Reviews
Magic Bullets
A Child but in Life yet a Doctor in Love
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2007-06-17
Do you live in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, or have ever wanted to because of bands like Interpol? Do you think that the Arcade Fire would be a lot hipper without the orchestral theme? Do you fill your hunger for all the new, stylish bands by reading the back sleeve of the O.C. soundtracks? Well pull up your britches and tell Ma and Pa to get your dinner bib because you’re going out tonight, and let me tell you, mediocrity is on the menu kiddies.
The Magic Bullets dish it out buffet style on their album A CHILD but in life yet a DOCTOR in love. Although they made Spin magazine's 'Artist of the Day' a few weeks back that can't be held as much of a testament since even during the competent-days when Sia Michel was the editor-in-chief, they weren't much of a help.
Though on the album the band does make attempts to flaunt maturity and steadfastness in the same way that Pavement specifically didn’t, it comes off as rather low-grade indie rock. A sound that is generally culminated when a band plays its first few shows without hatching their own style or kitschy act yet. For anyone who hasn’t heard of the Walkmen, this album may be a real treat. But then again that would mean that he or she is missing out on the Walkmen, which could be a real shame.
The first track, ‘Yesterday’s seen better days’ sounds enough like a stripped down Arcade Fire, but all the parts that were stripped off is what makes Arcade Fire great. Phil Benson’s howling and tense vocals move in the same way as those of Win Butler, but it doesn’t seem like it is going in tandem, let alone going to the same place. With a Wurlitzer as its only deviation from the guitar/bass/drums formula, it is hard for the song to touch close enough to Arcade Fire to make it good, and it doesn’t do much to create a sound for its own either.
Little else needs to be said in regards to the rest of the album. It is very much the same as the first song and only gradually becomes less like the previously mentioned stripped down Arcade Fire and more like the Walkmen. Vocals that evolve from ‘intentionally droning’ to un-evocative and derivative makes it hard to recognize any other positive actions the other band members may have done. Without a strong passion towards this band or the ones whom they have drawn similarities to, it is very easy to not know where one song ends and the other begins. Or for that matter, not realizing that, through your slumberous haze, you have heard a track already when the ‘continuous play’ setting has already brought you back to the beginning of the disc.
As a 2006 release it seems as though the Magic Bullets don’t posses any arcane accuracy. Missing their mark by a few years, the band could have hit home a lot easier by firing out this disc after bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and Interpol hit the scene. As an ’02 or ’03 release, this would have sounded right at home. Hearing it now, however, leaves the listener feeling a little dated.
Score: 5.5
- Michael Bulko