“Time to Pretend“
from the album Oracular Spectacular
2008
iTunes
MGMT — commonly known, erroneously, as the Management — is Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two self-described art provocateurs who met as undergraduates at Wesleyan University in 2002. Without ever intending to form a band, the duo began experimenting with electronic music, testing the conventional limits of songwriting and pop structure. Their music caught the attention of some NYU students, who created the independent Cantora label to release MGMT’s EP Time to Pretend. Now signed to Columbia Records, MGMT digitally released their major label debut in October.
With enough groove to please the play-something-we-can-dance-to crowd and enough sardonic wit to satisfy even the hippest hipsters, MGMT immediately gained a hardcore cult following after the release of Time to Pretend. “Let’s make some music / Makes some money / Find some models for wives,” they sing on the title track, a dark take on the rock ‘n roll fantasy life of excess and disillusionment. The infectious “Kids,” consisting purely of synth and drum machine, just might be destined to become one of the most ironic party anthems ever, sporting a chorus of “Control yourself” that begs to be sung along to with total reckless abandon. On their forthcoming debut LP, Oracular Spectacular, MGMT take things in a more psychedelic-pop, guitar-driven direction. The result? An even better cut of “Time to Pretend,” plus great new tracks like “Weekend Wars.”