MGMT – Kids

Oracular Spectacular, 2008: synth hook, Sarkozy lawsuit

MGMT released Kids on 13 October 2008 as the third single from Oracular Spectacular, after Time to Pretend and Electric Feel. Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser wrote it; Dave Fridmann produced the album version at Tarbox Road in 2007. Earlier takes sat on the We (Don’t) Care and Time to Pretend EPs, with student performances dating to Wesleyan around 2003. Columbia wanted the familiar songs on the debut; the duo reworked them with heavier synth crunch and a clearer five-minute arc.

The song opens with radio chatter and child voices, then a bright synth figure and a vocal that asks someone to control themselves and take only what they need. The chorus line about a family of trees wanting to be haunted is plain and strange at once. Fridmann’s mix keeps the synths loud and the drums simple so the hook carries on festival PAs. Live, it often closed sets because the crowd already knew every syllable.

Chart-wise, Kids reached number 1 in Norway on downloads, number 9 in Ireland, number 16 in the UK, and number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100, with a stronger showing on US rock charts. NME named it the best single of 2008. Ray Tintori’s official video (June 2009) follows a toddler menaced by monsters his mother cannot see; Joanna Newsom appears as the mother. A separate USC student fan video had already gone viral in 2008 and drew the makers onto the Electric Feel shoot. In 2009 MGMT sued Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party for using the song without a proper licence while pushing anti-piracy politics; the settlement was about €30,000.