Magic Nic – Harvey
You weren’t supposed to ever hear it again. Not unless you owned the record that it was printed on. That’s the way pop music worked and, for the most part, audiences accepted the songs that they loved so much as being something meant to disappear into the fog of time.
But there was no need to be sorry. There’d be something new next. The endless hit parade and the people working to get songs on there assured everyone that new thrills were just around the corner. Why stick with something old hat? Magic Nic is one of many who do not adhere to these rules anymore.
Since so much pop music has always been created to melt away with time, a good number of people have become obsessed with the sounds that refused to go away. Love for the truly great artists of yesterday hasn’t really gone away.
And that’s precisely where Magic Nic would rather be. The artist, now together with backing band General Electric, isn’t choosing to play Beatlesque soul just so that the sound will be preserved. Nic’s doing it because there’s still enough flavour to it to make “Harvey,” a tune about godoboys doing naughty things, a thrill. It’s a style that allows Magic Nic to show just how skilled he is. And it’s a type of music that is accompanied by a groove that still shakes, rattles and, yes, rolls. Why would anyone want to leave this behind?
Bad Keys of the Mountain – Echo
Naturally, there are numerous stories about ordinary men and women who’ve chosen solitary trips to remote places and who returned as mystics. In fact, nearly every culture has versions of this and some of them even have these as their bedrock.
It’s only natural, then, that we average humans who are looking for some kind of light in our lives would strive to find such paths to walk on. It’s only natural, also, that we would imagine that great things would happen once we have returned from our trip to tell the tale. But not everyone is as eloquent as the songwriter behind the songs of Bad Keys to the Mountain.
The majority of us spend our spiritual retreats either taking selfies of ourselves in underwear or fretting about having left the lights on in the kitchen back at home. The majority of us don’t have any great wisdom that we need to share with the world.
On the other hand, Bad Keys of the Mountain manage to capture the feeling of travelling a bad road in search of wisdom and impressions of the things seen along the way on “Echo.” Inspired in equal measure by classic psychedelic rock and progressive music, this is a song that should inspire you to search your mountain to climb, regardless of whether your own journey will leave you as inspired as it has done to these artists.
