MGMT

I stopped listening to the radio a couple of years ago when i got an iPod and was given the option to listen only to music i enjoy, and i do not watch MTV or VH1 or any of the other television-based music channels out there (if there are any more). My recent music sources would've been fairly well limited to new releases from bands i already like if it wasn't for Ryan. He's the one who springs music i've never heard before on me.

A few months ago he im'd me this video for a song called Electric Feel. The video itself was fun to watch, but the song was absolutely atrocious. He said he didn't like it much the first time he heard it either, so i gave it a few more listens to see if it'd grow on me. It failed to do so. I don't know why, but it just sounded cheesy as hell to me. He, on the other hand, liked it a lot, and i received more exposure to it when he was over at my house for the weekends. I still didn't like it any better for the extra exposure. I believe he did tell me that MGMT sang it, but it was information i did not retain.

A few weeks ago he played another song by them for me called The Handshake. It was kind of lucky that i didn't remember it was the same Electric Feel people as i tend to reject music by artists whose songs i've heard before and dislike (not one of my better personality traits, but there it is anyway). I was in love with The Handshake before they even started to sing, and after he played it he sent it to me along with pretty much the rest of the CD.

I must say, my first impression of this band was WAY off. It's been a very long time since i heard a band that made me feel like a teenager again, but this one definitely does. By making me feel like a teenager, i mean i can sit and listen to this CD (repeatedly) while doing nothing else and be entertained. It gives me that sense of undefined longing/anticipation that i remember so well from my early teens. . . that feeling that something was going to happen, though i couldn't say what it was, only i desperately wanted it to.

The Handshake remains my favourite for its dreamy, underwater-like qualities. It makes me feel like i'm sinking away underneath gentle effervescent waves when i close my eyes. Its climax (for me) comes at the end, and it pours goosebumps down my spine and arms when it does.

Time To Pretend (once i got past the annoying hook at the beginning) is a close second. It brings a delicious feeling of melancholy resignation over how life should be vs the way it really is.

The rest of the CD doesn't bring about any particular poignant emotion in me. It's milder, but still stirring and complex. I love this band.