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Track Listings
| 1. Phone |
| 2. Candy |
| 3. Superball |
| 4. Hideout |
| 5. Summer |
| 6. Hey Boy |
| 7. Good To Me |
| 8. Skateland |
| 9. Sailin |
| 10. Little Red |
| 11. Radio |
| 12. Cry With Me Baby |
Product Description
Review
If Brian Wilson received royalty payments every time a band listed The Beach Boys as an influence, he would probably be up there with Bill Gates on the global rich list. But while the sound of this Tennessee five-piece is hardly shimmering with originality, few have imitated those sunny falsettos and sweet’n’sad melodies quite so irresistibly.
Initially Magic Kids echo the wide-eyed, surf-soaked bliss of Wilson & co’s early 60s output, but once plunged into this throwback world it’s worth noticing your surroundings. Phone is short, sweet and innocent, but its psychedelic trills and Tijuana brass hint at something more fascinating afoot, then Candy’s ghostly girl group backing vocals lend it an extra atmospheric allure. Increasingly, you realise Magic Kids’ pop vision is way more widescreen than you initially anticipated.
Not only do these compositions brim with moreish pop hooks and sumptuous melodies, but they are dressed in Jack Nitzsche-style orchestral finery – everything from kettle drums to plucked violins and honking tubas – that could stir the hardest of hearts. Such film score dynamics turn a likeable enough collection of day-glo retro pop ditties into something truly beguiling.
Superball could have been a cutesy toytown indie-pop confection, but coupled with fluttering, joyous brass and ebullient synth it becomes something richer and stranger, as if Sufjan Stevens was wired to the armpits on Sunny D. Hey Boy, complete with schoolgirl choir, could be the theme from a great lost teen musical, while anyone dismissing them as a Beach Boys tribute act should listen more closely to the scattershot chord changes and spiralling melodies of Skateland and Little Red Radio, which throw up more than a sniff of The Flaming Lips’ sun-blushed strangeness. Elsewhere, the echoes of Scott Walker’s creamy melodrama on Hideout are surely no accident.
Besides all that, what’s not to like about a band that rhymes “Cruise around the Isle of Man” with “Workin’ on my tan”? Now, just keep away from that sandpit, chaps, and global stardom is surely yours for the taking.
--Johnny SharpFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Two new albums have appeared which present a very interesting choice for Beach Boys fans. Firstly we have Brian Wilson one of the greatest living composers on the planet doing rather unremarkable things to songs by George Gershwin. Then we have the Magic Kids from land locked Tennessee, home to country and all things "Grand ole opry", and yet it is our country chums who sound like they have just had just caught a wave with Jan and Dean and bought a scratched vinyl version of the Beach Boys debut "Surfin Safari" from which they have liberally stolen songs. Indeed while I would jump to almost certain death from a speeding train for Mr Wilson should he ever request such a feat, its the wonderful Magic Kids who should be the beneficiary of your hard earned cash since "Memphis" is utterly disposal but totally irresistible.
"Whats new" I hear you cry, do we really need another bunch of Beach Boys obsessed 20 year olds to add to Best Coast. Wavves, The Freelance Whales, the Dum Dum Girls et al? The honest answer is probably not but when they record songs as melodiously brilliant as the bubblegum surf pop of "Hey Boy" with its huge Shirelles like girl backing you can just about forgive them anything and in addition offer them your daughters hand in marriage. Listen on Spotify and fall in love. Similarly opener "Phone" is pure Beach Boys with Wilson Brothers harmonies and is as infectious as H5N1 avian flu. "Candy" has a sad, regretful melody and adds a trumpet to an excellent building conclusion. "Superball" is plain stupid and throwaway and like all great pop music you will love it to infinity and beyond. Obviously the band had to include a song called "Summer" and clocking at 3.52 minutes it is almost the Magic Kids equivalent of a prog rock opera. Ornate orchestration is this songs prime feature and we can all endorse lead singer Bennett Foster's wish that the months of June, July and August should be about little more than to "disappear in the arms/ Of college girls set free". In songs that follow such as "Sailin" and "Cry with me baby" I dare you to try not be swept up with all the youthful enthusiasm since there is something as fresh as "Shake'n'Vac" about all this despite the debts of honour.
God knows where this band goes next since there is probably only one throw of the dice in producing such a "magpie orientated" album of blissed out pre 1964 Beach Boys pure pop, although I suppose they could try to rewrite "Pet Sounds" or perhaps set their sights on another group from Memphis itself. A new Big Star album; now that would be worth a listen.
"Whats new" I hear you cry, do we really need another bunch of Beach Boys obsessed 20 year olds to add to Best Coast. Wavves, The Freelance Whales, the Dum Dum Girls et al? The honest answer is probably not but when they record songs as melodiously brilliant as the bubblegum surf pop of "Hey Boy" with its huge Shirelles like girl backing you can just about forgive them anything and in addition offer them your daughters hand in marriage. Listen on Spotify and fall in love. Similarly opener "Phone" is pure Beach Boys with Wilson Brothers harmonies and is as infectious as H5N1 avian flu. "Candy" has a sad, regretful melody and adds a trumpet to an excellent building conclusion. "Superball" is plain stupid and throwaway and like all great pop music you will love it to infinity and beyond. Obviously the band had to include a song called "Summer" and clocking at 3.52 minutes it is almost the Magic Kids equivalent of a prog rock opera. Ornate orchestration is this songs prime feature and we can all endorse lead singer Bennett Foster's wish that the months of June, July and August should be about little more than to "disappear in the arms/ Of college girls set free". In songs that follow such as "Sailin" and "Cry with me baby" I dare you to try not be swept up with all the youthful enthusiasm since there is something as fresh as "Shake'n'Vac" about all this despite the debts of honour.
