Here We Go Magic

From 2004 through 2009 I spent the lion’s share of my time on the road. Traveling from city to city, often pulling off 6-8 hours driving a day. Being that I was the only one with a license, and my dire need to control my environment I did all of the driving. This had a few added perks including but not limited to controlling the temperature, never having to sit in the back seat, power locking the windows when your Taco Bell related farts pollute the car’s atmosphere and full and total control of the radio.

One must learn to properly harness such power and privilege or face the wrath of one’s countrymen, or in this case, band-mates. So I became an expert in driving music and how to spread it out over the long hauls. We would usually start our trip with something new, that we weren’t familiar with and oft times didn’t care about, because most of the talking would take place during the first hour of the trip, after that everyone hunkers down and reads, watches movies on their laptop, or sleeps. At this point you put on some old stand bys, something good for the open road, but more background than anything, think The Doors. Eventually you move to your play lists and mixes. This offers a little something for everyone and eats up a lot of travel time. Eventually you have to pull out the big guns. These are the albums that transform a road trip from a necessary evil that gets you from point A to point B. I usually save these for the last hour or so of the trip. When you see the signs that tell you x-city is 60 miles away.

This album has to be a journey within itself. It must start off with the euphoric sounds that mirror the passenger’s energy when they realize they are less than an hour from their destination and maintain that giddy excitement through the first few songs. Eventually this feeling wears off and everyone starts to wrap up whatever it was they have been doing for the past few hours, and you need songs that keep the driver focused and inspires the rest of the car to deal with the restlessness for just a while longer. This requires songs that are complex, soaring and show a continued build up from start to finish only repeating the process all over again with the next song. Next, about a half hour into the album, everyone starts to wonder if they have foolishly gotten too excited about reaching their destination and the music needs to play on that angst and uncertainty. Eventually you see the skyline in the distance and the energy builds again, slowly, but noticeably. This is where the album needs to pick up again, eventually bringing you to a frenzy hangover of emotion as you pull up to your final stop.

Here We Go Magic’s Pigeons is just this type of album. It is a perfect road record hitting on all the requirements one needs to wrap up a long journey. It is an absolutely beautiful album that is sure to be in my top 10 at years end.  I can’t recommend this album enough.