Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

After listening to ‘A Different Ship’ you might think, “wow, this really reminds me of Radiohead for some reason.” Little wonder then that the band have brought in Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich for their latest offering. However, this is to their credit as Here We Go Magic share Radiohead’s adeptness at carrying beautiful and genuinely moving melodies, and instrumentals which become warped with electronic embellishments. Even singer, Luke Temple, sounds pretty similar to Thom Yorke when he opts for that cracked falsetto of his (check out ‘Alone But Moving’ in particular). There is quite a painful melancholy that permeates ‘A Different Ship’, so Godrich seems like a perfect fit with the band on their third outing.

However, unlike Radiohead, nothing on this album approaches that dirge-like quality, which excessively fatigues you emotionally despite the sadness of the lyrical content. Fantastic songs like ‘Make Up Your Mind’ and ‘I Believe In Action’ hurtle along with an unashamedly indie shuffle that which eventually evolve into blissful trances. Their respective refrains become mantras that benefit from repetition rather than annoy. Other tracks like ‘Over The Ocean’ wallow alone in circles in of vast and stunning musical ether. Even more interestingly, the mid-tempo and poppier sounding cuts like ‘Hard To Be Close’ and ‘Made To Be Old’ hook you in with an accessible tune, which that deviates into darker territory ambience and noise.

‘A Different Ship’ is a fantastic effort because it genuinely blurs the genres that so many others claim they already do, but don’t really do particularly well. In an age where a person’s exposure to different types of music has increased exponentially, the artistic challenge of being innovative and achieving timelessness has also increased. With ‘A Different Ship’, Here We Go Magic seem well up to this task. Highly recommended.