Ringing in a new wave of synth

Released on September 23rd, Magdalena Bay was able to create a masterful follow-up to their widely successful album with its sequel Mercurial World (Deluxe). With the original Mercurial World released around a year ago on October 8th, 2021, this new enhanced version of the album is able to help fix what the first release was lacking. With over an hour of new tracks to discover, Magdalena Bay leaves no stone unturned on this upgrade.

Although there are over twenty tracks on Mercurial World (Deluxe), they are organized in a succinct and quite genius way to subvert the audiences’ expectations. Even by the titles of the tracks alone, we can see that the first track on the album is titled “The End” whereas the last track of the album is titled “The Beginning.” Both of these tracks are sort of a yin and yang to each other and make great bookends to the rest of the ensemble. Both tunes play with the experimental electronica aspects that made the first album so successful. With the use of glitch, distortion of lyrics and distinct background edits, both of these songs truly encompass what the album was all about.

Lyrically, these pieces are both successful as well. In “The End” the song touches on existentialist concepts of meaninglessness in a nuanced and almost funny way. The song starts with ‘waking up’ Matt– who is one of the band’s two members named Matthew Lewin. The lyrics continue, “Everything comes from and goes to the same place, nowhere! So, if the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning, then what’s the end anyway?” Both of these songs could easily have been swapped for each other placement-wise in the album, yet the subversion of expectation and playing into certain questions helps really bring these ideas the album tackles to light.

Beyond the strong bookends, the new additives to the main body of the album maintain the allure that is set up. Other heavy hitters include the currently most streamed song being “All You Do” which features more softer indie elements that are very reminiscent of instrumental techniques that were very popular in the bubblegum pop subgenre that peaked a few years ago. The song’s instrumentals feature a dreamy background synth and a simple light percussive beat to let the vocals take center stage. The lower whispery harmonies that appear during the chorus are also complementary and are a characteristic that seem to appear in a variety of other tracks on the album as well.

Another instrument that was a unique choice was the use of the violin in a few moments during the chorus. This soft string is able to echo the melody line and almost acts as a second complementary part. The transition from the soft vocals to the harder, more rock-inspired elements adds to this album’s overall themes of psychedelics and distortion within the indie genre. These instrumental items definitely help with those aspects that the album is going for.

Overall, Magdalena Bay was able to take their first version of Mercurial World and turn it upside down with the newest addition of Mercurial World (Deluxe). The duo was successfully able to create an album that is both musically subversive and electrifying but also poignant and thoughtful in its lyricism and simple titling and arrangement of tracks. These subtleties in music-making truly make the duo stand out among other artists creating music today. Every detail is masterfully crafted and thought out, no stone left unturned.