MGMT Archives - Cover Me

Tkay Maidza Covers MGMT’s “Electric Feel” for Spotify

Posted by Aleah Fitzwater at 12:00 pm No Responses »

Sep 302024

What happens when you take a psychedelic-rock tune from MGMT and make it sleeker, and poppier? Meet Tkay Maidza, the Los Angeles-based, Zimbabwe-born rapper and singer.

This alluring single/cover was created for Spotify Sessions. According to the artist, Tumblr was one of the first platforms to give her a voice. This is also where the artist happened to find the MGMT tune originally.

Fans are reeling over the release, given that Maidza hasn’t released a full album since 2016. The cover is, overall, vibing. The bassline is synthy, and true to the original, while the vocal delivery is sensual, empowering, and fresh. Something about the way the diction is in this one makes it far easier to understand than the original.

Here’s what she said about the release in her Instagram announcement:

Tumblr gave me a voice & shaped who I was in high school and I remember hearing this song on the coolest pages when I first discovered the internet! so I was beyond excited and honored to re-imagine this!

Listen to it now:

For more great MGMT covers, check out this link.

The Best Cover Songs of February 2023

Posted by Ray Padgett at 10:03 am No Responses »

Feb 282023

Adam Lambert – Getting Older (Billie Eilish cover)

On his new covers album High Drama, Adam Lambert didn’t pick one of the obvious Billie Eilish songs to cover (“Bad Guy,” “Everything I Wanted,” etc). He goes for relative deep cut “Getting Older,” off her 2021 album Happier Than Ever. Eilish’s original was fairly minimalist. Lambert doesn’t do “minimalist.” His “glam” version, as he describes it, makes the song sound like a much bigger hit than it was. Continue reading »

Cover Me Q&A: What’s your favorite cover performed by a child?

Posted by Staff at 12:00 pm 1 Response »

Feb 152023

Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.

Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).

Today’s question: What’s your favorite cover performed by a child?
Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of October

Posted by Ray Padgett at 9:00 am No Responses »

Nov 012021

Andrew VanWyngarden – Dance Monkey (Tones and I cover)

One of the biggest one-hit wonders of the last few years, pop singer Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” emerged out of seeming nowhere to top charts across the world last year. In her home country of Australia, it is the longest chart-topper ever, breaking a record held by Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”! Despite its ubiquity, however, major covers have been sparse (perhaps because many people find the song, you know, annoying). Never one to shy away from putting off his audience, though, MGMT frontman Andrew VanWyngarden gave it a trippy psychedelic-folk cover as part of a radio station fundraising challenge. Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of February 2021

Posted by Ray Padgett at 9:00 am 2 Responses »

Mar 012021

Black Country, New Road – Time to Pretend (MGMT cover)

If you’re expecting the “Time to Pretend” you knew and loved a decade ago, think again. UK post-punkers Black Country, New Road, one of the buzziest bands of the new year, deconstruct the song entirely. It starts pretty sane, then gradually veers off the tracks into chaos. By the end there’s a free-jazz sax solo leading a wall of noise only barely identifiable as this, or any, song. Continue reading »

Still Woozy Delivers Funky Cover of MGMT’s “Electric Feel”

Posted by Ally McAlpine at 9:00 am No Responses »

Feb 112021

Still Woozy’s new take on MGMT’s “Electric Feel” may not shock you like an electric eel, but it will beckon you with its funky melody and warm embrace. Rather than sliding in on an explosive opening note, the familiar tune arrives subtly on the strings of an acoustic guitar. Harmony is added through a delicate piano adding mostly to the ambiance and feel of the song. The bassline and drums cannonball into the tune filling out the instrumental set. “Electric Feel” pulses forward infectiously, and Still Woozy smooths out some of the jauntiness of the song and tightens some of the pauses in vocals. Continue reading »