Breate Owl Breathe Arrive At Magic Central

Despite having the hipster animal of the year in it's name, Breathe Owl Breathe are not a bad band. This Michigan trio takes a bit of twee pop, a bit of folk rock, and bit of hushed magic, combine them and come up with a series of mellow and delicate pop songs that are collected under the name of Magic Central. While not necessarily magic in a Harry Potter kind of way, Breathe Owl Breathe do manage to create a bit of a mesmerizing world that will have your ears leaning toward the airy sounds the band produces. With hints of Belle and Sebastian, Feist, and maybe even a bit of Gorkys Zygotic Mynci running throughout, Magic Central is folk pop that it's clearly ok to like.

With more handclaps, ooh's, and ah's than you could ever hope for, Breathe Owl Breathe lazily work their way through each of the twelve songs here as if they just didn't care. Magic Central is lazy, luxurious stuff that has early fall days written all over it. The songs are laden with adorable boy/girl interchanges as gentle guitars, strings, and barely there beats slowly maneuver you around the record. It's cute and almost cuddly kind of stuff that will have you thinking of lazy Sundays in bed, gentle breezes, and doing absolutely nothing. It is wonderful stuff that's bewitching and alluring and as twee as it is psychedelic. In hindsight, I think it's this double dose of coolness that allows Magic Central to be as listenable as it is.

Breathe Owl Breathe, thankfully, never find themselves in danger of being too downtrodden or stuck in a folky haze. Instead this is a band that casts its spell with a mix of all kinds of instrumentation and arrangements that keep your ears glued and your toes tapping. From the banjo jangle of "Parrots In the Tropical Trees," to the straight acoustic guitar rumblings of "House of Gold," Magic Central never gets boring. It truly is magic how Breathe Owl Breathe have managed to create a folk record that merges the best of twee pop, psychedelia, and choruses that you can never forget. I'm not ashamed to say, that if there were more folky records like this, I'd be a fan of the genre. They might have the hipster animal of the year in their name, but it doesn't matter because the songs that make up Magic Central are solid and a completely joy to clap along to. This is the sound of the fall wrapped up in one fell swoop. Nice one guys.