Memphis sextet [a]Magic Kids[/a] started out in the midst of the city’s celebrated garage-punk scene, but you’d hardly know it on the basis of this airheaded and obsessively nice-ified debut album. They do airheaded and nice to a tee, mind: ‘Hey Boy’, 2009’s hype-accruing debut single, is about as good as polka-dot cupcake indie is gonna get in 2010, sounding like either Grandaddy timewarped into C86, or a shame-free Beach Boys homage. This latter element is returned to more than once across the album’s duration (29 minutes and outtahere), with songs such as ‘Skateland’ benefitting from micro-orchestral flourishes and simple, careful production.
Noel Gardner
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