The Naked and Famous

One Liner: New Zealand electronic indie pop I thought was MGMT

Poster Position: 7

Thoughts:   I thought this band was MGMT forever.  You've heard their hit on the radio, but over the years, I always just thought this was another track from MGMT.  I first actually listened to them while looking at predictions for this year's ACL, because they were picked as one of the big bands for the Auckland City Limits.  However, I predicted they wouldn't be here, mainly because their last album was in 2013, and from looking at Spotify numbers, it wasn't nearly as popular as their 2010 debut album.  Wrong one for me, as here they are, somehow on the 7th line of the poster.

I won't say I care for this music all that much.  A little Passion Pit, a little MGMT, a little bit of annoying sameness between the songs.  The big hit you've heard before is "Young Blood," which racked up 70.2 million streams on Spotify.

Synths and drum machines and vaguely whiny, but it still gets me bobbing my head along with the tune.  I guess I get it.  Their second most popular track ("Punching in a Dream") has 41.7 million streams on Spotify, and a very similar sound.  Instead of bringing you that one to sample, here is the most popular track off of their most recent album, 2013's In Rolling Waves, "Hearts Like Ours," which has 15.3 streams.

I like that one better, sounds a bit more like Chvrches to me now.  A little guitar forward, less whiny sounding.  But after bouncing along through both of their albums, I still don't think I'd go see them, still not my thing.