Idolator
While I was in Los Angeles, a song that sounded like it had somehow escaped from the Muzak of the late '70s, and subsequently been grunged up by being loose on the streets during the intervening 30 years, kept entering my field of hearing—on car radios, in-hotel Muzak, ambient music in restaurants. (Somehow it didn't crack the playlist of the two Rite Aids I visited during my visit (I always forget something when I got away), but that could have been the timing.) The track was fine at first, and it slowly grew on me thanks to its sleazy end-of-the-night vibe; by day four, the thing was lodged in my brain, and I wasn't really minding all that much. As it turned out, the track in question was not from some lost album from the '70s, but rather "Electric Feel" by the commenter-section-igniting MGMT.
Go ahead and sputter about me not having heard them up until this point; I know, I know. But there are lots of other records out there, and only so much time. And either way, it's kind of funny that the band that spawned said song is lighting up the Hipster Runoff set in the same era of the smooth-jazz format being completely decimated. Removing all the context from "Electric Feel"—the angry comments from the pool partiers, the tizzy that bloggers have gotten into, the remixes by people trying to hitch a wagon to their still-ascendant (?) star—it really does sound like it could nestle right in between "Piano In The Dark" and the extended remix of Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good." Is this the new, smooth sound of young America? And was it inevitable, what with all the coke out there?
To be fair, MGMT does categorize themselves as "easy listening" on their MySpace page, so maybe they're just waiting for all the smooth-jazz stations in the country to fade away, so they can franchise their sound into a low-power-FM empire that fills the need currently being experienced by many a car-service driver. Weirder things have happened, right?
MGMT- Electric Feel [Dailymotion]
Comments
Oh God. Those animatronic bears are back.
Oh this track was MY SHIT when I first got my hands on this album. This is due mostly to the fact that I love me some Scissor Sisters and other bands of that ilk, and that sound is what comes to mind whenever I press play on this track. Though I still love this song, I have since moved on to Kids. That is now my "NEW HOTNESS".
I still hate everything Oracular Spectacular stands for, but their earlier work has gotten better and better with time for me. Fuck Columbia Records and Dave Fridmann for turning a coulda-been-great band into a never-will-be-great band.
@Nunya B: I don't really know this band, but I have to say that a lot of promising bands started getting really boring the moment they hooked up with Fridmann: Sparklehorse, Lake Trout, Apollo Sunshine, etc.
I slept on this too. I had no idea MGMT were Hobbits whose songs sound like a third string Chaka Khan single. Now I kind of like them.
There was a post where you asked us to name bands that we'd like if we never had to look at them...MGMT was what I had mentioned, based solely on this video. Seriously, this video is disgusting.
Who cares what THIS song sounds like? It'd be kind of cool if they really were trying to go all yacht-rock but their album is basically their lame attempts at different genres, one after another.
"Removing all the context from "Electric Feel"-the angry comments from the pool partiers, the tizzy that bloggers have gotten into, the remixes by people trying to hitch a wagon to their still-ascendant (?) star-it really does sound like it could nestle right in between "Piano In The Dark" and the extended remix of Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good."
So you're saying it sucks then, right?
@MayhemintheHood: I love both those songs.
it really does sound like it could nestle right in between "Piano In The Dark" and the extended remix of Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good."
Sorta, but I'd get even more specific -- I get a big 1981 vibe from "Electric Feel," which is why I love it. To me, it sounds like it could fit between H&O's "I Can't Go for That" and George Benson's "Give Me the Night."
Also, wouldn't you say the hipster version of this sound is simply making a comeback, a decade after Air? I mean, there's some easy-listening left-of-the-dial shit, even if it takes its inspiration more from 1971 Paris than 1981 Philly.
Do MGMT videos have to be so self-aware and mocking of the past? Does everything about this time we live in have to be referential and mocking of the past? Gah.
Wow, these guys put The Rock-afire Explosion from Showbiz Pizza Place in their video? Why is that not the focal point of this post or any of the comments so far?
@Maura Johnston: I see. Well, like I was saying, THIS song was the only thing I kind of liked from MGMT, but then I saw the video. I seriously couldn't like this song anymore after I saw the vid.
Smooth jazz? Enh. I guess it's... kinda balearic? I dunno.
(I will use this opportunity to mention that I wish I had a MP3 blog so I could post the Alan Parsons Project's "Mammagamma" without attribution and trick Silverlake kids into thinking it was a rare Lindstrom track.)
(DISCLAIMER: I like Lindstrom. And some Alan Parsons Project. Some.)
@natepatrin: can you define 'balearic'? it's one of those music writer words of which i can never quite divine the meaning.
I'd say this song in particular is more of an easy listening disco sort of thing than smooth jazz (can't speak for their other material because...I don't know it). It's just played way too straight, even the smooth variety usually has a little bit of swing to it.
The only thing that reminds me of smooth jazz here is the keyboard tone. Sweet dulcet sounds of mall-going Muzak circa 1992. Reminds me of bugging my mom to get me McDonalds in the food court.
This song is catchy as all fuck. On the whole they're lazy hippies as all get-out, and pitifully boring as a live act, but this song - this song - it's my favorite.
@Maura Johnston: I want to call it "codeine yacht R&B house", if that makes any sense, though that's kind of reductive.
@Chris Molanphy: Dude, "Give Me The Night" was such an accurate touchstone for this. Nice.
To everyone who hates the video: I am sorry you're old. I know I'll be old soon, and I'm not excited. But, in the meantime YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, MAAAAN.
I like most of the MGMT album, and this song too (though it's not my favorite - "Kids" and "Time to Pretend" are both better, among others). But this song is really screaming for a dance craze, isn't it? The first time I heard it I thought these guys needed to get some kind of Hustle/Macarena on. The Electric Feel! They'd be on VH1's "I Love 2008" in a heartbeat.
@DavidWatts: Ahhh, I knew when I turned 27 recently that some things would come with my old age. I guess not liking this video is the first residual effect of the latest birthday.
Have you ever seen the movie Hook? I thought it was kind of lame when I saw it as a kid, so no wonder i'm not impressed at all by this shotty remake. I suppose there is a chance that this is all supposed to be making fun of themselves, in which case I can dig it. But I think they're serious.
Reminds me of Cube Squared, a fictional band from the movie Tapeheads, for some reason.
I also heard it for the first time over the weekend. for some reason, the "electric eel/electric feel" rhyme really annoys me.
it also makes me think of har mar superstar, who it really may not sound like at all, but makes me think of him, which is horrible
@Al Shipley: That guy is nuts. The record, for all of its faults, SOUNDS great. And that Sparklehorse record was boring?!
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