‘January EP’ worthy of multiple spins

Here We Go Magic’s “The January EP” is the first material put out by the band since last year’s critically acclaimed “Pigeons,” and for fans of Luke Temple and company, the EP offers much of the same constructions as the sophomore album.

The six song EP provides classic material from the band: a swirl of keyboards, acoustics, jam-outs and falsetto-soft ballads experimenting with a pallet of heady sophistication and melody that seems to come effortlessly to Temple. The band’s compositions find an easy comparison to groups such as Grizzly Bear and share a lot of the same noises, similar to ones that would be found in a Stereolab album.

It’s hard to not hear Radiohead in “Hands in the Sky,” a song that combines Temple’s trade mark falsetto with a guitar and drums formula that seems almost identical to Yorke and company’s trademark “In Rainbows” sound. “The January EP” shares it’s time between sleepers and rockers. The latter being dominated by the EP’s second track “Backwards Time,” the highlight song from the six-song collection that is catchy and complex, layered in sound without feeling sluggish.

All in all, the EP is a well-constructed piece of music that shows the mastery of Luke Temple’s song-scaping abilities. Although it is not the largest departure from their last effort, “January” is a good collection of summer jams and definitely worthy of multiple listens.

By Aaron Bragg