Here We Go Magic

Here We Go Magic boasts an underwater analog sound so exuberant and open that it glides from ambient instrumentals to Afro-pop inflections without getting bogged down in the least. Folk freaks and synth junkies will hear a lot to like, and Luke Temple’s crystalline, angelic voice—called one of the most beautiful voices in pop music by no less than Sufjan Stevens—ribbons through carefully layered additive sequences. The band has been blowing up of late, helped in no small part by opening dates for Grizzly Bear and The Walkmen, as well as the gentle, instantly familiar melodies of songs like “Fangela.” The group’s most recent release, A Different Ship, is a formal, self-consciously respectable album. Though it’s not heartbreaking, between the affected whimper in Temple’s voice and the big-theme bent in his songwriting, it sure tries its damndest.

Updated 05/09/2012