12 January 2012
In fairness, there are parts of this Flo Rida hit I like. You’ve got its propulsive EDM-synth-pop energy with a twist of techno and Euro-house, plus that chorus vocal is bright and soulful. The thing is, those parts happen to be borrowed—or as the Irish Number Ones legal team prefer me to say, interpolated—from Avicii’s 2011 single ‘Levels’, which itself samples that vocal from the mighty Etta James’s 1962 track ‘Something’s Got A Hold On Me’. So, ‘Good Feeling’ is something of an early innovator in eco-friendly AI, given how avidly it recycled—interpolated, interpolated—other peoples’ content here.
Unsurprisingly, the parts of this Flo Rida hit I don’t like are the parts with Flo Rida. His rapping adheres to the Will.i.am-patented style of incessant, hectoring inanity: “Like you the one drinking what God sip / Dot com / Now I gotta work with your tongue” plus the bit about crabs in a bucket. The one line everyone remembers more favourably from this thing—“I’ll be the president one day”—is when he actually injects a bit of variety into his flow. Otherwise, ‘Good Feeling’ is Flo Rida contriving a Flo Rida hit off the hard work and momentum of a perfectly serviceable Avicii single.
