Magic Bullets – A Child But In Life Yet A Doctor In Love

Magic Bullets – A Child But In Life Yet A Doctor In Love / 2007 Words On Music / 10 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/magicbullets / http://www.words-on-music.com /

The band starts off “A Child But In Life Yet A Doctor In Love” in much of the same style as a number of New Romantic bands did (calling forth New Order most clearly), and while the instrumental and vocal seem to oppose each other at times during “Yesterday’s Seen Better Days”, the band quickly solidifies and impresses. The bass played by Nathan on the track are a definitive contributor to the band’s sound, but the interesting drumming of Colin during the track cannot be overlooked. The tension that the band creates through the vocals on “Heatstroke” has to be some of the most delightfully irking time that one can spend listening to the album.

Throughout the whole track, it feels as if Philip is holding back, drawing eir feet, while the track gradually gets faster and more energetic. By the end of the stanza, individuals will practically scream at the album until Philip finally gets in. This has all the brilliance of an Andy Kaufmann berating the crowd. It is first during “Lay Low” that the album starts to fall in place. Where the first two tracks of the album saw the band trying different things to succeed, it seems as if Magic Bullets have figured out which parts and pieces of “Yesterday’s Seen Better Days” and “Heatstroke” works and then placed them into the overall sound of “Lay Low”. The band reaches the next plateau with their “Will Scarlet”. With the confident vocals of Philip fitting in nicely to early Killers and the energetic instrumentation of the band sounding like an early Cure, the band has marked their first single-worthy track.

If the band can go forward and use this song as a template for future releases, I can not even imagine how bright the Magic Bullets’ future will be. The band starts out “Short Circuit” slowly, ends it with a bang, and then moves into the quicker sound of “Circumstances”. This minor break between the great “Will Scarlet” and “Circumstances” seems to me to be more of a breakpoint for the album, a cooling off period for individuals that were touched by the greatness of “Will Scarlet”. The band is able to re-start the disc with a slower and more emotive sound, and ride that all the way to the end of “Spent Nights”.

Top Tracks: Will Scarlet, Spilled Milk

Rating: 6.5/10