Review Summary: A quite brilliant take on Americana with shades of Jason Molina and Australian melodic bands like Sodastream.
Taking a few listens to When Love’s a Stranger/Penninsula, this dual set of an albumin an EP by Magical Beasts, the first thing that came to mind was - why haven’t I heard of this band before? That good!
Actually, it shouldn’t be much of a curiosity. Not only does it seem that this is not only the first double set of songs they have come up with but actually their debut. That makes it an even better accomplishment for this Chicago musical collective. They might have been living and played music before, but the core trio, Nathan Paulus, Ethan Pikas and Josh Miller actually own businesses in Chicago that deal with things like holistic health and coffee among others. So it seems, in line with modern trends we have some sort of a musical startup here, with everybody chipping in not only musical energy (nine players and singers involved) but funds for the project too.
Luckily so, I must say. What we have here is a specific take on Americana (banjos, pedal steels, and mid-tempos abound), that can actually fall into a few other musical categories, that includes shades of singer-songwriters like late Jason Molina of Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co., but also a bit of antipodean melodic touches akin to such Australian masters like Go-Betweens and SodaStream.
While the music plays like a single album, lyrically and so thematically the band has split it into two halves - When Love’s a Stranger the shorter unit of the two as the band put it themselves are “various versions of lovers and love songs. In this case, mostly thwarted love songs." On the other hand, the bit longer musical unit, Penninsula, has a different, and a much more developed concept. According to the band, it deals with it deals with characters that are "dead inside (king of undead), devolving (my own way down), or evolving. Mostly, there is a mix these energies in each of the songs. This album explores the desire to evolve, and some of the pitfalls and confrontations of personal weaknesses inside that choice to attempt to grow as a being.”
Could have turned into a boring quagmire, but actually Magical Beasts are able to carry both concepts through with some serious musical and lyrical aplomb and cone out of it completely unscathed. The band are also able to keep the whole thing wrapped in less time than you would expect, and along with some stellar roles with the other members of the collective that took part, like vocalist Sharon Hoyer and trumpet player Max Crawford (great horn arrangements too), they have been able to come up with one of the more exceptional ‘unknown’ albums of 2018.
