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NOTTINGHAM songwriter Phil Smeeton weaves Magic Car’s poetic narratives around life’s marginal incidents that provide wider, if melancholic, reflection.
There is mild amusement in the Mario Puzo-inspired Only In America, sadness over personal misfortune in Good Man Gone Down or King Of Pool and sadness too at the passage of time in Summer Storm or love’s travails in Meteorites.
The upbeat Working Woman is sung with assertive gusto by Hazel Atkinson to jazzy foot-tapping beats.
This selective application of blues and jazz structures is highly effective in taking some of the ballads into a musically far more intriguing territory.
The Cars are almost ascetic with the instrumentation but their eloquence gets straight under your skin every time.
A fine collection that gets better with each listening. Magic Car are touring over the next five weeks — they’ll be worth catching, if this is anything to go by.
