Sinking deeper into facets of existential musing, Magdalena Bay finds a well of love that pushes them into embracing a newfound image. ‘Imaginal Disk’ expands and refines its melodic, textural, and lyrical touchups, leading to a languid, but fascinating project.
At a certain point in their lives, everybody has an image that they either want to break out of or embrace, especially when specific circumstances in life only create more pressure on deciding what to choose under a limited time. After all, the concept of life is finite, so whether or not an individual wants to change or keep in line with what image they and other people see of them, changes will still occur as life continues moving further till the end. It’s essentially a make-or-break situation that will provide drastic shifts in one’s situation and can’t exactly be easily brought back once the decision is made. After the success brought by their breakthrough project, ‘Mercurial World’, Magdalena Bay continues from where they are into the world of ‘Imaginal Disk’.
As a duo that is known to shape their soundscape into various elements of Psychedelic Pop with elements of bricked-out Synthpop and robust Dance-Pop, Magdalena Bay continues to morph their sound into extensive places. While what they have dabbled within ‘Mercurial World’ mostly didn’t stick the landing as there are issues surrounding their compositional, lyrical, and structural aspects, ‘Imaginal Disk’ does manage to refine some of those issues as the duo continues upgrading their genre morphing into another level. Pulling further into progressive rock tendencies that gives these songs more ways to express and differ, Mica Tenenbaum’s performance only gets more stride and variance in her delivery, and the textural blending on the synthetic and organic instrumentation bears more striking flair, especially when the melodic compositions manage to become a lot more free-wheeling and colorful. The buzzy synth warbles of ‘Image’ where the punchy grooves paired with the curious vocal cadence only get busier as the track goes into its final chorus section which eventually leads to the progressive swings of ‘Death & Romance’ with its glorious melodies from the keys and the low-end grooves, the romantic glimmer of ‘Vampire in the Corner’ that wondrously encapsulates its hushed lilting tone before it opens up with an intense passion from the synths and quivering singing that soon leads into the fleeting dreamy passages of ‘Watching T.V.’ that starts to open up into the emotive melodic swells throughout the song, the fuzzier rumble of ‘That’s My Floor’ where the distorted guitars, crashing drum lines, and sharper vocalizations that never lose its overall intensity, the ominous disco flourish of ‘Cry for Me’ where amidst the hazy reverb, passionate vocal harmonies, and glimmering instrumentation, Mica’s yearning vocals effectively gets into a desperate tone as the melodic passages just starts flooding through and through to the point that it wants to fly away, and the quaint beauty of ‘Angel on a Satellite’ where the fleeting melodic cascades from the keys, vocals, and strings doesn’t fail from floating through sky with grace.
But that melodic and textural expanse nestles deeper into the narrative arc, where it continues forth from the existential musings of their debut. Digging even deeper and resonating even further this time around as the album wrangles itself into the pressures of embracing an idealized image of the protagonist and eventually dealing the conflicting pressures of keeping their connection with love tightly. Not only as a way to break themselves free from the dulled-out boredom of their past image but also to keep grasping further toward that romantic connection. Given the apocalyptic framing within this existential theme, it only creates a desperate tone that only amplifies that emotional weight in this arc, especially as it starts spiraling into a maddening abyss where that desperate need to reach out for love creates a darker edge into that longing. Eventually breaking out of that give-and-take aspect of love, slowly giving in to selfishness where the protagonist just receives love and never reciprocating. It all leads up to the closing track, ‘The Ballad of Matt & Mica’, where, unlike the looping conclusion of the debut which implies that the numbed-out existentialism just cycles through and through, this ends the album within an open-ended stasis. With the protagonist reflecting upon their past and their future as well as whether or not this idealized form of themselves is worth it, it puts the album into a hazy state where the answers won’t come off fully realized, there is time for the answer to come through. After all, their lives are not yet over.
Much grander and expansive in the overall scope that brings in refinements across the board, yet there is still an issue that comes with this expansion: momentum and melodic construction. As much as the investment to let these melodies careen through lends to remarkable quality, there are also cases where it can make the song become a bit too long or just some melodic passages don’t stick the landing as much as they should. This means that the momentum within the album structure eventually leads to parts where it becomes languid, which can lead to songs just floating off into space and then coming back when the melody comes into its sharpest moments.
As a result, ‘Imaginal Disk’ continues from Magdalena Bay’s debut breakthrough and continues to stretch their melodic, production, and lyrical ideas into wondrous spaces. While it doesn’t always strike gold as the expansion also brings its own set of issues that can temper the majestic quality within a couple of the songs, for the most part, the refinement within melodic and writing construction has only gained more weight and spark within its best moments. It might be a disk that might play a bit too long and can have its technical issues from time to time, even then, it has enough awe and wonder for it to be replayed again.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Image’, ‘Death & Romance’, ‘Vampire in the Corner’, ‘Watching T.V.’, ‘That’s My Floor’, ‘Cry for Me’, ‘Angel on a Satellite’
Least Favorite Track: ‘She Looked Like Me!’