Swedish band
Magic Potion belong to a long tradition of guitar-wielding indie pop innocents. The band definitely has a lot of predecessors, starting in the mid-'60s in suburban garages, where teens would bash through melancholy folk-rock ballads sung into cheap microphones; continuing through
the Velvet Underground's softly chugging ballads and past
the Modern Lovers, the D.I.Y. kids in post-punk London, and the C-86 jangle pop bowlies; and taking in the '90s Scottish pop scene, the Love Rock underground, and the bedroom weirdos on Captured Tracks.
Magic Potion's debut album, Pink Gum, is instantly recognizable to anyone with a working knowledge of even a small portion of the indie pop past, and also to those who have their ears open in 2016, because the last few years have been full of bands putting the puzzle pieces together and coming up with some pretty good results.
Magic Potion do too. The album is nicely weird, with the vocals landing just on the right side of
Ariel Pink-ness, and the arrangements have a nice creeping underbelly below the sticky-sweet melodies. Some of the tracks kick up a nice cloud of dust, like the spunky "Cola Boyys" and the rollicking, Felt-quoting "Yummi 1," but mostly the record is stuck in a nice midtempo groove, easing along gracefully from one hooky, pleasant tune to the next. Sometimes when a band is so resolutely calm and sure of itself, it can get a little boring and/or basic. Thanks to that weirdness factor, and to the strength of the songs, that never happens here. Pink Gum is a fine debut album -- tuneful, assured, and full of promise. ~ Tim Sendra