[July 10th 2012 – Domino Records // Find it at: iTunes | Insound]
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In the material world, it can be hard to differentiate what’s hip and what’s creative but there’s no difficulty in noting what’s lined with beauty. Swing Lo Magellan, Dirty Projectors’ sixth studio record in ten years, is tarnished with its innards. The way David Longstreth and his fellow instrumentalists expose it is almost incomparable; each song feels torn from a heart-bound memory, forcefully pressing into vulnerability, realizations and human fondness, almost to the point that when Longstreth softly sings “There’s a bird singing at my window and it’s singing an irresponsible tune,” you want to fall apart for a moment because of the way you connect. In only the truest form, Swing Lo Magellan lets its framework – ragged sunbathed folk and the kiss of pinching guitars – transform into a drug that blooms with a melody crawling out to be repeated or sung out loud. “Maybe That Was It” and “Offspring Are Blank” may not be sterilized rock jams, but they don’t need to be; they creep towards complexity and the group’s understanding of alternative and throughout, Dirty Projectors strum out naked tunes (“Impregnable Question”) and theatrical interruptions (“Dance For You”) that rip out profound harmonies born to be classics. Songwriting is an art form, and if you listen closely, that perception spotlights why this collection is one of the Brooklyn outfit’s finest.
Download: “Swing Lo Magellan”, “Maybe That Was It”, “Dance For You”
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