MGMT – Electric Feel (Oracular Spectacular, 2007)

The haunting upper synth line at the beginning of this track is what it’s all about – and it’s woven amongst the no-nonsense drums and bassline, a declarative establishing first few bars, easily sliding into the first verse:

All along the western front
People line up to receive
She got the power in her hand
To shock you like you won’t believe

It’s epic sounding, and has enough funk/disco to make you think of disco balls, fog machines, flashing floor tiles, and brooding bass players. The apex of the song at 3:15, “Do what you feel now, electric feel now!” is almost a relief, as if you’ve been waiting all that time for a storm, and the rain has finally broken – just in time for the song to fade out.

The lyrics are about a girl, obviously, one so good that she’s like electricity. It’s not ground-breaking, but the words fit perfectly:

All along the eastern shore
Put your circuits in the sea
This is what the world is for
Making electricity
You can feel it in your mind
Oh, you can do it all the time
Plug it in and change the world
You are my electric girl

The mention of the western front and the eastern short, the ocean, the amazon, all of it makes the song seem somehow bigger and more encompassing, as if everyone were dancing in a blissfull trance, turned on by the electric feel.

edit: I just realized that the distinctive open synthline and chorus are in 6/8 time, while the verses and rest of the song are 4/4. Crazy! It’s the percussion in the intro that tipped me off – the stereotypical drum pattern would be ‘kick – snare – kick – snare’ in a 4/4 measure, but instead we get ‘kick – snare – kick kick – snare snare’, which fits perfectly into 6/8. I wonder if that’s part of the appeal?