Here We Go Magic: January EP

Here We Go Magic
January EP
Secretly Canadian
2011-05-10

Here We Go Magic continues to leaven its noise bread with pop yeast on its new January EP. The hypnotic vocals and blanket-like tinklings of Here We Go Magic and Pigeons are still here, but they’re balanced with stronger melodies and more discrete arrangements. Perhaps realizing that our ears and stereos can only take so much musical ecstacy in the higher registers, singer, songwriter and bona fide auteur Luke Temple reigns his expressionistic tendencies in on tracks like “Tulip” and “Hands in the Sky”, adding a note of almost Beatles-like purity to his otherwise messy aesthetic. Of course, for those aching for a good old fashioned numb-out, there’s “Hollywood”, a delicate mesh of plucked strings, falsetto whimpering and unidentifiable rustling. For the most part, though, Here We Go Magic congeals its ambient gushing into manageable streams, and January is prettier, catchier, and more intelligible as a result — less magical, perhaps, but more musical.

RATING 7 / 10