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Mar 19, 2009 Web Exclusive By Jim Scott

One of the most gently amazing albums of the year thus far, Here We Go Magic is the work of Brooklyn’s Luke Temple. Recorded in only two months, Here We Go Magic has the well-worn feel of years of work. The obsessive singer/songwriter who locks him/herself in an apartment to labor over an album all on their own is threatening to become its own genre, with Panda Bear’s Person Pitch and the Loney Dear recordings coming closest in tone and flavor to Here We Go Magic. Technology may someday overthrow and kill us, as the movies foretell, but for now, it has become a wonderful outlet for such introverted and talented performers who may have, in another time, been shut out of recording music altogether.

Thankfully, Temple has come along here and now. The album opens with twin stunners, the Brian Eno/Talking Heads-inflected “Only Pieces,” with its hypnotic chorus, “What’s the use in dying, dying,” and the far-off acoustic sound and disembodied handclaps of “Fangela.” “I Just Want To See You Underwater” builds for a couple of minutes before Temple emerges from the haze to utter the titular words. He has a gorgeous voice, but he only truly breaks it out on “Tunnelvision.” The result takes your breath away.

Here We Go Magic does tend to drone for long stretches, though, at times in a pleasant, comforting way, but in others it makes the listener grow impatient for Temple to sing, for the song to build itself into something more satisfying. Sensing this, perhaps, Temple ends with the simple, clear-eyed “Everything’s Big,” which cuts through the miasma of electronics and layers of sound that have preceded it. (www.herewegomagic.com)

Author rating: 8/10