Throwback: MGMT – Time to Pretend
MGMT’s 2007 full-length, ‘Oracular Spectacular’, accomplished much in the way of reinvigorating, from California to Sydney, a type of ‘modern hippy-dom.’ The work, birthed from the art-music idiom of Brian Eno, held a genuine affinity for pop structures and melodies. Its sound, replete with lush synths and booming beats, achieved connection with young synth-pop audiences, appealing to an idealistic sensibility in the form of themes such as the reconciliation between humanity and the natural world, the reclamation of our innate child-like innocence, and the conceiving of said innocence as precious, and ultimately: fragile.
Burying further into the realm of the idealistic (and ultimately bitter) is the single, ‘Time to Pretend.’ In the video we see youths clothed in little but the night air, performing ritualistic fire-dances and firing bow and arrows at some invisible, spiritual enemy; a series of adventurous DIY video-edits: a cut-and-paste assemblage of soft symbolisms that signal the spontaneous and the playful. It’s colourful, chaotic and fun. Rising melodies and gritty synths in the chorus offer a climactic sense of wonderment, which juxtapose comfortably against the songs governing cynicism: ‘we’re fated to pretend.’
