Magnetic Morning

A.M. (Friend or Faux)

The main gigs of Magnetic Morning’s Sam Fogarino and Adam Franklin – Interpol and Swervedriver, respectively – are good hints to the new band’s mood but little else. To wit, A.M. is brooding and wistful, but while nodding to shoegaze, Krautrock, and mainstream pop, its overall style is foreign and strange. Copious piano and reverb suggest adult contemporary, but the album occasionally surges into bombastic orchestral rock, “Kashmir”-style, and Fogarino is neither a cynical hook-meister nor a wuss behind the drum kit. Slippery and self-effacing, the songs wander off in unexpected directions, surrounded by ghostly washes of whatever was lying around the studio. It’s interesting and challenging without being abstruse, and the disc’s forays into the obvious, such as reworking Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” into the crushing “Motorway” or the sugary ballad “And I Wonder,” achieve catharsis while remaining aloof and cerebral. (6:45pm, Stage 2.)

***.5

This article appears in November 7 • 2008.

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