When it
comes to rock bands, there are often signs of the usual suspects: The Beatles
and EFS in the best of them, but it is more than often that something special
extra which truly makes the band what it is.
Magi has something beyond that typical band and what it is I cannot exactly
say and I don’t even think it’s pulled from the influences.
For
almost the entire cassette “Silver”, Magi has a background of Phil Collins type
of drums. These enhance the already
magical feel to this cassette, as it seemingly already a staple in the rock
scene though it just came out. I don’t
remember the first time that I heard The Beatles. I know I heard The Beatles (amongst other
artists) a lot before I actually connected that it was them, but I’m not sure
at which point I actually sat down and put on one of their cassettes.
“Silver”
has that factor of putting on a purely classic cassette- like the first time
you heard The Beatles or anything you might put on that had been out for
decades and time tested- and listening to it for the first time. When you hear it, immediately you will
think, “Yeah, I can see why everyone likes this and why they have since before
I was born”. Though, again, this is a
recent release still.
Pieces
of modern bands such as Copeland do come out, along with that “Walking on a
Wire” era Get Up Kids. It’s got some
random speaking bits, but also this sort of hypnotic sense to the background of
it. It’s not subliminal messages as
much as it feels like you want to stop whatever else you are doing and focus
directly on this and this cassette alone.
It took me a few listens to figure that one out, because I was so used
to listening to this via earbuds while doing nothing else.
It
might be the Catholic in me (Catholic school from kindergarten to Grade 4), but
I also really enjoy the line: “They held you under / holy water”, which just
does in some ways bring out the notion that baptizing people is not that far
away from drowning them really, now is it?
I’d
never heard of Magi before this cassette, though I am familiar with The Gift of
the Magi, and I’m trying to figure out a good way to put that story into here,
though there isn’t specifically one in the sense that I had to part with my
cassette player to buy this cassette or anything. But it does go back to the familiarity. Far too many television shows have adapted
The Gift of the Magi, especially in Christmas themed episodes, and whenever I
see it I’m just like, “Yup, Gift of the Magi.
Oh, Henry!!” “Silver” has that
familiarity, yet it doesn’t lack originality and for that this goes beyond a
gift and becomes a blessing.
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