Brooklyn-based music duo Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden must have lived past lives as a pair of hedonistic party lovers achieving every rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle cliché while listening to the best music the 70s had to offer (David Bowie, T-Rex and basically anything with a cool, funky beat).

Album opener and first single ‘Time to Pretend’ is fantastic with its larger-than-life electro-synth beats against extravagant and pleasure-loving lyrics; “Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives/If you’ve got the vision/Why not have some fun?” And just as begin checking the album sleeve notes expecting to see Russell Brand accredited as lyricist, the band do a 180 degree turn and go all introspective on us with ‘Weekend Wars’: “Once I was too lazy to bathe/Or paint or write or try to make a change /Now I can shoot a gun to kill my lunch/And I don’t have to love or think too much.”

It not longer however, before MGMT go all smooth-talking on us with the bewitching, laid-back summer vibes of ‘Electric Eel’. With lead singer VanWyngarden crooning; “I said ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel/Baby girl, turn me on with your electric feel,” they’re in danger of sounding a bit corny, a bit naff, a bit Bee Gees but somehow the guys manage to pull it back and stay on the right side of David Bowie. Next track ‘Kids’ is upbeat and chirpy with an undeniable feel-good factor which adds to the overall electro-funk,psychedelic feel to ‘Oracular Spectacular’.

Unfortunately the second half of the album fails to keep up the high standard of the first; the low-key and somewhat depressing feel of ‘Future Reflections’ jars with the rest of the album and just feels like an unnecessary tag-on. But with repeated listening ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is a stunning and accomplished debut from two friends who never wanted to be musicians in the first place. Put simply, this is the soundtrack to the summer.