Here We Go Magic’s 2010 performance at the Glastonbury Music Festival was the kind of show that bands dread—an early-morning set for a sparse, largely uninterested audience—but it proved to be fateful. As Here We Go Magic leader Luke Temple tells the story, the only two crowd members who paid the band any real attention that morning turned out to be Thom Yorke and longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, who was so smitten with the group he began seeking out its subsequent shows, eventually offering to produce its third album. Of course Here We Go Magic accepted. Working with one of music’s most elite producers is the kind of opportunity that no mid-level indie-rock band would turn down, and the Godrich connection will almost certainly juice sales of A Different Ship. But the album itself is such a listless, mannered affair that Here We Go Magic might have done better to politely decline. It’s ironic that Godrich fell for the band after witnessing it onstage, since the record he made with Here We Go Magic is a strict studio creation with none of the punch or spontaneity of a great live show.
