“Electric Feel” by MGMT, Thursday, July 21, 2022

Technically speaking, The Great Gatsby is a satire of a wealthy society. But F. Scott Fitzgerald's third novel is often enjoyed as a time capsule to the Jazz Age, and the parts that Fitzgerald criticizes are what the reads indulge in. But Fitzgerald certainly isn't the only artist to have toed the line between criticism and indulgence. In 2002, two freshmen music majors, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, formed a band at Wesleyan University, this band would eventually be called The Management, and the band wrote several songs which they never took too seriously because they felt that their pop sound was secondary for their love of old psychedelic electronic music.

THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD IS FOR. The Management’s hipster approach to pop made the group famous on campus, and despite never caring for pop music, the group’s most catchy songs eventually caught the ear of Columbia Records. The band prepared their debut record Oracular Spectacular and shortened their name to MGMT. The opening track "Time to Pretend" paints the duo as arrivistes, bent on living the rock 'n' roll life style. This single was the irony of the band--ultimately what got them signed as a gateway for them to make the rest of the record. "Time to Pretend" and the band's follow up single, today's song "Electric Feel," and the band's third single "Kids" were the band's first pop songs and the only singles from the record. The rest of the record sounds much like b-sides and typical album tracks on a three-single record. It's a fun record with several songs sticking out as other potential singles, most notably the eighth track "Of Moons, Birds & Monsters." But instead of riding the wave to indie pop stardom, the band decided to embrace their indie roots and drop all pretensions by their sophomore record, Congratulations and with the band's third self-titled release, the band receded into obscurity. But then came Little Dark Age. 

 I WAS STANDING THERE WITH NOTHING ON. "Electric Feel" is a song about sex, drugs, and electricity. It's a fun club melody and the lyrics seem to be packed with symbolism. The song imagines being "taught how to swim" in the "Amazon" with the speaker and the woman at the "eastern shore" of the Amazon standing naked. Drugs, particularly Molly (MDMA), alter the narrator's state, creating a new reality for the song. The video furthers the experience of the "Electric Feel," showing the band looking like sexy rock stars dancing with barely-clad babes in a tropical setting. But the natural starts to blur as colors in the video heighten and animations appear. By the end of the video, the hallucinations seem to get less tasteful and more gratuitous, like early website animations. Overall, "Electric Feel" is a positive trip as is the entirety of the record. The band's middle works, not so much, and Little Dark Age is a bit of a freak out if it were a trip, but that record's somber title track is a reality check. Still, for a sweltering summer night, why not dip into the pool of "Electric Feel"? It's a shocking "Oh-ah!"

Music Video:

Middle 8 Documentary:

Read the lyrics on Genius.