Album Review: Joel Magid

[LYSERGIC LOVESICKNESS] Even psychedelic troubadours get the blues. On his second album, Joel Magid sounds heartsick and hung over, his head hanging heavy with shame, as he ponders the bodies left to decompose on this “tiny, misanthropic dot” of a world. It reads like a breakup record written by Rust Cohle. But for all its bouts of existential despair, Pyramids is hardly a drag. Recorded with lo-fi looseness, it’s an album uplifted by its idiosyncrasies, like the clarinet solo that ends “Bodies on the Ark” and the gang vocals on the blown-out “Here Comes a Big Black Cloud,” which practically welcome the pall of lovelorn gloom that hangs over many of the tracks. Throughout, Magid calls on his friends—including Minden’s Casey Burge, singer Jeni Wren, Máscaras guitarist Carlos Segovia and drummer Papi Fimbres—to paint around his melodies with garage-rock fuzz and acid-folk textures. But it’s his richly lysergic lyrics that stand out most. It’s not all bummer vibes, either. “Put a hole in my head,” Magid sings at one point, “and fill it with your smile.” If you ask me, the light’s winning. 

SEE IT: Joel Magid plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Minden and the Domestics, on Saturday, July 4. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

WWeek 2015