God knows where this band goes next since there is probably only one throw of the dice in producing such a "magpie orientated" album of blissed out pre 1964 Beach Boys pure pop, although I suppose they could try to rewrite "Pet Sounds" or perhaps set their sights on another group from Memphis itself. A new Big Star album; now that would be worth a listen.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Magic Kids - Produce the new Brian Wilson album
15 Sep 2010
Format:Audio CD
Two new albums have appeared which present a very interesting choice for Beach Boys fans. Firstly we have Brian Wilson one of the greatest living composers on the planet doing rather unremarkable things to songs by George Gershwin. Then we have the Magic Kids from land locked Tennessee, home to country and all things "Grand ole opry", and yet it is our country chums who sound like they have just had just caught a wave with Jan and Dean and bought a scratched vinyl version of the Beach Boys debut "Surfin Safari" from which they have liberally stolen songs. Indeed while I would jump to almost certain death from a speeding train for Mr Wilson should he ever request such a feat, its the wonderful Magic Kids who should be the beneficiary of your hard earned cash since "Memphis" is utterly disposal but totally irresistible.
"Whats new" I hear you cry, do we really need another bunch of Beach Boys obsessed 20 year olds to add to Best Coast. Wavves, The Freelance Whales, the Dum Dum Girls et al? The honest answer is probably not but when they record songs as melodiously brilliant as the bubblegum surf pop of "Hey Boy" with its huge Shirelles like girl backing you can just about forgive them anything and in addition offer them your daughters hand in marriage. Listen on Spotify and fall in love. Similarly opener "Phone" is pure Beach Boys with Wilson Brothers harmonies and is as infectious as H5N1 avian flu. "Candy" has a sad, regretful melody and adds a trumpet to an excellent building conclusion. "Superball" is plain stupid and throwaway and like all great pop music you will love it to infinity and beyond. Obviously the band had to include a song called "Summer" and clocking at 3.52 minutes it is almost the Magic Kids equivalent of a prog rock opera. Ornate orchestration is this songs prime feature and we can all endorse lead singer Bennett Foster's wish that the months of June, July and August should be about little more than to "disappear in the arms/ Of college girls set free". In songs that follow such as "Sailin" and "Cry with me baby" I dare you to try not be swept up with all the youthful enthusiasm since there is something as fresh as "Shake'n'Vac" about all this despite the debts of honour.
God knows where this band goes next since there is probably only one throw of the dice in producing such a "magpie orientated" album of blissed out pre 1964 Beach Boys pure pop, although I suppose they could try to rewrite "Pet Sounds" or perhaps set their sights on another group from Memphis itself. A new Big Star album; now that would be worth a listen.
"Whats new" I hear you cry, do we really need another bunch of Beach Boys obsessed 20 year olds to add to Best Coast. Wavves, The Freelance Whales, the Dum Dum Girls et al? The honest answer is probably not but when they record songs as melodiously brilliant as the bubblegum surf pop of "Hey Boy" with its huge Shirelles like girl backing you can just about forgive them anything and in addition offer them your daughters hand in marriage. Listen on Spotify and fall in love. Similarly opener "Phone" is pure Beach Boys with Wilson Brothers harmonies and is as infectious as H5N1 avian flu. "Candy" has a sad, regretful melody and adds a trumpet to an excellent building conclusion. "Superball" is plain stupid and throwaway and like all great pop music you will love it to infinity and beyond. Obviously the band had to include a song called "Summer" and clocking at 3.52 minutes it is almost the Magic Kids equivalent of a prog rock opera. Ornate orchestration is this songs prime feature and we can all endorse lead singer Bennett Foster's wish that the months of June, July and August should be about little more than to "disappear in the arms/ Of college girls set free". In songs that follow such as "Sailin" and "Cry with me baby" I dare you to try not be swept up with all the youthful enthusiasm since there is something as fresh as "Shake'n'Vac" about all this despite the debts of honour.
God knows where this band goes next since there is probably only one throw of the dice in producing such a "magpie orientated" album of blissed out pre 1964 Beach Boys pure pop, although I suppose they could try to rewrite "Pet Sounds" or perhaps set their sights on another group from Memphis itself. A new Big Star album; now that would be worth a listen.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Shimmery Pure Pop Bliss
25 Aug 2010
Format:Audio CD
If you loved the Beach Boys, Cowsills, and other great sun-drenched pop bands of the 60s, you will love The Magic Kids. It's hard to think of a 60s pop influence that doesn't make an appearance somewhere on this endearing CD. The songs and sounds are comfortingly familiar, while still being inventive and original. "Hey Boy" is one of the most infectious pop tunes to come along in a while. Who says pop is dead? The Magic Kids put a bit of magic back in modern music.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Bring pop bubbles into indie
11 Jan 2011
Format:Audio CD
Many indie bands these days look back into the 60's for their melodies and harmonies, yet never becoming too poppy for the serious music fan with a working knowledge of 60's westcoast pop. Even though they're from TN, Magic Kids have to be included into the list of throwback bands with a '10 sound. It's short and crisp and a great debut.
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