While discussing 'Oracular Spectacular' with one of the CMU:DJs at our pre-Christmas drinks last night we decided that if we were both 17 (and he can remember being 17 a lot more clearly than me, him not being several decades on from such teenage abandon) this could have been one of the defining albums of our lives. As a bitter and twisted 33 year old (yeah, OK, not decades) it would take a remarkable piece of musical work to have such 'life defining' status. This album isn't that remarkable piece of work, but it is nevertheless the album that will for me define, while not my life, the year that was 2008. It was CMU's SNAP chief Owen Smith who first alerted me to MGMT sometime in the Autumn of 2007, but I must admit all round busy-ness meant my copy of 'OS' sat in my in-tray for at least two months before I gave it the attention is so obviously deserved. It was only when I realised that 'Time To Pretend' had somehow become my favourite new song in years, despite me never actually putting it in the CD player, or knowlingly hearing it on the radio or seeing it on TV, that I realised MGMT were my new favourite band and that this album needed investigating. I've never been the biggest album listener in the world, a tendency that has increased in the 'rip the tracks you like into iTunes' age, but this is the one album that I have listened to in full so many times this year I couldn't begin to count them - and frequently with two or three repeat plays in one sitting. In a particularly good year for new music, this was one of the very best. Life defining for some, iPod-dominating for many, a real album of the year for CMU.
MORE>> www.myspace.com/mgmt
Check out the CMU team's top ten albums of the year on the CMU website here.
-----
Don't forget you can now check out CMU favourites old and new on CMU-Tube, our online music video service powered by MUZU.
Set up your own MUZU channel, select tracks from the MUZU catalogue, and embed your own MUZU Player on your own website or blog - simple. Sign up here.