The Magic Numbers - This Is A Song (Heavenly)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
Lets be honest, the main thing you want to know is how good this song is compared to their other singles. Is it a classic? Have they pulled it out of the bag again? Well, I think it's pretty fair to say that Magic Numbers tracks at the worst evoke a fair level of indifference, but at their best they push every button you didn't realise you even needed pushing. That in mind, 'This Is A Song' is a bloody good song.
The most important thing once you've realised that you're dealing with a rather emotional song is to decide whether you believe the sentiment or not. This is where you'll lose your typical gabba fan, the kind of person who couldn't care less. Emotion for them is excitement, and good on them, as it's an approach that's spawned some cracking music from time to time. If you don't believe me, listen for the gabba influence on Knife Hand Chop's 'How I Left You'. But we're normal people who enjoy things like sleeping - so how could we not believe the Magic Numbers?
For one thing, they're clearly self conscious, embarrassed misfits (in the best sense). I remember an instance on one Rockfeedback club evening, the night they played for a very special, what seemed like 5 hour set. Before the gig, they were walking around Highbury Corner, and I happened to be waving to a friend who was stood behind the tambourine girl. She thought I was waving at her, and very politely waved back at me. My friend then walked past her to me in a way that made it very obvious I was waving at my friend, and tambourine girl was left looking crushed, regardless of her advantage in fame and the fact it was her night and everything. These are the sort of people who are normal.
So we've established what was never really in doubt - that their motives for writing emotional songs such as this are genuine. Yet now it's up to you to decide, in your nice comfortable room or wherever it is you find yourself sat happily deciding as to whose emotion is deep and pure and whose isn't, even if you might be the most shallow person on earth (and current statistics suggest you might well be), you must decide whether - genuine or otherwise - the Magic Numbers are a bunch of pathetic whining idiots or not. No, it's not nice, but it has to be done! There is no room in your CD collection, let alone in between your ears, for whiners. And here, you lose your typical death metal fan - they'll consistently dismiss bands like the Magic Numbers because they don't deem the emotion of these people to be weighty enough.
Judging from the emotional problems of the death metal fanatics I know, this is fair enough. But for those of us who aren't bound to a life of internet porn in the dark, unable to leave their house because of an acute case of paranoia, as far as I can see these are genuine people also made of stern stuff. And now, only after all these tests, can you look back and think about whether it matters if you think its deep or even if its genuine. Have you read so many reviews that you've forgotten that music is subjective and relative to your own relation to it? Let's face it, the only reason the opinion of a music critic is taken seriously is that more people get to hear it anyway.
As for my opinion on it, let's sum things up. Whilst not their best, it's indeed pretty good in relation to all their other work. In fact, it was there right in the first paragraph - 'This Is A Song' is a bloody good song.
Artists in this article: The Magic Numbers
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