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Album reviews Music

The Magic – Ragged Gold

THE MAGIC play Amsterdam Brewery as part of Open Roof Festival tonight (Thursday, July 5) and the Theatre Centre on August 10 as part of SummerWorks. Rating: NNN


As someone who follows the local music scene pretty carefully, I found it surprising to see the debut LP from the Magic pop up in my inbox. They were once a fixture on Toronto stages, but I assumed their long silence meant the band had broken up, distracted by their duties as members of Islands, Matters and Evening Hymns. As it turns out, they were just taking their sweet time, recording, re-recording, mixing and remixing.

Too much tinkering can kill an album, with studio excess and over-thinking drowning out spontaneity. But given the style of music the Magic play – blue-eyed soul reminiscent of 80s crooners Hall & Oates, who played the studio like a very expensive instrument – the five years of labour proved a benefit rather than a hindrance. The yacht rock fad may be over, but the Magic wear the style like a glove, surrounding sticky hooks with groovy guitars, danceable synths and, yes, saxophone solos.

Top track: Mr. Hollywood

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