“Electric Feel” by MGMT

An indie-dance gem that became a phenomenon.

It’s the end of the week, and I want to send everyone off into the weekend with the best vibes possible. That’s why the Daily Music Picks newsletter features a weekly segment called Fun Song Fridays! Regardless of era, genre, or style, the criterion is simple: it must deliver the joy and excitement we all need in our lives.

You can access the entire Fun Song Fridays archive here. A playlist featuring the songs covered with this segment is coming soon!

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Hello! 😊👋

Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!

Today’s music pick is an indie-dance gem that became a late-2000s phenomenon.

Genre: Alternative, Electronic

Label: BMG

Release Date: June 23, 2008

Vibe: ✨

Twerking in the middle of a rainforest? Rubbing psychedelic moon juice all over your skin? Trusting a man in a gorilla suit to play synth in your backing band?

These visuals are an amuse-bouche for the acid trip of a music video that accompanied “Electric Feel.” Nominated for Best Art Direction at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards (remember those?), the ecstatic four-minute spectacle was described by Pitchfork as “a krazy, kandy-kolored, loud neon thingamajig,” an apt enough description for the song too. Distorted drums, glittering keyboards, and warped vocals are run through compressors, delay machines, and various digital effects to create MGMT’s exuberant signature sound.

The second single off 2007’s Oracular Spectacular, “Electric Feel,” helped MGMT carve out their niche as indie-dance darlings as the 21st century’s first decade came to a close. It was a massive hit in Australia (Triple J named it the second-hottest song of 2008) and the UK (NME ranked it as the No. 5 single that year), followed by a delayed underground swell of support into the US. In retrospect, it’s somewhat astonishing that such an oddball of a track gained that much traction. The bulk of the song is in an off-kilter 6/4 time signature, while the lyrics are … about a woman in the Amazon with “voltage running through her skin.” But, similar to LCD Soundsystem’s best work a few years later, it doesn’t matter. A great time is a great time, after all.

Bonus points if, like me, you walked around your house the rest of the day and annoyed everyone in sight by shouting, “Ooh, girl!” without warning.

👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