Having a lot of influences in a band's début album is like riding an unbroken-in horse: if you can manage to do it without getting run over or trampled on, then it's an exhilirating experience. Fortunately, Wesleyan-Connecticut-Now-Moved-To-Brooklyn band MGMT manages to pull it off in their 2007 album Oracular Spectacular. With electronic embellishments, and heavy borrowing from 1970's glamour rock à la David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust, MGMT serve up an album that manages to sound both inspired by rock gods past and entirely au courant.

Perhaps the highlight of the album is the first track, "Time to Pretend," charts the life of rockstars as they might be. But MGMT recognises that they're never going to get that life when they sing "this is a decision / to die young," but "we're fated to pretend." Musically, the song has elements of both Blondie and Queen — sassy guitars, snares, and distortions are combined to up-beat effect.

"Electric Feel," the album's other single, manages to one up Scissor Sisters. The disco beats, male-falsetto vocals, and a throbbing baseline are all similar, but MGMT's version sounds much more polished.

In fact, that's a great way to describe the album's saviour — it is too well done to sound like a cover album.

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