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May 09, 2012 Web Exclusive By Laura Studarus

Kids, let this be a lesson to you: play a great set, and you could end up with friend-of-Radiohead Nigel Godrich producing your third album. Thus was the fate of Here We Go Magic, who landed help from the unofficial sixth member of Radiohead after playing Glastonbury in 2010 and impressing Godrich.

Not that the band’s excellent tunes needed much of a reworking. Originally the singular vision of singer/songwriter Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic has swelled from a solo act to a four-piece since his 2009 debut under the moniker. Over the course of two full-lengths and last year’s The January EP the music has likewise evolved, from hypnotic bedroom-pop repetition (think Loney Dear with a propensity for zen-like chants) to something akin to a Talking Heads for the next generation. Although Temple and the gang seem way too pleased to wonder whose beautiful house they’re living in, they don’t need to-Godrich’s top-shelf production work aside, the band build A Different Ship themselves.

And oh, what placid waters they sail. While the single downtempo track, “Miracle of Mary,” runs ashore, even their most gently bubbling creek isn’t without a few unexpected twists and turns. Meditating on the creature comforts of relational bliss through the majority of the album’s 10 tracks, the band still finds time to maintain a sense of humor (“I know the Swedish know music/but do they know mine?” Temple, tongue in cheek, ponders on “Made to Be Old”), and swerve from their often formulaic structure. (Check out the spacey breakdown at the end of “I Believe in Action.”) It isn’t particularly new, or a shocking departure from previous sun-dappled full-length Pigeons, but it is an enjoyable, low-key trip through what they create best: an atmosphere of (dare we say it?) pure magic. (www.herewegomagicband.tumblr.com)

Author rating: 7/10