Album Review: Magic Arm Make Lists Do Something

Album cover for <i>Make Lists Do Something</i>. Photo / Supplied

Rating: 3/5
Verdict: Past and present in musical pop collision.

This techno-pop, Pro Tools-folktronic album by Manchester's one-man band Marc Rigelsford finally gets belated local release (it appeared in Britain a year ago). But it's timely with the Band on the Run reissue because Rigelsford's reference points are the younger McCartney and classic Beach Boys as much as early Beck and pre-fame Bright Eyes (the folktronic stuff) and the woozy folkadelic pop of the Beta Band.

All those are excellent models upon which Magic Arm (Rigelsford with occasional help from a drummer, trumpeter and violinist) build their reconstructed pop where the 60s collides with 70s sonic beeps and gritty electronic washes, dreamy ballads (Outdoor Games) and Daft Punk.

Magic Arm are pleasingly unpredictable: Move Out opens with cheap electronic keyboards suggesting a North African melody; Coach House is a charming instrumental with finger-picking guitar behind the Lemon Jelly-like electronic melodies; and Six Cold Feet of Ground is appropriately funereal but has a weird old acoustic blues-pop feel before some McCartney-like doo-doo pop then Kraftwerk if they ever got in a romantic mood. Odd.

Magic Arm/Rigelsford haven't made an essential album, but the broad sweep, seductive pop alongside machine-driven effects, and some standout tracks certainly make you want to play this repeatedly.

-TimeOut / elsewhere.co.nz