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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
After a five-year absence, Apples in Stereo have returned with a sprawling and lush masterpiece. Their founding principle of the DIY approach to recording has remained in place, but the nearly 15 years of technological progress has made such ways of working yield significantly more robust sounds. Robert Schneider's songs have always harked back to the pop artistry of Brian Wilson and Jeff Lynne, as well as such near contemporaries as Pavement. New Magnetic Wonder offers a more lush sweep of sound. It's varied, dazzling, and full of surprises. There's the keyboard-based pop of "Same Old Drag," the hypnotic muscle of "Sunndal Song" (sung by drummer Hilarie Sidney, who's recently departed to work with her own band), and the sprawling, four-part "Beautiful Machine." Depending on who's listening and what song they're hearing, there are many different ways to describe this band. Ultimately, they gently demand that you take them on their own terms, rewarding handsomely all those who make the glorious plunge. --David Greenberger
Review
After a five-year lay-off, Robert Schneider, a man for whom mathematics and music seem to hold equal fascination, and his cohorts has returned with something that will both confound and delight fans. It's an album that retains the love of 60s and 70s classic pop while eschewing the more lo-fi or experimental tropes of their Elephant 6 label origins in favour of whackiness and fun. Perplexing and paradoxical as this may sound on paper, it's an equation that adds up.
Featuring a stellar cast of many of the band's compatriots from E6 like Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel, Schneider and co. have assembled a patchwork of sunshine pop, delicate instrumental filigree and pure oddness. The format seems to be to put as much into the production values as possible - lush harmonies, sweeping Mellotrons and chiming guitars - while making the lyrical content as lightweight and, well! as meaningless as possible.
On most tracks this works beautifully. And why wouldn't it? No one ever accused Brian Wilson and Tony Asher of profundity in their lyrics to Pet Sounds!Yet at times the deliberate banality can become a little too empty. Songs like 'Can You Feel It?' (which manages to be both shouty and twee all at once) and '7 Stars' virtually disappear under their throwaway guises, detracting from what are actually finely wrought little gems.
But as a whole the album is literally a trip. Like all psychedelic classics the fill tracks are both quaint and offset any lightweight tendencies by their sheer exuberance and a sense of coherence. It makes New Magnetic Wonder an album which can be enjoyed as a whole piece or can be sampled as tiny slices of FM-friendly pop rock. Schneider even makes room for his beloved numbers in the titles of ''Non Pythagorean Composition Pts 1 &3''! The only real bummer is that drummer/singer Hilary Sidney (whose ''Sundial Song'' and ''Sunday Sounds'' are two highlights) has departed the band in the interim.
But like the forbidden fruit, these Apples are tasty, fresh and filled with not-so-guilty pleasures! --Jerome Blakeney
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
How difficult is it to find an album like this nowadays? I'd nearly given up
This is the freshest album I've heard since Summerteeth nearly 8 years ago (maybe I should expand my musical tastes), and it borrows from its "throw everything in, including the kitchen sink" approach.
The tunes are immense, the "Energy" is infectious, and I haven't stopped smiling since I bought this record. Easily pleased? Definitely.
The band are playing the UK later this year, and I reckon they're going to be the hottest ticket of the summer. You heard it here first
This is the freshest album I've heard since Summerteeth nearly 8 years ago (maybe I should expand my musical tastes), and it borrows from its "throw everything in, including the kitchen sink" approach.
The tunes are immense, the "Energy" is infectious, and I haven't stopped smiling since I bought this record. Easily pleased? Definitely.
The band are playing the UK later this year, and I reckon they're going to be the hottest ticket of the summer. You heard it here first
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Apples in Stereo have been charming listeners for years with their psychedelic rock music. They're the most accessible of all the Elephant 6 bands, and one of the more talented ones.
But with "New Magnetic Wonder," this lovable band creates their best album yet -- tight pop melodies that play on their strengths, colourful music, and a sound that's just a little bit warped. It sprawls over two discs, yet never feels like they're overstuffing it.
It opens with a chiming little melody... and a muffled voice speaking through a vocorder, like a pop Darth Vader. Then the nimble guitar and drums kick in, blossoming into a fun, energetic pop tune. "Turn up your STER-E-O!"
That energy carries over into the songs that follow -- solid rockers ("you follow the skyway... you follow the streets and the cars/and the shadows and the stars!"), shimmering psychpop, bouncy rock'n'roll songs, sunny guitar pop, and lo-fi ramblers.
Then the Apples segue back into an even more polished second volume -- the shimmering "7 Stars," stompy rockers, blippy little music boxes, and effervescent pop melodies. It peaks with the four-part "Beautiful Machine," which soars up to the heavens like the sound of a thunderstorm being blown away.
This album is a bit different from other Apples in Stereo albums, with a more streamlined sound. Rob Schneider and Co. pepper the actual songs with little blippy, quirky interludes, reminiscent of artier projects. And they dabble in a more epic, expansive feeling than they had before, but fortunately that doesn't require the sacrifice of the retro-sixties vibe.
