Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk

10 years late to this but oh my god. Talk about an album that hits on all pop cylinders. The synths, groovy back and forth and overall sonic direction are right up my alley. Need to give this some repeat listens to fully dive in but gonna say right now it’s a top 3 album of the year for me.
 
I don't think she gets enough credit for devouring the vocals on this album. She sounded great on Mercurial World but that's the biggest difference maker for me on this one. Vampire in a Corner, Angel on a Satellite and Cry for Me in particular.
 
Went to their gig yesterday and was so impressed! Such a fun show and Mica is a star. Think I'm gonna sit with this last album more because, initially, I found it a fair more difficult listen than 'Mercurial World'; but the songs really popped off live.
 
Saw them in London last week, and have since done something of a deep dive into their discography and finally watched the videos from this era, and can now honestly say Imaginal Disk has possibly risen to an all-time favourite album for me?

I find the world they built on this album so intriguing. I love reading all the story time theories on the album, and the album for me now plays like some kind of classical epic.

As a body of work it’s just dripping in their genius… the attention to detail when it comes to the production and storytelling is unbelievable. I can’t believe it was only in the last week that I realised that both the lyric and melody in the first and last tracks of the album mirror each other.
I love that you can feel Mica’s apprehensive curiosity around inserting the disk in Image, followed by the blissful abandon in Death & Romance, which then fades away into the loneliness and unease of Fear, Sex.
Killing Time, Cry for Me and The Ballad of Matt and Mica really are some of the greatest songs of all time, surely?

2024 really did belong to them. Bang bang, not ordinary, etc!
 

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