It May Be Complicated Being a Wizard But It's Never Been so Enjoyable
The first release under Portugal. The Man’s own label Approaching Airballons, It’s Complicated Being a Wizard finds Alaska’s “favorite sons” once again taking a step in a new, but somehow appropriate, direction. While last year’s Waiter: You Vultures! saw the band playing driving Mars Volta-esque guitar-lead prog-rock augmented with plenty of polished instrumental experimentation, this 46-minute EP finds the band toying more with elecronica, samples and synth-pop than prog-rock. In some places hypnotic and sleepy, in others, a bit distorted and funky, what makes this album work so well is the subtle diversity and underlying haunting emotional urgency that is found with multiple listens.
The first impression upon first listen, and quite possibly the closest thing comparable is Radiohead’s Kid A mixed with the moody ebb and flow of Dark Side of the Moon if Waters and Gilmore were on synths or samplers instead of guitar, and the entire album consisted of constant shaping and reshaping of the main melody. For if you listen to the album in its entirety, you find that subsequent tracks after the initial 23-minute epic are stripped down versions of the same song, which makes revisiting the first track and deconstructing the different intertwined melodies quite interesting.
Whether guitar/drum/bass drives the melody (the bass driven Amber Magic or crunchy guitar melody of Crystal Magic) or a simple redundant single-note keyboard strike provides the beat (beginning of the instrumental Amethyst Magic), the entire album is underscored with electronic synth loops and drum machine beats. John Gourley’s crooning, high-pitched vocals pair with this style of instrumentation flawlessly, as he alternates from hushed, layered intros (Sapphire Magic) to fuzzy, penetrating wails (Gold Magic).
Overall, this is a very interesting and unique release for Portugal. The Man, and works surprisingly well. The only downfall to this album is that it gets slightly repetitive at certain parts after multiple listens. However, all things considered this is but a minor flaw, and as the band eloquently states, “Repetition is important to the effectiveness of affirmation." Indeed it is.
| Reviewer: Chris Hodge Added: March 13th 2007 |
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