{"id":11034,"date":"2012-06-27T14:17:33","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T22:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=11034"},"modified":"2012-06-27T14:49:54","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T22:49:54","slug":"our-favorite-rock-album-so-far-this-year-like-pioneers-oh-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2012-06\/our-favorite-rock-album-so-far-this-year-like-pioneers-oh-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Favorite Rock Album So Far This Year: Like Pioneers’ “Oh, Magic”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Let’s not beat around the bush.\u00a0 Chicago’s Like Pioneers’ <\/strong>new album, Oh Magic<\/strong>, is our Favorite Rock Album<\/strong> of the year so far<\/strong>.\u00a0 While we won’t deny the talent-tossin’ swagger of the Blunderbuss<\/strong> house that Jack White <\/strong>built, nor the kinetic appeal of Japandroids’ Celebration Rock<\/strong> album,\u00a0Oh, Magic<\/strong> is a hook-filled indie-rocker with more cohesion, art and intelligence than either of those or any other rock albums released so far this year.\u00a0 There.\u00a0 We said it.<\/p>\n

Having grown a little gummed up in the first half of the year with predominantly softer and syrupy sounds, we had been straining to hear some rocking abandon to help kickstart our summer.\u00a0 And then Like Pioneers<\/strong><\/a> came hurtling down to hypnotize with Oh, Magic <\/strong>(on Abandoned Love Records<\/a>).\u00a0 You knew this band was capable of big things after 2010’s debut album, Piecemeal<\/strong>, which included superb throttlers like Crop Circle Plus Legs<\/strong><\/em> (one of our favorite songs of 2010), but we weren’t prepared for the quantum leap made by the band on their new album.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like Pioneers’<\/strong> hook-laden, indie-rock sound bears the influence of the best of the best:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The Replacements, <\/strong><\/strong>The Walkmen, Guided by Voices, Modest Mouse<\/strong>, Nada Surf<\/strong>, <\/strong> and even a bit of Built to Spill<\/strong>.\u00a0 But the Chicago lads (Bobby Gallivan, Jesse Woghin, Dan Radzicki, <\/strong>and Matt Holland<\/strong>) and lass (Janie Porche<\/strong>) add just the right twists and turns, mixing in dexterous and dynamic divergences to create their own unique sonorities and make the sound their own.\u00a0 Add to this mix the fact that Mike Lust<\/strong>, who engineered and recorded the album, and the band have masterfully produced the album with incessantly apt Factory Records-esque drum, bounding bass and propulsive guitar effects and sounds throughout.<\/p>\n

As we said, there are great melodies throughout the band’s songs, but where Like Pioneers really shine is in the intelligence of their lyrics and their inspired delivery.\u00a0 Like many of our favorite bands (REM, Radiohead<\/strong>, etc.), the band’s lyrics feature enigmatic, elliptical wordplay that nevertheless enable the spirit and meaning(s) of the songs to shake through.\u00a0 Each listener is left to conjure his or her own throughlines from the marvelously malleable lyrics.\u00a0 To go way out on a limb, Oh, Magic<\/strong> is a concept album of sorts.\u00a0 The listener is left to decide which concept(s) to adopt.\u00a0 Various themes consistently run through the songs (with only limited breaks or diversions).\u00a0\u00a0 Though the songs sing generally of adversity, loss, resolve and renewal, you might hear more specific themes, such as lamentations for forgotten bands and music, and musicians falling in and out of favor (particularly in this Anno Domini Domini<\/em> era).\u00a0 Or you may hear tales of relationships drowned but still breathing.\u00a0 Or the songs may sing to you of a nation (America) past its prime.\u00a0 Still again, you might recognize family\/generational issues (boomers\/parents vs. youngers).\u00a0 Or, all of the above.\u00a0 Regardless, we guaranty you will be moved.<\/p>\n

But don’t let any of the above guesswork get in the way of the shear enjoyment of the music, songs and singing on Oh, Magic<\/strong>.\u00a0 After a listen or two, we guaranty you will be involuntarily twitching and shout-singing along.\u00a0 The album kicks off suitably with the refrain, “My heart felt frozen, won’t you please, please, please move closer,” from inspirational opening track Champion<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The song seems to be a clarion call announcing a newly-inspired and evolved band.\u00a0 And from there the album proceeds to rack up one rollicking highlight after another, ultimately finishing with three of the best songs of this or any other year.\u00a0 Following Champion<\/em><\/strong>, the (self?) motivational All Wrapped<\/strong><\/em> propels with its chiming guitar and singalong chorus: “It’s all wrapped around you, this house of cards; it’s all stacked against you.\u00a0 And I guess we could focus on this for far too f@#ing long. I know that it looks all right. Oh, but I know this is not your time to fade out.”\u00a0 Other sublime songs and moments are strewn throughout the album, with not a clinker to be found.\u00a0 The band continuously lulls you in and then impressively shifts gears during songs, such as on Tell ‘Em Ghost<\/strong><\/em> when the chorus hits at 2:32 and demands “Now all hands on the spaceship, and you were gearing up to leave. Out here in your basement you were too stoic to believe, and we wasted the obvious engagement. We’re wasted for the opportunity.”\u00a0 We imagine a crowded club and the entire audience loudly answering the call for all hands.\u00a0 And then Janie Porche steps in on National Spectre<\/strong><\/em> and at 3:05 levitates the chorus to new heights in her quest (in the process reminding of Mates of State’s Kori Gordner<\/strong>, but with more aggression)<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

“Let this be the reason we\u2019re trying.
\nLet this be the season we\u2019re dry.
\nLet this be the reason we\u2019re fine.”<\/p>\n

Powerful stuff.\u00a0 After a few more charmers, we get to the last three songs on the album.\u00a0 And\u00a0 just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it does.\u00a0 On Requiem for Some Band<\/strong><\/em>, Like Pioneers have delivered one of the most compelling songs of the year.\u00a0 Jesse Woghin does his best Westerberg<\/strong> impression (listen in at 1:26 and thereafter), and Like Pioneers give us a poignant anthem for all bands who have shown huge promise only to end up toiling in obscurity.\u00a0 Woghin is literally haunted by the prospect:<\/p>\n

“Ghosts that come to me come through the stereo.
\nAnd there’s nothing quite like it, the sound of leaving.
\nGhosts that come to me come through the stereo.”<\/p>\n

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