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New York's singer-songwriter and banjoist Luke Temple started his career in
the psychedelic-baroque pop-folk vein of
Sufjan Stevens, although equipped with
a Paul Simon-esque falsetto:
Hold a Match for a Gasoline World (2005), with Make Right with You,
and Snowbeast (2007), with Saturday People.
Here We Go Magic (2009) was billed as a self-standing project under
that moniker, and included
the tribal and psychedelic Fangela (that seems to hail from the
stoned Sixties),
the exotic Only Pieces and the intricate Tunnelvision,
although the Brian Eno-esque
surreal (and dissonant) instrumentals almost stole the show.
Once it became a real band's project,
Here We Go Magic's second album
Pigeons (2010)
failed to capitalize on their most eccentric and original ideas. The album
actually sounds like just an overblown vehicle for the admittedly cute single
Collector, a frenzied propulsive rhythm a` la
Neu and
Feelies
coupled with Yes-like vocals.
Once the
danceable
(Hibernation)
and catchy
(Bottom Feeder)
ditties are consumed, the rest sounds like outtakes or amateurishly improvised
new tunes for the sake of looking innovative, with none of the deviant
intelligence of the previous album's instrumentals.
Like on the first album, what truly stands out is the meticulous arrangements (especially of the rhythmic parts).
The six-song The January EP (2011) was a corollary to the album, and
one wonders why Tulip and especially Song in Three were not
included in the album in the first place.
Luke Temple's solo album Don't Act Like You Don't Care (2011), mostly
recorded two years before being released, sounds like what it was: an
unfinished project of mediocre material that needed major revisions and
editing.
Here We Go Magic's
A Different Ship (Secretly Canadian, 2012), produced by Nigel Godrich,
suffered from a problem of sound overload: the creative arrangements of the
previous albums took on a life of their own, turning into a vanity show
instead of genre cross-pollination.
The trancey boogie Make Up Your Mind,
the Talking Heads-ian shuffle I Believe in Action,
and the dreamy R.E.M.-ish ballad How Do I Know
would have made a good three-song EP.
Here We Go Magic had transformed from the Simon & Garfunkels
of their generation into Radiohead wannabes.
Here We Go Magic's keyboardist Kristina Lieberson launched her project Teen with
In Limbo (Carpark, 2012).
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