Magic Chairs

The resultant mash-up of Noughties Brooklyn cool and Flaming Lips grand folly can exhilarare, but there is also a worrying tendency for Magic Chairs to strain for significance like Coldplay. [Mar 2010, p.84]

It's a little too easy to hear the band in Arcade Fire mode here and Coldplay mode there, which raises the uncomfortable question of what, exactly, Efterklang sounds like in Efterklang mode. That's not a question that Magic Chairs resolves, but it ends up being quite a lot of fun just listening to them play around with some possible answers.

While Magic Chairs is decidely more hit than miss, one can't help but wonder, "where have I heard this before?" Oh yeah...in every other ultra-pleasant orchestral popper out there. [Winter 2010, p.82]

While there's plenty to admire, Magic Chairs feels like th work of a band who can't quite allow themselves to make the anthemic indie-rock of which they're clearly capable. [Mar 2010, p.101]

For now, the experience of listening to Magic Chairs is a frustrating one: the sound of a group with one foot remaining in art-pop territory and the other pointed toward an arena-sized sound. Efterklang might pull off either mode, but their occupation of the same space is a source of unwanted friction.

Let's hope Magic Chairs is as much terminal as it is transitional, meaning that next time, they'll get all of that grandness right.