Tracks
The Magic Numbers: "This Is A Song"
(2007)
By David Greenwald | 29 January 2008
The Magic Numbers sure know how to blindside a guy. As if their 2005 debut wasn’t enough of an indie-pop sucker punch, Those The Brokes is out, like, this week and my friend the Internet just got around to letting me know. Which is all well and good, because now I don’t have time for months of lofty expectations; then again, knowing these guys, the songs probably would’ve shattered them anyway.
“This Is a Song” uses the cushion of its opening track status to fritter away the song’s first minute with a do-nothing instrumental intro that accomplishes nothing except to raise the anticipation –- a welcome irony, considering the shock of the album’s existence. Just when you can’t take it anymore, Romeo Stodart and his band leap into action like a runner at the starting gun, exploding into the richly layered, fervidly executed guitar pop style of which they’ve proven themselves masters. The band still sounds like a well-oiled machine and Romeo, thankfully, is still a hopeless romantic: “I don’t want to tell her, no don’t want to tell her I lie awake in the dark / lost in the beat of my heart / well baby look over your shoulder, you’re not alone in this love.” Some of the tracks on Those The Brokes slow things down too much, but this, this is definitely a song.
“This Is a Song” uses the cushion of its opening track status to fritter away the song’s first minute with a do-nothing instrumental intro that accomplishes nothing except to raise the anticipation –- a welcome irony, considering the shock of the album’s existence. Just when you can’t take it anymore, Romeo Stodart and his band leap into action like a runner at the starting gun, exploding into the richly layered, fervidly executed guitar pop style of which they’ve proven themselves masters. The band still sounds like a well-oiled machine and Romeo, thankfully, is still a hopeless romantic: “I don’t want to tell her, no don’t want to tell her I lie awake in the dark / lost in the beat of my heart / well baby look over your shoulder, you’re not alone in this love.” Some of the tracks on Those The Brokes slow things down too much, but this, this is definitely a song.