“Energy”
from the album New Magnetic Wonder
2007
iTunes
MP3 – “Energy” [right-click/save-as]
Stuffed with 24 tracks, roughly half of them brief inter-song segues featuring space-age Mellotron synthesizer complex “non-Pythagorean” scales, the latest from the Apples in Stereo should be a pretentious mess.
That it’s not is purely a product of the band’s cheery disposition and commitment to crafting the shiniest, happiest pop songs this side of 1967.
Although they’re obvious students of the ’60s, the Apples hardly limit themselves to one decade. On “Same Old Drag” the group shows its love for Electric Light Orchestra, lifting the opening piano riff from “Evil Woman” and imitating Jeff Lynne’s trademark vocoder-driven background vocals.
On “Energy,“ the group leaps into the Britpop ’90s, grinning through the kind of tune Blur or Suede would have written if they had sold out and recorded jingles for Pepsi.
In the context of such a refreshing, instantly likable album, even the abstract linking tracks work, breaking up the 13 sugary full-length songs and allowing each to be unwrapped and savored individually.
That’s not to say listeners should approach New Magnetic Wonder with anything resembling delicacy, however. As singer and principal songwriter Robert Schneider says on the disc’s opening track, “Turn up the stereo/ I feel the magic when the speaker starts to blow.”