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The comedic Web video series "Yacht Rock" is a satirical chronicle of what the creators call the "smooth music" of the late 1970s–early 1980s (Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Toto, etc.). Magnet, the recording moniker of Norway's Even Johensen, is "smooth music" for the hipsters of the '00s. There's a similarity to other current alterna-pop artists like Aqualung and Keane, both of whom I love but both of whom also, with their sentimentality and soaring choruses, teeter on the brink of adult contemporary.
On this, his sophomore disc, Johensen blends acoustic folk instruments, retro pop sounds, and contemporary electronics to create his soothing soundscapes. Opening track and first single "Hold On" begins the disc with subtle electronic textures, a lonely banjo, and Johensen's slightly-aching vocals, and then quickly crescendoes to the chorus with overdriven bass and polyrhythmic beats. "Duracellia" has a nice country-folk feel. Johensen obviously loves mid-career Beatles, borrowing "Strawberry Fields" Mellotron on "Believe" and 12-string Rickenbacker sounds on "Blow by Blow," and incorporating "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" organ into the spacey country-reggae of "This Bird Can Never Fly." Johensen gets his full reggae-dub ya-yas out on the track "All You Ask." At times the combinations of sonic ingredients seem almost decadent and over-flavored, like with the bowed saw and pizzicato strings of "Jaws."
The pitfall with solo recording acts like Magnet is that, for all their talent in one area, they might not quite rise to that level in other areas, and they don't have bandmates to pick up the slack. Johensen has a definite gift for lush, pretty-sounding music; his shortcoming is as a lyricist. For all the sophistication of the music, it's hard not to be disappointed by bland sentiments like "You'll get through this if you hold on / Cause the truth is you're not alone," or "...I miss her so / and I can't let go...oh no." Maybe he'd do better in his native language. (mike.03.06)
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