The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers

Genre rock Publisher Capitol Records External Links Official Website Capitol Records

As fun as the albums that live up to or exceed our expectations are, it's the surprises, the ones that come from out of nowhere, that makes being a music fan so worthwhile. This year's model, The Magic Numbers, are especially pleasing, and although their debut album has only just appeared in the United States, it's been out in the UK for most of the year; not only that, but the quartet have emerged as the unlikeliest of success stories in UK pop this year. Here's a band of four charmingly hippy-dippy musicians, featuring two sets of siblings, both brothers and sisters, singing a sumptuous combination of 60s folk pop, melancholy 70s singer-songwriter fare, and modern powerpop, music seemingly too genuine to warrant huge chart success in today's increasingly synthetic pop world, but quicker than you can say "American Idol," these kids wound up debuting at #7 on the UK album charts this past spring, and was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize the following summer. Yes, Virginia, there is hope for clever, simple pop rock after all.

On their self-titled record, the band heads in the same direction as The Thrills, the Delgados, and Hal have recently done, embracing the West Coast singer-songwriter pop of the early 70s, but with one colossal difference: hooks. Major, contagious, glorious, fabulous roman candles bursting like spiders across the stars hooks. Romeo Stodart plays guitar and croons in a gentle voice that greatly resembles Cat Stevens. His friend Sean Gannon plays percussion. And their sisters, bassist Michele Stodart and keyboardist Angela Gannon provide some of the most sumptuous backing vocals, this side of a Leonard Cohen album. It's easy to compare them to the Mamas & Papas, but really, how often do we get a boy/girl vocal combination that works as brilliantly as this? The bouncy "Mornings Eleven," the dark, booze-drenched "The Mule," the Strokes-ish (really) "Love Me Like You," the gently rolling, soulful "Don't Give Up the Fight," the folky "Wheels on Fire," and the epic "Hymn For Her" are all standouts, but in all honestly, there's nary a weak moment here at all.

The first single from the album, "Forever Lost," begins like a regular, contemporary alt-rock song, with the same kind of driving pace of a Strokes tune, but then the chorus bursts in, as if the Strokes have suddenly surrendered the stage to the Partridge Family, the three singers delivering a happy melody. Then, from out of the freakin' blue, comes a stunner of a breakdown, sounding so inspired, there's no way an American rock band could come up with it, as Michele and Angela gracefully intone, "Looks like it all went wrong/What am I to do?" before picking up the pace, reprising the chorus and first verse to close the song. Simply lovely...

"I See You, You See Me," though, is the real kicker, so devastatingly beautiful, you'll be left winded. An homage to classic AM radio pop of the 60s and early 70s, it begins innocuously, Romeo gently singing, "I never wanted to love you, but that's okay," as a simple arrangement of chiming guitar, bass, organ, and minimal drums provide a backdrop. After a lilting chorus, Angela enters the fray with a verse of her own, her beautiful voice sounding remarkably like Emmylou Harris. After the pair engage in a country-inspired duet, the band shifts into a lively bridge that brings to mind The New Pornographers, launching into an extended bridge, where they sing, "This is not what I'm like, this is not what I do/This is not what I'm like, I think I'm falling for you," before returning to the understated majesty of the opening bars.

It would be easy to say that The Magic Numbers try too hard to pack more than an hour's worth of music into this album, and despite the fact that it probably would pack more of a wallop of it was more in the 45 minute range, but in all honesty, the CD is remarkably consistent, one that keeps growing on you months after purchasing (believe me, I've had this for three months already). A sublime little album that hides a world-weary sadness behind its sunny exterior, it's one of the year's very best, and deserves to be the same kind of sleeper hit in North America as it is across the Atlantic. Do not miss out on this one.