Not long after releasing one of the best records of 2015 with Are You Alone?, Majical Cloudz are back with Wait & See, a previously unannounced digital EP. The five-song EP consists of songs recorded during the Are You Alone? sessions, and was released, with little fanfare, via an announcement from the band's Tumblr to coincide with their tour's opening night. Frontman Devon Welsh has explained that though these five songs didn't make it on to the full-length record, "there is a feeling that links them all together."
Given the resonance and impact of their most recent LP, it'd be hard for any odds and ends compilation to measure up, but these five songs are more than worthy of attention. The best songs here are those that stray furthest from the tone of Are You Alone?. "Heaven" sounds like it might have been a good fit for the first Majical Cloudz record, 2013's Impersonator, with a muted, skittering beat and the repeated refrain "When we're dead / We will dance / On our way to heaven." The aching ballad "My Heart Soaks Up Every Drop of Your Blood" likely would have sounded too maudlin to fit on Are You Alone?, but as a closing track on this EP, it is both powerful and affecting.
Ultimately, nothing here would make a listener quibble with the track selections that were made for Are You Alone?, but these songs also remind us what made that record so beautiful. The best songs on Wait & See (the aforementioned tracks, as well as the haunting "Pretty") demonstrate the stark, raw emotive power that Majical Cloudz possess. Though not quite reaching the heights of Are You Alone?, the EP makes an pretty, interesting piece for fans of the band, and whets the appetite for what might come next.
(Matador Records)Given the resonance and impact of their most recent LP, it'd be hard for any odds and ends compilation to measure up, but these five songs are more than worthy of attention. The best songs here are those that stray furthest from the tone of Are You Alone?. "Heaven" sounds like it might have been a good fit for the first Majical Cloudz record, 2013's Impersonator, with a muted, skittering beat and the repeated refrain "When we're dead / We will dance / On our way to heaven." The aching ballad "My Heart Soaks Up Every Drop of Your Blood" likely would have sounded too maudlin to fit on Are You Alone?, but as a closing track on this EP, it is both powerful and affecting.
Ultimately, nothing here would make a listener quibble with the track selections that were made for Are You Alone?, but these songs also remind us what made that record so beautiful. The best songs on Wait & See (the aforementioned tracks, as well as the haunting "Pretty") demonstrate the stark, raw emotive power that Majical Cloudz possess. Though not quite reaching the heights of Are You Alone?, the EP makes an pretty, interesting piece for fans of the band, and whets the appetite for what might come next.