Most of the songs center on fast-driving guitar and drums, which make some wonderfully catchy melodies. But they're also draped in fuzz bass, piano moments, and waves of shimmering mellotron, shimmering distorted voice, quirky wavery electronica, and dozens of other instruments. I think I hear church bells somewhere in there.
Legendary Neutral Milk Hotelier Jeff Mangum even enters the album, to provide handclaps, drums, and something called a "cow object." I don't know what that is, to be honest.
Frontman Robert Schneider -- after a stint in the Marbles -- returns with his boyish vocals, crooning over the complex music about skyways, celestial objects, the idealism of friendship, and "Seven stars in the sky, in the sky/you're feeling sociable/silver stars in your eyes, in your eyes/you feel emotional... and you don't even know my name/and I know every constellation..."
"New Magnetic Wonder" takes this band onto a whole new musical level, and one that it will be hard for them to top. Absolutely stunning, and a great way to enter the new (musical) year.
But with "New Magnetic Wonder," this lovable band creates their best album yet -- tight pop melodies that play on their strengths, colourful music, and a sound that's just a little bit warped. It sprawls over two discs, yet never feels like they're overstuffing it.
It opens with a chiming little melody... and a muffled voice speaking through a vocorder, like a pop Darth Vader. Then the nimble guitar and drums kick in, blossoming into a fun, energetic pop tune. "Turn up your STER-E-O!"
That energy carries over into the songs that follow -- solid rockers ("you follow the skyway... you follow the streets and the cars/and the shadows and the stars!"), shimmering psychpop, bouncy rock'n'roll songs, sunny guitar pop, and lo-fi ramblers.
Then the Apples segue back into an even more polished second volume -- the shimmering "7 Stars," stompy rockers, blippy little music boxes, and effervescent pop melodies. It peaks with the four-part "Beautiful Machine," which soars up to the heavens like the sound of a thunderstorm being blown away.
This album is a bit different from other Apples in Stereo albums, with a more streamlined sound. Rob Schneider and Co. pepper the actual songs with little blippy, quirky interludes, reminiscent of artier projects. And they dabble in a more epic, expansive feeling than they had before, but fortunately that doesn't require the sacrifice of the retro-sixties vibe.
Most of the songs center on fast-driving guitar and drums, which make some wonderfully catchy melodies. But they're also draped in fuzz bass, piano moments, and waves of shimmering mellotron, shimmering distorted voice, quirky wavery electronica, and dozens of other instruments. I think I hear church bells somewhere in there.
Legendary Neutral Milk Hotelier Jeff Mangum even enters the album, to provide handclaps, drums, and something called a "cow object." I don't know what that is, to be honest.
Frontman Robert Schneider -- after a stint in the Marbles -- returns with his boyish vocals, crooning over the complex music about skyways, celestial objects, the idealism of friendship, and "Seven stars in the sky, in the sky/you're feeling sociable/silver stars in your eyes, in your eyes/you feel emotional... and you don't even know my name/and I know every constellation..."
"New Magnetic Wonder" takes this band onto a whole new musical level, and one that it will be hard for them to top. Absolutely stunning, and a great way to enter the new (musical) year.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is fantastic! Like the progeny of a blessed union between ELO and Grandaddy, with Brian Wilson and John Lennon skulking in the background contesting paternity. I first put it on whilst tucking into a meal of pasta and tomato sauce laced with chilli oil; rather than distracting me from my listening pleasure, this spicy dish only augmented the sizzling excitement blasting from the speakers. From the pumping opener 'Can You Feel It' to the epic 'Beautiful Machine', the quality never dips. And the clincher: half a minute into 'Sun is Out', on a grim, grey May evening, the sun suddenly came through my window. Wow! It's raining now, though...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The best Apples in Stereo album
What a find...and one of my favourite albums ever! Just a glorious mix of throw-away mini-tunes, electronica and genuinely draw-dropping melodic tunes :)
Published 18 days ago by onehappybunny
Endless RepeaT
A spectacularly superb slice of psychedelic pop. It's grown up ,it's infantile,it's got elements of jaw dropping grace. Read more
Published on 23 May 2010 by Nicholas Georgiou
Absolutely great
This is a really terrific album. I bought it 6 months ago on recommendations here and it proved not only instantly listenable but all this time later I still get one or two of the... Read more
Published on 7 April 2009 by Bruno Vincent
bouncy fun energetic rock
this is my 1st foray in to the world of the 'Apples' and im certainly glad i did.
yet again here is another unknown band producing increadibly good music that would... Read more
yet again here is another unknown band producing increadibly good music that would... Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2008 by Mr. D. Thompson
Truly the best guitar pop of 2007
After playing with my brothers band The Radiator Experts who played support to Dressy Bessy back in May of last year at Bunkers Hill, Nottingham i was having a chat with guitarist... Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2007 by P. Sharpe
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