MAGIC NUMBERS - Magic Numbers

This album has the power to heal depression, loneliness, sadness. At the end of a day that's gone wrong (work, girlfriend, family, it doesn't matter), you can be sure that going home, lying down and putting on the Magic Numbers record will make you feel better right away. The musical recipe for this miracle medicine, the scourge of psychiatrists and lectures about the future, was born in America but took shape in England. It's the story of two pairs of young siblings: Romeo (lead vocals and lyrics, guitar, piano and banjo) and Michele Stodart (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), born in Trinidad but raised in New York; and Sean (drums) and Angela Gannon (vocals, melodica), who hail from the far more anonymous Acton, Massachusetts. Bearded, chubby, with a vaguely "nerdy" air about them, the four form a dorky, decidedly "anti-fashion" quartet: the meeting that would change their lives took place in the London suburb of Ealing, where the four happened to be traveling.

The shared musical tastes are there (the sixties vocal pop of Beach Boys, Mamas & Papas and Lovin' Spoonful, but also Neil Young, Gram Parsons, The Band, Todd Rundgren), and so are the determination and ambition.

In a very short space of time, the fledgling band, armed with a pop attitude and out-of-the-ordinary harmony vocals, got the chance to record a couple of singles, a deluxe appearance on the Push The Button" album by Chemical Brothers, and then a tour with Hal.

This self-titled debut album, praised and fussed over by critics the world over (from the English magazines "Mojo" and "Uncut" to American newspapers and the usually merciless webzine "PitchforkMedia") is the first, wonderful fruit of the collaboration between the Magic Siblings.

For the work of a band just out of the gate, there's an immediately striking cohesion and solidity across these twelve songs: there are (seemingly) no weak points, no hesitation, no lack of character. Quite the opposite. The identity of this "unisex" band lies precisely in looking to the past without ever getting bogged down in the quicksand of comparisons or stylistic copies (a rare and precious quality in times like these of dark-wave revivalism). The feeling you get is of a band that has come out of nowhere to redraw the coordinates of today's power pop, four heads and a fresh sound turning out a little melodic classic that will probably stand the test of time.

The album is split evenly into two halves: on one side, the radiant summer pop of electric guitars, handclaps and killer choruses; on the other, the melancholy of alt.country ballads worthy of the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris duets, lightly streaked with strings and keyboards. In the first "section", the Magic Numbers manage to blend the jingle-jangle of the Byrds with 50s doo-wop ("Mornings Eleven"; "Forever Lost"), painstakingly build ever-evolving pocket symphonies ("The Mule") worthy of the most seasoned jam band, and then carve out simple, instantly memorable guitar riffs ("Long Legs").

In the second half, the full extent of frontman Romeo Stodart's songwriting talent comes into the open, a midnight cowboy with his eyes perpetually fixed on the starry sky: his lovesick torments ("Wheels On Fire"; "Don't Give Up The Fight") are as genuine and relatable as those of so many of his peers, touching precisely because they're as light and vulnerable as the songs he writes. If we had to find a flaw, we'd look for it in the painstaking care lavished on the arrangements' structure, at times disorienting in their relentless pursuit of originality: a fitting example is "I See You, You See Me", with its romantic-ballad gait thrown off course by shifting tempos and harmonies.

But these are nonetheless just moments, fleeting instances of indecision.

"Magic Numbers" needs to be listened to and savoured at the right pace: only then can you fully appreciate its (many) details and subtleties, the perfect blend of joy and unease. If you enjoyed the latest Belle & Sebastian and Kings of Leon, the first Thrills album and the Polyphonic Spree, this is music made for you. An alchemy of magic numbers, a dose of rediscovered happiness to get through the harshness of another freezing winter.

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21/06/2010