Here We Go Magic

I stopped going to fancy seafood restaurants. 

It's not because I don't like seafood. In fact, I love seafood and it's almost always amazing at these fancy seafood restaurants. You just can't butter a halibut or pair seered tuna w/ Asian slaw quite like the pros. BUT when I leave, and $100 later, I'm still starving. I immediately need to go find a sports bar for a dessert of potato skins and dinner rolls. 

After I listened to Be Small, the new album by Here We Go Magic I was a little unfulfilled because after the first 3 songs (not including the Intro) they set the bar too high. Just like the latest Chvrches album, I though this was going to be the album of the decade after hearing those first few tracks, but it turned out that they were the main course, and the rest of the album was the creamy garlic mashed pertaters. Still good, but you'd still rather be eating that fish....too bad it was the size of your iPhone 4s. 

Now, I want to be careful not to portray the album in the negative light, but we are talking about Here We Go Magic.....a well established, great band that SYFFAL holds fondly in their heart. I hold them to a higher standard and while I'm not glowing; this is still a pretty solid album. Nobody watches Lebron score 25 and dish out 7 assists and has their mind blown. Still though, he was the best player on the court and helped those scrubs (yes, even Kyrie) from Cleveland win the game. 

So, as I said: Tracks 2 through 4 are the balls on a prickly chin. 'Stella' sounds like they sampled the theme from an 80's sitcom. It just fucking grooves and at the end you want to sing that 'Family Ties' diddy: "Sha-la-la-la." The title track 'Be Small,' has a subtly uplifting chorus; as in it lifts my spirits without even trying. 'Falling' is maybe the best track of the album because of the way it builds momentum. It also made me realize how much HWGM can sound like White Denim....busy instrumentation with soothing/jazzy vocals. And in my book, anything that resembles White Denim is a plus. 

The rest of the tracks are okay, but melt into the background. They are still good enough to give the album a 7 star rating in my dream journal though. What do you think? Am I off-base?