From the sneaky rhythms to the idiosyncratic melodies, there are a lot of reasons why The Magic Bullets’ debut A Child But In Life Yet A Doctor In Love is one of the most refreshing albums in recent memory. However, the key to the San Francisco band’s winning strategy is knowing how to make enigmatic art pop that keeps its many mysteries intact. Singer Philip Benson is a rubbery wolf of a frontman, stalking through each number with a predatory elasticity. “Lay Low” sounds like Bows & Arrows-era Walkmen, “Tender Throes” harkens back to The Cure’s Pornography and on “Will Scarlet,” guitarist Corey Cunningham’s brittle, swooning riffs suggest Johnny Marr, while singer Philip Benson’s sphinxian lyrics come in bursts of poetic beauty. Falling somewhere between David Bowie and David Byrne, Benson comes from the long-forgotten school of esoteric frontmen, those inscrutable sorts who under even the most fixed of gazes, simply become more perplexing. And the more perplexing they become, the more you want to figure them out. If you want to figure Benson out, good luck. Amidst the watery rhythms of “Yesterday’s Seen Better Days” or the new wave march of “Heatstroke” Benson’s voice comes in generous ripples but the songs offer no clues as to who he is. And that’s the way it should be. Part of what made Michael Stipe so appealing on those early R.E.M. albums was that even when you thought for sure you knew who he was, you knew deep down you had no idea. Especially noteworthy here is the closer “Spent Nights,” a dreamy blast of post-punk balladeering that finds Benson in as close as we’re going to get to an unguarded moment: “So go on, act like a child/You know you’re difficult to be around/When your eyes get wild.” He should know about those wild eyes—it’s how he sees the world and reads it back to us. Who wouldn’t get excited?
--Alex Green
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