The Listomania I make the lists, you shoot them down. Quid Pro Quo.

104. MGMT – Electric Feel

You know that one friend of yours that, at first glance, looks like a total douche? If you were meeting them for the first time again out at a bar or at a mutual friend's place you would totally avoid them Twilight fans based on something like their gelled hair or sparkly purse or some shit? Might be a great person, a stand up guy, a really close friend, you might love this person. But this does NOT excuse the fact that they outwardly express themselves as total tools. They could be the coolest person in a room, down to earth and fun, but because they choose to be look and act likes douches, well, most people classify them that way. And that's pretty much how I feel about MGMT. The way they look, act, sound in interviews, the shit that comes out of their mouths, the fashions they inspire and their horribly vapid fanbase. It makes me want to hit them in the faces with a snow shovel a la the creepy guy who eventually turns out to love church or something in Home Alone. But just like that friend, there's a lot more under the polo shirt or thick glasses or sideways ponytail, and with MGMT, there are redeemingly kick ass songs. Three of them.

Their 2008 album Oracular Spectacular is good, but super, super uneven. Some of the tracks are even pretty unlistenable. But the boys (yes, MGMT is actually only two people on album, and yes, since I am regrettably older than them I can call them boys) crafted 3.5 songs that are perfect singles, all different but with similar sounds and styles and panache. "Kids" has blown up on the radio. "Time to Pretend" garnered them an indie following, coming out as the first single in late 2007 and building up excitement for their debut. "Weekend Wars" is, well, the .5. But none of the other singles can hold a candle to the audio time-travel space-exploration groove of "Electric Feel."

Plus, when is the last time you loved a song written in 6/4 time? Count it out, you'll see. With a stuttering synth line and elephant-plod bass pluck, chicken-scratch guitar licks and speaker-alternating tambo-jangle (count those dashes - new record) MGMT opens up a bizarre strut down the sidewalk of the kitschiest bits of your iTunes, through disco and 90's electronic and early 70's funk. When Andrew starts singing, well, more like cooing, in a deeply reverbed falsetto, shit turns on. The synth lines get all giant and regal, sweeping through the chorus like a tornado laying waste to the midwest, or a tsunami crossing over land. Waves of electronics wash over classic white-boy funk lines toward the climax, the only true climax that comes in any of MGMT's songs, the best moment of music they've produced. The high point of their career thus far comes at 3:15, "Do what you feel now/Electric feel now." Everything goes up in a haze, the chorus crashes the coke-party, keytars woosh and whir through the background as the band flexes it's aural muscle, creating walls of ambience and noise over a fading cry of voices. Live, they don't do the fade and the song plays out. I like this better. Just gives a taste of what's to come, like the end of "Umbrella." Then your douchey polo-wearing friend walks away to hit on some poor unsuspecting girl down the hall. But hey, he's a good guy.

I'm going to take a couple days off, because apparently you are all taking a couple days off too (I know, no one is at work this week) but I will be back to posting on Saturday, January 2nd. And then Monday - we get to the Top 100.