FOR THE FIRST TIME: Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 8.9/10

TikTok, shortform content has ruined music. It’s official. But it also gave us this gem of a band. Magdalena Bay is one of the bands from my baby years of Depression and Music gatekeeping that I latched onto hard. They were fascinating to my then ears, which was then accustomed to Tones And I and that other song about Brownies. Of course, there’s more music to this world than the Top 40.

Magdalena Bay was a band that initially started as a prog rock outfit. Formed by two Argentinian immigrants who lived all their life in the United States, the band eventually ventured into pop music, influenced by the likes of Grimes and Charli XCX. They shot to fame thanks to TikTok and of course, because they were critically acclaimed from the get go. The band has dropped several mixtapes, and their first LP Mercurial World, in 2021.

Now under their new record label, Mom + Pop Records, home to artists like Porter Robinson and Madeon, they have dropped their latest record Imaginal Disc and it is worth the wait.

Yes, I know I have been posting too many positive reviews these days, but I am not going to lie when I say this, I like this record. I feel the same as I first felt when I first heard Mercurial World. The album is many stories intertwined properly, that they don’t feel out of order, whether it might be the story of a wedding bouquet, a river passing through a valley or a lonely space traveller, it all goes hand in hand. Just like the genres it seems to try hybridising. Electronic and rock, and sometimes funk, neo jazz and absurd fusion. At the end, it’s still all merry. And works so well.

This album reminds me of being safe in the hands of someone as warm as a good friend or a father figure or whatever, when the world is crashing. There is always some high associated to the world crashing as you are dying. Like the film Aftersun. Or I don’t know

Rating: 8.9/10