A quick disclaimer first. Normally I would like to take a few weeks to get to know an album reasonably well before reviewing it. I’ve often found that something that I’ve written off on one or two listens has ended up winning me over and becoming indispensable by listen five or six, or equally, an album that is enjoyable enough when you first hear it can end up boring you. I’ve only had Oracular Spectacular, debut album by Brooklyn boys MGMT (pronounced “em gee em tee”) for about three days, and despite some intensive playing and re-playing , I still feel that I haven’t yet quite totally got its measure.This matters here more than it would for most albums, because of the sheer eclecticism and scatter-gun selection of ideas and influences that it contains. The album opens with the forthcoming single, and “band manifesto” 'Time To Pretend', which personally is already on my list of Singles Of The Year, and makes me grin with every listen. Funny, exhilarating, catchy, naïve yet cynical all at the same time. Lyrics like “Let’s make some music / Make some money / Find some models for wives”; and, sweetly, “I’ll miss the playgrounds / And the animals / And digging up worms”, this electro stormer is almost too great a way to kick off an album, as it raises the bar exceptionally high from the start.What follows is a sometimes confusing, but always intriguing, mix of tracks. Styles morph from song to song: from the 70’s New York disco of 'Electric Feel', to 80’s electro à la Human League 'Kids', to 'Purple Rain'-era Prince ('The Handshake'), - even shades of Neil Young, or 70’s country rock can be heard in 'Pieces of What'. They also like to mix things up within songs as well ”“ using erratic or complicated time signatures ('Electric Feel', 'Of Moons, Birds and Monsters'), or changing the pace and atmosphere. The trippy, (melo)dramatic '4th Dimension Transition', which comes off like a rock opera about outer space, condensed into one song. The old trick of changing key three quarters of the way through, to give a track a little extra 'lift' is also employed ”“ pretty successfully ”“ on 'The Youth'.As befits an album produced by Dave Fridmann (whose other credits include The Flaming Lips) this often has a psychedelic feel to it, sometimes bordering on prog (notably on “Weekend Wars”, “The Youth” and “Future Reflections”). Lyrically, the band seem fond of grand gestures and dramatic statements: in “The Youth” they state that “This is a call to arms / To live and love and sleep together”; whilst “4th Dimension Transition” opens ”“ excitingly - with “I feel your racing heart / My liquid silver arms extended”. Now I may not have a clue what that means, but it certainly grabs my attention.Although I didn’t find anything else on here matched the brilliance and immediacy of 'Time to Pretend', the two other stand-outs are 'The Youth' and 'Kids'. The album as a whole, though, is one that certainly deserves your attention. It's refreshing to hear such a great big rag-bag of styles and sounds: you almost feel as if the band had too many ideas to be contained in just the one album. I certainly expect to still be listening to this for many weeks to come. In fact, I have a nasty feeling that I will look back on this review and be disappointed with myself at all the wonderful aspects of the band that I missed. Perhaps I’ll creep back to this site and post a comment on my review and revised score in another month’s time”¦Â Until then, I’ll score it a: 72%Watch the video for 'Time To Pretend' here. Links MGMT [official site] [myspace] [buy it]