Albums

< Magnet
The Simple Life
words by Laura Hughes

A regular soundtracker of American tween-soaps The OC and Six Feet Under, offbeat Norwegian digital-folkster Magnet is back with his third release since 2005’s ‘The Tourniquet’. The band is the brainchild of Even Johansen, a one-man lyric-machine with a voice that’s heartbreaking and fragile in equal measures. ‘The Gospel Song’ pounds like a lazy, stripped-down version of Bloc Party’s ‘The Prayer’, while the throwaway lament on ‘You’ve Got Me’ of “It’s not ok to fuck my body, if you’re going to fuck with my head too” shows exactly why Johansen is hailed as a chart-topping genius in his homeland. With the dreamy electronics of Air combined with the soft, whispering melodies of Sufjan Stevens, ‘The Simple Life’ is a quietly beautiful, heart-stealing gem of an album.

8/10 in stores now