED Distribution
RED - An Artist Development Company is a Sony Music Entertainment-owned sales and marketing division that handles releases for over sixty independent record labels....
. The album, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide, was nominated for best international album in the 2009 BRIT Awards
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
. It features new versions of both "Kids
Kids (MGMT song)
"Kids" is the third single from MGMT's album Oracular Spectacular. It was released as a single on October 13, 2008.The song was the center of a legal dispute with the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, over the "insulting" compensation he offered for his illegal use of the song during a party...
" and "Time to Pretend
Time to Pretend
-Reception:"Time to Pretend is a space-rock gem that mocks the clichéd coke-and-hookers rock-star lifestyle, over big synth whooshes." – Kevin O'Donnell, Rolling Stone...
", songs from their previous release, Time to Pretend EP
Time to Pretend EP
-Quotes:"MGMT finally forayed with their first single, 'Time to Pretend' -- an understated anthem among inhabitants of Athens." – Julia Norman...
(2005), the opening track serving as a "mission statement" and theme continued through the proceeding tracks. Though Oracular Spectacular never sold more than 17,000 in a week, it has been a consistent seller since January 2008, selling at least 2,000 copies per week.
Track listing
- "Time to Pretend" originally appeared on Time to Pretend EPTime to Pretend EP-Quotes:"MGMT finally forayed with their first single, 'Time to Pretend' -- an understated anthem among inhabitants of Athens." – Julia Norman...
. - "Kids" originally appeared on We (Don't) CareWe (Don't) CareWe Care was the first release by the rock band MGMT . Newer versions of the tracks "Love Always Remains" and "Kids" were later released on MGMT's Cantora Records release Time to Pretend EP and additional versions of "Kids" appear on both their major-label debut Oracular Spectacular and their...
, "Climbing to New Lows" and Time to Pretend EPTime to Pretend EP-Quotes:"MGMT finally forayed with their first single, 'Time to Pretend' -- an understated anthem among inhabitants of Athens." – Julia Norman...
.
Quotations
- "Knowing that the Almost FamousAlmost FamousAlmost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
notion of stardom doesn't exist anymore (if it ever did), the duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser realize they're "fated to pretend". It's a charming idea — making a career out of fantasizing—and on Oracular Spectacular, they not only accept their playacting destiny, they demonstrate that, just maybe, it's a path more people should take." - Eric Harvey, Pitchfork MediaPitchfork MediaPitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock... - "This space-rock gem mocks the clichéd coca cola-and-hookers rock-star lifestyle, over big synth whooshes." - Kevin O'Donnell of Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
on the single "Time to PretendTime to Pretend-Reception:"Time to Pretend is a space-rock gem that mocks the clichéd coke-and-hookers rock-star lifestyle, over big synth whooshes." – Kevin O'Donnell, Rolling Stone...
". - "We redid a lot of our songs that sounded too polished... Dave (producer David Fridmann) ended up running the tracks through this thing that crushed them and made them sound really gross again. They're a lot better now." - Ben Goldwasser in Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
Reception and legacy
Oracular Spectacular has received mostly positive reviews. On the review aggregate site MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the album has a score of 76 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Jason Lymangrover of Allmusic called the album "some of the catchiest pop songs to come from NYC since the turn of the millennium." Lymangrover continued: "the songs never feel insincere and the record is inherently strong throughout, making it a solid start to their career." Prefix Magazine described the album as "a college-dorm experiment gone horribly right."
Not all the reviews were positive, though. In a more mixed review, Popmatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
' Matt Fiander criticized the second half of the album, writing "The second half of the record settles into a more monotone kind of space rock that is as big as the better first half, but gives us no recognizably distinct songs or catchy melodies."
The album was named the best album of 2008 by NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. In 2009, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
named it the 18th best album of the decade.
Charts
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
Certification | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
6 | Platinum | 70,000+ |
| Belgian (Flanders) Albums Chart | 10 | Gold | 15,000+ |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Albums Chart | 55 | ||
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
24 | Gold | 50,000+ |
| Croatian International Album Chart | 34 | ||
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
45 | ||
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
22 | Silver | 65,480 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
5 | 2× Platinum | 30,000+ |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
85 | ||
| Japanese Oricon Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
161 | ||
| Mexican Albums Chart | 74 | ||
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
13 | Gold | 7,500+ |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
68 | ||
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
8 | Platinum | 567,696 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
38 | Gold | 596,000+ |
| Year-end chart (2008) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 16 |
| French Albums Chart | 77 |
| UK Albums Chart | 65 |
Awards
| Title | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|
| NME Awards 2009 | Best Album of 2008 | Won |