Thursday, July 30, 2015

Listen: HEALTH – “DEATH MAGIC” LP

I’ve been praising HEALTH for years and come next week when the LA band releases their new LP, Death Magic, I’m fairly certain many others will finally take notice. Death Magic follows in stride with the direction the band has been moving towards for the better part of the last five years. The collection of songs is infinitely more poppy and the electronics are more prominent then on Get Color. This version of HEALTH probably has most in common with “USA Boys” or “Tears” and for better or worse tones down on the noise elements found on earlier works. I’ve heard the record a whole lot in the last five days and love it but my personal tastes wish a little bit more of the noise was retained or even sustained in the songs that do go down that road and from past recordings. The record is well sequenced with songs, not directly flowing into the next per say, but more so rhythmically or sonically. If you don’t like what you hear in the first four songs then this record isn’t for as it’s a killer lead-in as far as these things go and offers a good blend of poppy HEALTH vs. noisy HEALTH.

Studio engineering comes from the Haxan Cloak, Mars Volta engineer Lars Stalfors, and longtime Kanye West engineer Andrew Dawson which only adds list of things that will make the record more high profile then anything the band has done before. It’s well deserved, the record is great and they are always amazing live so do yourself a favor, if you like what you hear, make sure to catch them next time they are in your town.

On a final note I hope the band continue with their tradition of releasing a remix album for this record as well, they always have really interesting people tinkering with their songs, often to great results and possibly even acting as inspiration or a stepping stone for where the band sonically finds themselves today. DEATH MAGIC is out August 7th.

DEATH MAGIC Tracklist: 01. VICTIM 02. STONEFIST 03. MEN TODAY 04. FLESH WORLD (UK) 05. COURTSHIP II 06. DARK ENOUGH 07. LIFE 08. SALIVA 09. NEW COKE 11. L.A. LOOKS 11. HURT YOURSELF 12. DRUGS EXIST
 

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