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Redraw those best music of 2010 lists because Pigeons, the second album from Here We Go Magic, will be alighting somewhere near the top of them. Their self-titled debut was one of 2009's nicer surprises, more distinctive than bandleader Luke Temple's previous work under his own name, and Pigeons builds emphatically on that success. It's at once a work of larger ambition and greater focus than its predecessor, beginning brilliantly and continuing in the same manner for its entire length.
While Temple played every instrument on all but one of the tracks on Here We Go Magic, the fact that Pigeons is the work of a five-piece band is clearly discernible. Gone is the 4-track, field recording atmosphere of the first album, its mussed figures replaced with sharper, more penetrating lines. Rather than sterilising the sound, however, this clarity means that when these chamber pop pieces extend themselves into raga-like jams, as they often do, the shift from brevity and precision into longer, freer forms is all the more powerful, like a pinpoint of light widening into an enveloping ball of blinding heat.
There's a spirit of ecstatic celebration moving through Pigeons, a building wave at the centre of each of each song that often seems more than it can bear. Witness the frantic organ pop of Old World United, constantly fighting a losing battle with chaotic elements that threaten its derailment, the paradoxically languid psychedelic thrash that ends Surprise, and the orgiastic climax of Collector's thrillingly avid Krautrock ride.
But while much of Pigeons transfigures indie-pop into Dionysian ritual, the unavoidable serotonin debt is paid by F.F.A.P., Land of Feeling and Bottom Feeder, which all circle around intimations of psychological turbulence and dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, the breezy strum of Casual, one of the album's best songs, belies the pain it houses. "It's casual, not heartbreaking," Temple sings in his fragile alto croon, his delivery betraying the line's pungent irony.
Fragments of other bands can be glimpsed. Opener Hibernation is one of the better, funkier songs that The Sea and Cake never wrote, F.F.A.P. carries echoes of Grandaddy at their most affectingly maudlin, and the introduction of Surprise could be by Grizzly Bear before Temple and co. take it down a path that's theirs alone. And that, really, is the crowning pleasure of Pigeons: the sound of a smart, talented band carving out their own uncommon, enchanting space. --Chris Power
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hot Droppings,
By
This review is from: Pigeons (Audio CD)
Here We Go Magic are a Brooklyn-based band, an expansion
by all accounts of front-man Luke Temple's previous more insular solo pursuits. The new edition features Michael Bloch on guitar, Kristina Lieberson on keyboards, Jennifer Turner on bass guitar and Peter Hale behind the drum kit. 'Pigeons' is as mad as a box of frogs (I mean this in the kindest way!) It is an explosion of wonderfully wayward musical ideas. It refuses to settle down to be any one kind of thing in particular and this is its greatest strength. The melodies are lovely, the vocal harmonies rich and warm, the beats beguilingly undemonstrative one moment ('Casual') and infectiously fidgety the next (the splendidly manic 'Collector'). Mr Temple doesn't have the strongest voice on the planet but it really doesn't matter a jot. It serves the music well enough. Methinks he may be a bit of a hippie at heart. The ambience of many of the compositions suggest the gentle movement of a multi-coloured kaftan and the scent of patchouli oil wafting by on a summer breeze. The dream-like flow of opening track 'Hibernation' is a particularly fine example of reimagined psychedelia. 'Moon', too, evokes a highly distictive sonic landscape, this time with a somewhat harder edge and a more anxious and elusive melody. 'One World United' is a hoot! It's a seaside postcard of a song. Brash and bouncy and made for flinging oneself around to mindlessly. 'Vegetable Or Native' is pretty silly too. Its clickety-clackety rhythmic motif underpins a curiously surreal half-heard roundelay. It comes out of nowhere and ends up somewhere equally uncertain. Final track 'Herbie I Love You, Now I Know' also uses percussion in a distinctive and addictive way. Whether the subject of the substantially instrumental piece is a man or a motor car is left to our imaginations. An ambiguously satisfying ending. With 'Pigeons' Here We Go Magic have delivered an album full of fun and fantasy and good feeling. Just the job for a picnic at the edge of the world! Recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
These bands keep popping up...,
By
This review is from: Pigeons (Audio CD)
Somewhere in the backwoods of the USA. a mad professor has perfected a way of blending the finest elements of the country's rich musical history to create new and wonderful bands. This lot sounds like someone locked The Byrds, Talking Heads and Fleet Foxes in an Appalachian shack and sprayed them all with LSD until this fabulous, woozy, dreamy and taut LP appeared.
Hope that gives some indication of the wonders within.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
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