TRACKING BEST OF 2012 EDITION: #7 Here We Go Magic - "Make Up Your Mind"

SOUNDS LIKE: After teaming up with Nigel Godrich, these guys have refined their sound
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: The nervous ticks and tacks of this song tag it at the #7 spot

Luke Temple and his band Here We Go Magic have been building to this exact moment.  Since the release of their self-titled album in 2009, the band has shifted slowly from bedroom project of folk ditties and ambient smatterings to just fill up an album, to crafting simple yet complex pop songs rooted in the early 1980s era of college radio.  With this year's phenomenal A Different Ship, the band teamed up with superfan of the band Nigel Godrich to commit to tape a collection of songs that are stripped away of all the layers they had their songs hiding behind on Pigeons to showcase all the talent this band has, talent that is never prevalent than on first single "Make Up Your Mind".

It starts with a simple, Krautrock beat as the song fades in.  Multiple meloldies enter the scene as Temple's stream of consciousness lyrics swirl around.  Together it's all going someplace, yet where?  The tense moments the verses provide end up at a chorus smattered with keys and effects, leading to an extended outro of what sounds like a heart attack and an alien abduction taking place all at once.  And right when you think it's about to get worse, the explosion in your chest or the alien probing your cavitiy, it all just cuts out, the scene goes black, and you'll just have to make up your own mind about what just happened.  It's these tense moments that make this one of the best songs of 2012. 

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TRACKING: Teen - Electric

SOUNDS LIKE: Here We Go Magic, Spaceman 3
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Ambient indie rocker with a dab of 60s girl group fun thrown in for flavor.

When TEEN’s Teeny Lieberson left Here We Go Magic to focus fulltime on this project with her sisters and friends that make up this Brooklyn group, who knew she’d make such a good pop song on her own.

With influences from her old band clearly obvious, she teamed up with the legendary Sonic Boom to craft a batch of songs that combine psychedelic swirls both owing to present indie rock and past 60s girl groups.  After a chanty and chatty front half, the song all of a sudden morphs into a pop song driven by a catchy guitar melody being attacked by stabs of the keys she used so well during those few years she spent with her Magic friends.  If this song isn’t enough, their debut album In Limbo is currently streaming now ahead of its release on August 28th.  

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REVIEW: Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

"As a work of strict “indie-pop” Ship does its job fairly well and is well worth a listen. Beyond that though, it stands as a minor stopping point in a larger journey..."

In 2009 Here We Go Magic released Pigeons into the world to relatively widespread acclaim. (Pitchfork gave it a 7.5 at the time…re-issue will probably get a 13!!!!!) Fueled by a freak folk sense of urgency and what sounds like an army of bargain basement Casios, Luke Temple fashioned an odd collection of “pop” snippets that were pretty, but for the most part weightless. There’s a shabby charm to the record – driven mainly by Luke Temple’s glorious tenor/falsetto – and while chock full of potential,  the record never quite gets there.  On A Different Ship, Here We Go Magic hasn’t solved that problem, but they’ve most certainly done their best to try.  

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