Magnetic Island | en

Magnetic Island's debut LP "Magnetic Island": Call it scene one, take two.

When Magnetic Island emerged from the remnants of Renminbi with a flurry of new recordings, they sounded like a band that was still sorting through the rubble of their old ideas and processes. On various singles and the Out at Sea EP, the re-christened band experimented with new textures and arrangements but hewed closely to the Renminbi sound: an economical, recorded-live sound, with clear guitar front and center. These early recordings were gradual, cautious and exploratory. Their trajectory was uncharted.

With "Magnetic Island," it's anything but.

For all of its openness to collaboration and to breaking apart the insular format of a rock and roll band, Magnetic Island has always had one woman steering it. Guitarist Lisa Liu is, and has been, undeniably the creative force behind the group, with keyboardist SMV and the band's drummers following her lead.
So when Liu found herself with a handful of new, very personal songs written by the middle of 2011, she thought: What would happen if I just made an album myself?

What happened, in short, was a record that proved a defining moment for Magnetic Island.

"Magnetic Island" pairs the band's familiar grandiose structures with a newly baroque focus on layered arrangements, most of them the solo work of Liu, who not only learned to play drums, but also scored all of her intricate guitar parts in preparation for the recording. The result is the same ambitious musical arc fans have come to expect from Magnetic Island, but with a new-found intimacy — a pulsating warmth lent by the one-woman focus.

The fact that the tracking of the album in rural Vermont was loudly interrupted when Hurricane Ireneʼs floods knocked out power and devastated the surrounding area may have had something to do with it, too. Liu recalls the scenario as both “amazing and harrowing,” leaving the band alone to reflect for almost six days as they waited for the lights to come back on.

The singular intensity and awe engendered by that experience comes through in the music. Would-be single and album opener "Don't Need It Now" pairs intertwining guitar lines and vocal melodies that rise and fall against one another, creating an exhilarating tension that mirrors the lyrical tug-of-war between hanging on and letting go. “In Theory,” anchored by the narratorʼs matter-of-fact declaration, “I have no fixed plans / except with you,” has a more menacing energy that blends the ragged force of Deerhunter with the dreamy longing of Beach House.

The stunning, understated "Acadia" is marked by the kind of muted, wintry tone that would fit it well onto Sonic Youth's "A Thousand Leaves" or a Mt. Eerie album, while "Morning Feedback" bears the sort of dark restraint and affected laziness that might come from an unlikely collaboration between Radiohead and Wild Flag. "Second Hand" closes the album with a simple, end-of-the-night sendoff — a la Velvet Underground's "After Hours" — that links hazy singing with a bright, frayed guitar hook.

In all, itʼs a remarkable set of songs that proclaims, boldly and clearly, the essence of this innovative project and firmly secures Magnetic Islandʼs place on the map. –Sam Schulz .